I almost want us to lose the Ashes this year.

Keith Powell wrote:England declaring what is going on?

Disgraceful and disrespectful to the game,opponents and spectators who bought tickets at great expense for days 4 and 5 ,not to mention hotels etc.I hope we fucking lose - i really do.Arrogant fucking twats.

Not seen any highlights but I presume he felt if he could nip Warner out it was worth a try. Bit of controlled arrogance as well.  But if the pitch is as flat as reports are saying they'd probably need the extra runs. May break up but rain around from Sunday.

Keith Powell wrote:England declaring what is going on?

Once again, as in the last test vs NZ, Stokes declaring just to try and look cool.

Horrible decision. As was his waft outside off stump.

Oh stop fucking whingeing.

I absolutely loved it. Dodgy weather forecast for 3/4/5, why bother just dawdling away if you have belief you can take early wickets.

Alex! wrote:I absolutely loved it. Dodgy weather forecast for 3/4/5, why bother just dawdling away if you have belief you can take early wickets.

They weren’t exactly dawdling were they?

RB wrote:Oh stop fucking whingeing.

People complaining need to remember the players are young men brought up in an era of T20 and attacking cricket.

Moan all you like, but they aren’t going to start playing like Boycott in that infamous match in New Zealand. I’m 40 and hope that I have several decades of watching Test cricket ahead of me; the way England approach Test matches gives me confidence that young players coming through will continue to be inspired to play the long for of the game.

It'll be interesting to see how the Aussies approach this. I think they'll just play as they do. It'll be interesting if they are 250 or so when Head comes in who will most likely play his version of Bazball, perhaps Headball?

The chummy selection of Bairstow has back fired spectacularly. Stokes and Baz are paid huge sums to make these utterly bizarre calls. It annoys the living hell out of me.

Sir Winston Churchill wrote:The chummy selection of Bairstow has back fired spectacularly. Stokes and Baz are paid huge sums to make these utterly bizarre calls. It annoys the living hell out of me.

Stokes always talks about not doing things conventionally and being entertaining.

Yet when it comes to getting Barstow back in, he decides the he has to be conventional and drop Foakes to get him back.

The FUNKY way would be to drop Crawley, keep Foakes and have Bairstow open.

Further proves most the stuff he does is just to be cool like declaring on day one or enforcing the follow on in an attempt to lose from a position it was impossible to do so.

As far as being innovative goes, he's no Mike Brearley.

I do wonder if he might drop himself next game? Especially with Ali unlikely to play.

Vauxhall wrote:

Sir Winston Churchill wrote:The chummy selection of Bairstow has back fired spectacularly. Stokes and Baz are paid huge sums to make these utterly bizarre calls. It annoys the living hell out of me.

Stokes always talks about not doing things conventionally and being entertaining.

Yet when it comes to getting Barstow back in, he decides the he has to be conventional and drop Foakes to get him back.

The FUNKY way would be to drop Crawley, keep Foakes and have Bairstow open.

Further proves most the stuff he does is just to be cool like declaring on day one or enforcing the follow on in an attempt to lose from a position it was impossible to do so.

I don't think Bairstow to open would be any better than Roy opening 4 years ago. Personally I'd have omitted Crawley, with Pope, Root and Brook each moving up a place and Bairstow coming in at 5. Ollie has adapted well to batting at 3 with no prior experience and has often been at the crease well before the opening bowlers have been seen off in any case.

Right now I'm more bemused at Friday's declaration with an unbroken 9th wicket partnership of 43 from 44 balls and our best batsman in full flow. How many more runs might that innings have realised, had it been allowed to run its course? Robinson isn't a duffer with the bat,we could have been looking at a substantial first innings lead instead of scores more or less level. Was it really worth declaring for the sake of bowling 4 overs at Warner and Khawaja?

Of course, Crawley has now cemented his place for the rest of the series with that quickfire 60, regardless of how many abject failures follow.

RB wrote:I do wonder if he might drop himself next game? Especially with Ali unlikely to play.

I think he should. I think he’s the worst ‘Bazball’ batter. He was a brilliant batter who could adapt to any situation but now he just slogs rather than the controlled aggression the rest mostly adopt.

I think Stokes is anything but "cool".
If he wants to see the definition of "cool" he should have recorded yesterday's afternoon film "The Magnificent Seven". Now Steve McQueen was Mr Cool and Yul Bryner not far behind!

I’m seeing nothing to change my mind.
Bairstow looks worse than ever.
Moeen hopeless with the bat. Then surprise surprise has bowled just 23 overs this year his hand is getting hurty.
Stokes looks completely undercooked as indeed that’s what he is. This is like Rory McLroy preparing for the us open by playing one game with his mates on a Sunday three weeks before.
It’s amateur hour at England.

It's like watching Arsenal trying to compete with Man City. Lots of promise and slick moves but lacking the pedigree when it's really needed. Australia have just gone up a gear after we let them in with a silly declaration and poor wicketkeeping. Not a single batsman got 50 on a flat deck today

Andy1210 wrote:It's like watching Arsenal trying to compete with Man City. Lots of promise and slick moves but lacking the pedigree when it's really needed. Australia have just gone up a gear after we let them in with a silly declaration and poor wicketkeeping. Not a single batsman got 50 on a flat deck today

Although it pains me to say, England are just favourites with Australia needing 180 with 7 wickets left. It maybe "exciting_" , but Test cricket it ain't.

Australia's best batsmen, Labauschene and Smith, have not come to the party in this match. Assuming they do so in future matches England should be toast. Australia have more depth in their bowling and, of course, a far superior wicket keeper.

Not that I rate him at all but i actually think Moeen will give up after this test. He knows he cant hack it.

As for Smith and Labauschene they could destroy us on their own. Even if we do win this first test I can see the Aussies winning the required three tests.

Broad said months ago that he was working on an outswinger for Smith and Labuschagne, the fact the latter fished at it in both innings is kind of hilarious

Sir Winston Churchill wrote:Not that I rate him at all but i actually think Moeen will give up after this test. He knows he cant hack it.

As for Smith and Labauschene they could destroy us on their own. Even if we do win this first test I can see the Aussies winning the required three tests.

Agree - I’d be absolutely shocked if he lasts until the next test let alone the rest of the series.

Broad and Robinson added 27 for the 9th wicket today. Broad and Anderson added 17 for the last wicket.

How many would Root/Robinson/Anderson added in the first innings without the stupid declaration?

Just like Surrey winning the league and being top again, you wouldn’t know from this place that England are going toe to toe with them. I suppose we could always go back to losing however many tests in a row it was…

Chinaman wrote:

Andy1210 wrote:It's like watching Arsenal trying to compete with Man City. Lots of promise and slick moves but lacking the pedigree when it's really needed. Australia have just gone up a gear after we let them in with a silly declaration and poor wicketkeeping. Not a single batsman got 50 on a flat deck today

Although it pains me to say, England are just favourites with  Australia needing 180 with 7 wickets left. It maybe "exciting_" , but Test cricket it ain't.

Given Bairstow's propensity for missed stumpings and catches we still probably need the equivalent of 10 wickets..

Benmug wrote:Just like Surrey winning the league and being top again, you wouldn’t know from this place that England are going toe to toe with them. I suppose we could always go back to losing however many tests in a row it was…

We haven’t lost a home ashes series since 2001.

I suppose with stupid declarations and needless slogging just be be cool, we could always go back to losing ashes series under Stokes.