Middlesex at the Oval

Worrall to come back for who though??
Clark maybe to have a rest.

Well they'll have to think about dropping one of Atkinson, Clark or Steel despite that they all played extremely well at Chelmsford. Unless Worrall is carrying a niggle?

Pope is being rested..............................................



As an ECB centrally contracted player, England have chosen to rest Ollie Pope for this fixture ahead of the international summer. Ollie will be available for selection next week.

Patel back for Pope. Worrall for Clark??

This is an utter disgrace. Resting a bowler is one thing but a fit young batter in the prime of life? You get better by hitting more balls in the middle, no amount of net practice can replicate that. Totally senseless decision. Assuming Rob Key made it Tommo should have overruled him!!

This is a terrible indictment of the new regime at the ECB. I am not expecting them to do Surrey any favours, but I did expect them to demonstrate more regard for the integrity of the county championship and the importance of international batsmen playing for their counties if fit. It is even more of a joke given that the likes of Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne are currently filling their boots in the second division with Cricket Australia's blessing.

I'm no particular lover of Australia, but after this I hope England crash and burn in The Ashes, as they deserve to.

As for the team, I guess Steel or Patel may now have an unexpected reprieve. I am generally not a fan of rotation, but all of our available seamers seem in very good form so I am happy for Clark or perhaps Roach to be rested against one of the weakest batting line-ups we will face.

Burns, Sibley, Smith, Patel, Jacks, Foakes, Clark, Abbott, Lawes, Atkinson, Worrall

Word on the street is that this was a Ben Stokes decision.

Is he any relation to the bloke with the same name who decided to prioritise playing in the IPL over getting himself fit for the Ashes after being unfit to bowl for England because of a recurrent knee injury, and while playing in the IPL has picked up further injuries?

That's him

Jackers wrote:Is he any relation to the bloke with the same name who decided to prioritise playing in the IPL over getting himself fit for the Ashes after being unfit to bowl for England because of a recurrent knee injury, and as while playing in the IPL has picked up further injuries?

I daresay the £1.7m help him to " prioritise". I think he'll join Archer and Co and be sitting on the bench for most of the Ashes. Australia will win regardless, whoops now I've done it!

Unfortunately you know that the Exterminating Cricket Board likes to "rest" everybody. Maybe Pope who loves to play for Surrey should just say bollox.

Here's my preview: http://www.ovalworld-online.com/prevsurmidcc2023.htm

And here's the first-class stats sheet for Surrey v Middlesex: http://www.ovalworld-online.com/fc_stats_surrey_middlesex.pdf

For all of Surrey's cards and fixtures go to: http://www.ovalworld-online.com/cards.htm

Chinaman wrote:

Jackers wrote:Is he any relation to the bloke with the same name who decided to prioritise playing in the IPL over getting himself fit for the Ashes after being unfit to bowl for England because of a recurrent knee injury, and as while playing in the IPL has picked up further injuries?

I daresay the £1.7m help him to " prioritise". I think he'll join Archer and Co and be sitting on the bench for most of the Ashes. Australia will win regardless, whoops now I've done it!

Unfortunately you know that the Exterminating Cricket Board likes to "rest" everybody. Maybe Pope who loves to play for Surrey should just  say bollox.

Would be nice but given he’s a centrally contracted player he would therefore be in breach of contract.

I think we all understand that. The point is that the new brooms leading the ECB should, by now, have revised the interpretation of central contacts and made clear that they expect players to play for their counties when available and fit. Obviously there is the rare exception among the seamers, eg Jimmy Anderson, a fast bowler at 40 and perhaps needing the occasional rest. Ollie Pope doesn't. It's exercising power just because they can.

I suspect that that Thompson and Gould don’t have control of the management of the England team,must surely be down to the coaches!

Jus to play devil's advocate on this batsman vs bowler thing, suppose county A has two batsmen with central contracts and county B has two bowlers. When the two counties meet would it be fair to insist that B's bowlers need to rest while A's batsmen can play because they don't?

Not that it is relevant today as Middlesex has precisely no players under central contract!

It's largely driven by sports science. The England players all wear trackers when playing and training for a county or franchise anywhere in the world. I believe Surrey players do the same when wintering down under so the club can monitor them.

There is definitive proof that when a player reaches a certain point in various metrics its better to give them a pre emotive rest rather than them continuing to play and likely be fine in that individual game but push their body harder and harder and end up causing niggles/injuries or worsening recovery time from those further down the line. If it was a cup final, title decider or international match would he play? For sure. But early season it's more important for Surrey and England that Pope be monitored and be fit for the whole season. I know I'd rather he missed thos game and was fit for the whole of the ashes.

Personally I was expecting Roach to be rested for this one.

A proper coverage on Sky, not just taking the live stream.

Atherton on Pope - does not understand why he has been rested, maybe Pope just feels burnt out?

Roach is always going to play every game considering he's here for the first six. Any more and I imagine the Windies adminstration would need to be worked with, plus I'm not sure what their international summer looks like

Don't mind us having a bowl considering how piss poor Middlesex have been batting wise

Side looks good to me. As I said was expecting Roach to be rested for this one and 5 seamers feels a lot. They all bat a bit but only Clark can be considered an allrounder.

Excited to see Patel at 3. He had a good season opening last year and seemed to have finally found his role in the side having been shunted up and down the order since 2018. The signing of Sibley was a smart one given Amla's retirement but if it was me I would have told Patel he was my 3 for the season and told England Pope bats where he fits in our side. As I've said before batting at 3 on test quality pitches in Bazball is a very different prospect than batting at 3 on green tops in April and May. I would put good money on us having got more runs from both Patel and Pope if we swapped then round. But yeah glad to see Ryan getting the chance at 3.

I think steel dropping out is the right call. Jacks bowled well in the last game and has played that role for England over the winter. As well as Cam has done (more with bat than ball) there is no shame of dropping out when an England player who does the same role as you becomes available. There will be plenty of chances for Cam as the season goes on and we lose Jacks to whatever competition is going on somewhere.

KEMAR

Chappers wrote:This is an utter disgrace. Resting a bowler is one thing but a fit young batter in the prime of life? You get better by hitting more balls in the middle, no amount of net practice can replicate that. Totally senseless decision. Assuming Rob Key made it Tommo should have overruled him!!

Totally agree, Chappers. What is Ollie going to do for the next four days? Play golf and walk his dog? It is madness

RB wrote:A proper coverage on Sky, not just taking the live stream.

What live stream? Man's inhumanity to man. At least to man without Sky.

Lawes should have played instead of Clark.

Very poor bowling performance from Surrey,including two full tosses over the keeper’s head which were also no balls. On a green pitch I expected better. Also worth noting that both the bowlers rested over the last 2 matches ,namely Abbott and Worrall have both come back in the next matches and bowled poorly. The rest obviously doing them no good.

Big error. Should have batted.

This is only on Sky, not on You Tube.