*Official* England Tour of Sri Lanka 2018

[jimmy101]

Credit to the Sri Lankan cricket board for giving the touring English side some decent opposition in their tour match against the Board President's XI.

 

[theegyptian]

https://inews.co.uk/sport/cricket/england-vs-sri-lanka-2nd-test-series-pallekele-hotel/

lol at this. Hotel for the second test overbooked. Might have to move test match.

 

[Woodster]

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/oct/30/jonny-england-test-cricket-the-spin?CMP=share_btn_tw
I think this is quite good on Bairstow saying some of the stuff i've talked about in the past.

Been forced to bat higher - a bit because of his success with the bat, and a bit due to the inadequacies of the other people they've had batting in the top order.

He has made himself into a very good wicketkeeper batsman - good counterattacking number 6 or 7 bat, and a decent keeper these days. Ideally he'd have just stayed batting at 6 or 7 in the side.

I do think this summer especially he went out to bat almost in a reckless counterattacking style because he was annoyed at batting higher, the suggestion he should give up the gloves etc - almost to show that he is better served batting lower and keeping. He doesn't want to give up the gloves - he likes the role of keeping and batting 7 - and he's put a lot of effort into his keeping, and he knows he's worth his place in the team as a wkbat, whereas as a batsman he's not sure he's good enough.

As the article says 'There has probably been fault on both sides. Bairstow has, through accident rather than design, been made to feel undervalued. It’s a complicated case in which it’s not easy to apportion criticism, never mind blame.'

Ali has suffered too as a result of the lack of batting options at the top of the order.

Bairstow’s position in the XI really shouldn’t be in question at this stage, the real fact of the matter is that Bairstow has to bat where is best for the team. It’s almost as simple as that and if that means taking the gloves off him because we have a keeper in Jos Buttler that would make that transition easier than trying to find another top order international batter then that’s what has to be done.

It may not be necessarily fair on Bairstow and it may hurt him, but he would still have a massive role to play as a specialist batsman and he’d have to shake that disappointment off pretty quickly or else he’d be out of the team completely.

 

[Woodster]

As for the tour match, yes it was good to see the likes of Root and Burns get some time in the middle but games such as this provide nothing but a slightly glorified net for me. Would much rather a more competitive 11v11 with two teams actually trying to win, difficult over two days aswell.

 

[Maximas]

https://inews.co.uk/sport/cricket/england-vs-sri-lanka-2nd-test-series-pallekele-hotel/

lol at this. Hotel for the second test overbooked. Might have to move test match.

Jesus, not great news for England if the test is moved, Pallekele is probably the quickest pitch in SL and will offer the quicks the most assistance

 

[Moonsorrow999]

Bairstow’s position in the XI really shouldn’t be in question at this stage, the real fact of the matter is that Bairstow has to bat where is best for the team. It’s almost as simple as that and if that means taking the gloves off him because we have a keeper in Jos Buttler that would make that transition easier than trying to find another top order international batter then that’s what has to be done.

It may not be necessarily fair on Bairstow and it may hurt him, but he would still have a massive role to play as a specialist batsman and he’d have to shake that disappointment off pretty quickly or else he’d be out of the team completely.

He can't bat anywhere near the top 5 with the shaky top order England have. As I said before, he's proven a failure against moving balls. He can get runs when the ball stops moving or when there's nothing in the pitch. Soon as there's plenty of pace, spin or other movement he nicks off or gets bowled. He can counter attack at 6 or 7 but apart from that, not good enough.

 

[EmJo]

Jesus, not great news for England if the test is moved, Pallekele is probably the quickest pitch in SL and will offer the quicks the most assistance

No disrespect, if you want to be the number one test nation you really have to perform to all conditions as your opposition have equal footing. But I suppose if they lost the toss on both occasions then it would be bad luck.

 

[Daemon]

No disrespect, if you want to be the number one test nation you really have to perform to all conditions as your opposition have equal footing. But I suppose if they lost the toss on both occasions then it would be bad luck.

England don't want to be number 1 though, they've been quite content with being mediocre throughout most of their history

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

The Sam Curran show continues...

 

[theegyptian]

Denly looks to have played himself out of the test team. made 25 in the first warmup but apparently it was a mess, and out for a duck today.

It's basically impossible to pick an england team that I'm happy with from the players they've got.

llooks like the second test will go ahead. sri lanka goverment kicking the english touring groups out of the hotel. https://inews.co.uk/sport/cricket/s...llekele-hotel-government-intervention-letter/

 

[Moonsorrow999]

Denly looks to have played himself out of the test team. made 25 in the first warmup but apparently it was a mess, and out for a duck today.

It's basically impossible to pick an england team that I'm happy with from the players they've got.

llooks like the second test will go ahead. sri lanka goverment kicking the english touring groups out of the hotel. https://inews.co.uk/sport/cricket/s...llekele-hotel-government-intervention-letter/

I thought everything surrounding Denly has been really arrogant, as if they just expect him to show up and be an insanely good test player? I'm not even sure there's a truly great county player there let alone test.

 

[theegyptian]

I thought everything surrounding Denly has been really arrogant, as if they just expect him to show up and be an insanely good test player? I'm not even sure there's a truly great county player there let alone test.

I don't understand. How arrogant?

 

[marc71178]

I don't understand. How arrogant?

Don't pay any attention to Moonsorrow, sort of poster who makes Scaly's thoughts on New Zealanders seem the most positive thing ever.

 

[NUFAN]

Man is this tour still on?

 

[Woodster]

He can't bat anywhere near the top 5 with the shaky top order England have. As I said before, he's proven a failure against moving balls. He can get runs when the ball stops moving or when there's nothing in the pitch. Soon as there's plenty of pace, spin or other movement he nicks off or gets bowled. He can counter attack at 6 or 7 but apart from that, not good enough.

Bairstow has played plenty of innings where the ball has done a bit and he’s come through it. You mustn’t have seen a great deal of England’s top order in the last couple of years to suggest there are obvious better candidates out there than Bairstow in the top five. The number of collapses we have had Bairstow has effectively been coming in when a top five batter normally would.

 

[Moonsorrow999]

Don't pay any attention to Moonsorrow, sort of poster who makes Scaly's thoughts on New Zealanders seem the most positive thing ever.

Don’t pay any attention to Moonsorrow because he has a different opinion to me! How unacceptable! Damn for a second then I thought this board was a welcoming place for everyone’s opinion and not a toxic **** house filled with utter wankers like Adders.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

England play a ridiculous amount of cricket. Didn't you just finish a series v. India.

So do India, they have played Asia Cup and Windies since the tour to England.

 

[Moonsorrow999]

Bairstow has played plenty of innings where the ball has done a bit and he’s come through it. You mustn’t have seen a great deal of England’s top order in the last couple of years to suggest there are obvious better candidates out there than Bairstow in the top five. The number of collapses we have had Bairstow has effectively been coming in when a top five batter normally would.

Interesting, I found that he was always coming in after the ball had finished moving. Now he was coming in higher so was more vulnerable and got exposed in the summer.

I supposed he’s a natural counter attacker, I just don’t see how he could possibly have the technique to get through a tricky spell.

 

[wpdavid]

So what are we expecting to see as an England XI in the first test? Maybe something along the lines of:

1. Jennings
2. Burns
3. Denly
4. Root
5. Ali
6. Stokes
7. Buttler
8. Curran
9. Rashid
10. Leach
11. Anderson

I keep thinking that I must have missed an obvious batsman, but I'm buggered if I can think who that might be. Maybe it comes down to Denly vs Pope, with Ali batting at 3 if the latter gets the nod.

 

[BSM]

I think they'll bat Ali at 3, and hopefully Pope will play instead of Denly. Leach, Rashid and Ali with a little bit of Root will be more than enough spin. Not to say that they will be able to compete with the Sri Lankan spinners but its hardly likely that Denly will make it a more viable attack anyway.

Jennings
Burns
Ali
Root
Pope
Stokes
Buttler
Curran
Rashid
Leach
Anderson