***Official*** NatWest Series/Challenge

[tooextracool]

Yeah maybe, but sometimes you have to be unfair. Lee needs to be picked, simple as that. McGrath is the best bowler in the world, so you can't drop him. Who's left? Gillespie and Kasprowicz, and Tait at a stretch. Kasprowicz was good in the last game but poor elsewhere, and Gillespie was poor up until this game too. Unless Kasprowicz takes a big haul in the FC game though, Gillespie will make the third seamer spot on the back of this performance.

except that gillespie has played in every game in the series and challenge and looked absolutely appalling in all of them bar one. not to mention the fact that he still isnt bowling at anywhere near his best pace.

 

[tooextracool]

As decent an innings as it was, I don't really see what job Solanki can do as substitute batsman. He's not really someone to grind it out when the ball is moving all over the place, he's fairly poor batting at the death, he's not a pinch hitter, so basically all he's good for batting on a flat track when England are 5-6 down fairly early which is not the sort of situation England should look to be repeating for years.

exactly, chuck vaughan & strauss out. get prior and solanki in and we might just have something decent.

 

[tooextracool]

Unlike others I'm not worried about the form of the top three; they were destined to fail against McGrath (who isn't?) and Lee looks mighty fine at the mo, tricky to get runs off those two without the severe chance of making a c*ck of oneself. Not having to score of McGrath in the Tests will help, and Lee won't be as big a threat with the red cherry IMO. England will be stronger with Bell and Thorpe arriving, Flintoff is finding form with the bat, and Hoggy will hopefully cause problems for the Aus lefties.

i'd like to see vaughan open in teh ashes actually, if trescothick must play then he should bat at 6. i hope that vaughan plays in the same aggresive manner in which he played in the last ashes series, because thats the only way to knock mcgrath out of rhythm.

 

[tooextracool]

Would you play Collingwood as a full-time slow-medium bowler?

nope.

 

[tooextracool]

I'd drop Gough for Tremlett immediately, and rethink the opening bowler policy. Harmison doesn't seem to handle the new ball very well, and he doesn't rely on seam or swing which comes with it. So it's probably Jones/Tremlett, or Jones/Flintoff at a pinch. The rest of the team is pretty solid I think.

to be honest jones doesnt have the control to be bowling with the new ball. the problem for him is that he's only recently started to get the ball swing, and he has absolutely no clue what length or line to bowl on different surfaces.

 

[Jono]

yep, he was just more accurate. i still cant see a case for including him in the first test, he hasnt exactly set the world alight since the tour of SL in tests and his form is still questionable.

I could have sworn he had an excellent tour of India, but correct me if I'm wrong. I know McGrath obviously bowled well, what were Gillespie's figures?

 

[tooextracool]

Actually, I distinctly recall one of the ommentators this afternoon mentioning that players like Rikki Clarke and Ian Blackwell should be the ones best fot for the supersub role...yes, you read that correctly.

indeed, i mean whats the point of having someone who can bat but cant bowl, when you can have someone who cant do either of them?
paul allott is a genius.

 

[tooextracool]

I could have sworn he had an excellent tour of India, but correct me if I'm wrong. I know McGrath obviously bowled well, what were Gillespie's figures?

he did indeed have 2 good tests against india(struggled in the first 2), he also had a good series against NZ at home. other than that though hes been struggling(struggled against SL both home and away, struggled against pakistan and struggled in NZ), and i think its fair to say that kaspa has been a lot more consistent than he has in the same period of time.

 

[tooextracool]

And even if they could both bat an bowl, wouldn't you want them to do both? Picking an all-rounder is just daft, since they can only do one or the other.

its still better than having a batsman when you're batting first, because then you dont(unless you are 93/6) have either. assuming of course you actually have a capable all rounder,not rikki clarke, ian blackwell or shane watson.

 

[tooextracool]

He averages 28, thats not THAT much below what you'd expect (say 35?).

around 25 actually. he averages 71 against zimbabwe.

 

[tooextracool]

Vaughan should definitely not be dropped from the ODI side but dropping down to 4 and giving KP the 3 spot with Flintoff at 5 means a prety strong batting line-up.

the later down he comes though, the more likely he is to slow down the game.

 

[tooextracool]

What an ironic statement that is!

only 1 inning too early though.....hussain scored his first 100 in his 72nd inning, vaughans played 71.

 

[tooextracool]

should have scheduled Tests against Australia in Chester-le-Street and Headingley really...

and we might as well just give up the ashes and save the humiliation.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

its still better than having a batsman when you're batting first, because then you dont(unless you are 93/6) have either. assuming of course you actually have a capable all rounder,not rikki clarke, ian blackwell or shane watson.

I hate to take the bait, but putting a guy who is good enough to bat at 4 for Queensland and average in the high 40s as well as bowling a fair amount in the same group as those bits-and-pieces nothing players is grossly unfair.

 

[marc71178]

Not so much when you look at his International record.

 

[Mister Wright]

Not so much when you look at his International record.

Don Bradman was dropped after his first test. Steve Waugh took something like 18 tests to score his first century. Andy Symonds took something like 4 years to settle himself in Australia's ODI side. Let's write Watson off before his international career has really started.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Not so much when you look at his International record.

What international record? How many opportunites to play a decent innings has he had at international level? Basically, he's been played as a specialist bowler and done relatively poorly. Hardly says a lot about his ability.

 

[Pedro Delgado]

i'd like to see vaughan open in teh ashes actually, if trescothick must play then he should bat at 6. i hope that vaughan plays in the same aggresive manner in which he played in the last ashes series, because thats the only way to knock mcgrath out of rhythm.

Trouble is:

a: Mick won't be opening (I agree he should be, Strauss at 3)
b: One of the main contributing factors in Mick's success was the pace and true bounce of the wickets over in Aus, he picked up the length quickly and knew the pitch wouldn't undo him.

Will we see good pace and trueness on our wickets? Do we WANT it? There is no better side in the world more devastating on flat wickets than these tourists, we need "seamers" and that's an end to it.

I advocate Mick seeing off McGrath this time and not attack, I want him dropping anchor.

Mind you, I am squiffy after just pollishing off a nice Australian red though but.

 

[vic_orthdox]

I advocate Mick seeing off McGrath this time and not attack, I want him dropping anchor.

Not a tactic that's worked particularly well in the past, let alone on seaming wickets.

That's the sort of thinking that's brought the English side unstuck in previous Ashes series. Could you honestly foresee Australia thinking about "dropping anchor" to Harmison or Flintoff?

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Nobody has ever been successful "dropping anchor" against McGrath. At best, it delays the inevitable for a bit, and usually it just gets you out. Vaughan, Sehwag etc have had success against McGrath because they go after him and stop his stock ball being used so regularly by hitting him off his line. McGrath gets so many wickets by just putting it in the corridor while batsmen try and survive his new ball spell. Some of them go straight through, but if you prod defensively at it and it's the one that leaves you, you're gone, and if you try and leave it and it's the one that comes back in, you'll get hit in front a-la Michael Vaughan in the second NWC game.