*Official* West Indies Tour of England 2020

[Pothas]

I am. Think that was totally obvious from my post.

 

[FBU]

If Broad gets Brathwaite as his 500th wicket he will be the only batsman out to two bowlers on their 500

 

[Bahnz]

Genuine question, were are the runs going to come from for WI in the next few years? I know that Darren Bravo was unavailable for this series, which is really unfortunate (but to be honest, it's been a long time since even he was a consistent run maker at test level). For the WI posters, is there anyone who looks vaguely likely of helping to turn this around? Or are WI just going to have to try and make the best of a bad situation for the next 4 or 5 years?

 

[Line and Length]

Broad must be creeping up the rankings of 21stC fast bowlers.

 

[GotSpin]

Genuine question, were are the runs going to come from for WI in the next few years? I know that Darren Bravo was unavailable for this series, which is really unfortunate (but to be honest, it's been a long time since even he was a consistent run maker at test level). For the WI posters, is there anyone who looks vaguely likely of helping to turn this around? Or are WI just going to have to try and make the best of a bad situation for the next 4 or 5 years?

Depends if Pooran and King actually

 

[Bahnz]

I remember watching Pooran bat at the last WC and thinking "Gee he's got some talent". Then I saw that he hasn't played a first class match since 2014. :/

 

[morgieb]

I remember watching Pooran bat at the last WC and thinking "Gee he's got some talent". Then I saw that he hasn't played a first class match since 2014. :/

IIRC he was involved in a potentially career-threatening car accident and has focused on white ball stuff since then. Hopefully the WIndies can twist his arm into playing FC cricket. Hell at this point I'd just pick him in Tests if he's keen without red ball form as I don't think they have much to lose.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Broad must be creeping up the rankings of 21stC fast bowlers.

I wouldn't have thought so

 

[Bahnz]

IIRC he was involved in a potentially career-threatening car accident and has focused on white ball stuff since then. Hopefully the WIndies can twist his arm into playing FC cricket. Hell at this point I'd just pick him in Tests if he's keen without red ball form as I don't think they have much to lose.

Yeah, I don't see the point in trying to get him to play a season or two of FC cricket. At this point, either his talent will translate to the longer game or it won't. And at the very least he can't do a whole lot worse than the current mob.

 

[trundler]

Do you guys not remember Roy and even Bairstow in test cricket?

 

[Bahnz]

Do you guys not remember Roy and even Bairstow in test cricket?

Bairstow is still better than anyone in this current WI batting lineup (bar maybe Brathwaite).

 

[trundler]

Bairstow is a regular for Yorkshire anyway so bad example. Roy didn't play an FC game for years, got straight into the test team and was awful. Finch too.

 

[Bahnz]

Bairstow is a regular for Yorkshire anyway so bad example. Roy didn't play an FC game for years, got straight into the test team and was awful. Finch too.

Opening the batting is a different sort of challenge, and more likely to expose the frailties in a player's defensive technique. Stick him in at number 5 or 6 and so what happens imo. If he doesn't succeed, what do you lose? And if he does, then you can begin towards nudging him up the order over time.

 

[Howe_zat]

Bairstow was significantly better than Buttler as a keeper batting at 7. If Buttler had not existed and Bairstow had kept that role rather than 4 years of ‘maybe play him as a batsman??’ in every other position, he’d probably be a lot better thought of.

Roy opening was a mistake given he has played in the middle order in first class for pretty much his whole career. He might have been fine lower down, but England haven’t needed a new #5 for years.

 

[honestbharani]

The funny thing about the Roy experiment was that the entire cricket world JUST saw Australia try it with Finch and knew it was really not gonna work. And English tracks are a LOT harder for openers than Aussie tracks are. But England went all "hey, it won't happen to us" lol.

 

[vcs]

How is Buttler's keeping compared to Bairstow? Bairstow was pretty good between 2015-17 or so before he started playing those expansive drives and getting bowled all the time.

 

[Howe_zat]

About the same. Both capable without being spectacular, and much more comfortable keeping to pace than spin.

 

[aussie tragic]

The funny thing about the Roy experiment was that the entire cricket world JUST saw Australia try it with Finch and knew it was really not gonna work. And English tracks are a LOT harder for openers than Aussie tracks are. But England went all "hey, it won't happen to us" lol.

Funny thing is Finch has a higher test batting average than his replacements Bancroft and Harris...I saw how bad he was but now wonder if they should have stuck with him or at least had him batting 5

 

[TheJediBrah]

Funny thing is Finch has a higher test batting average than his replacements Bancroft and Harris...I saw how bad he was but now wonder if they should have stuck with him or at least had him batting 5

Aus would be a much stronger team with Finch at 5 or 6 instead of Head

 

[Starfighter]

The funny thing about the Roy experiment was that the entire cricket world JUST saw Australia try it with Finch and knew it was really not gonna work. And English tracks are a LOT harder for openers than Aussie tracks are. But England went all "hey, it won't happen to us" lol.

Both examples of big-brained selectors thinking that ODIs are more relevant than FC for tests.