3rd Test Headingley 6th July

A must win and they "rest" Tongue who was their best bowler last Test, bring back Moeen Pick And Mix Ali and don't replace Pope with a front line batsman.This is a 20/2 job for almost certain, with You Can't Drop Me Crawley. They don't deserve to win, but maybe the weather will save them.

I've had enough.I'll probably go and watch the seconds playing Middlesex at New Malden - weather permitting.

Badges wrote:I've had enough.I'll probably go and watch the seconds playing Middlesex at New Malden - weather permitting.

Enjoy it if you go, Badges. Great that Matt Dunn got a couple of wickets upon his return yesterday. Full, straight and fast from the clips - something England might do well to keep in mind for this latest Test.

Write off Broad at your peril!

If you're going to have a 96mph fast bowler on a fast pitch bowling towards a short straight boundary, you want a good wicket keeper #Byebyebairstow, bairstowbyebye

Truly awful wicketkeeper!

dougieginn wrote:Truly awful wicketkeeper!

Yes just checked in on this, but they won't change it. However you see with a bit of 90+mph stuff it makes all the difference. Shakes them up a bit and mistakes are made to help other bowlers to take wickets. Pity they didn't play Tongue instead of Robinson. Hope Wood can last 5 days! But England's morning so far.

The number of runs Bairstow scored is far exceeded by the runs conceded after all the errors he’s made!

1st drop - a lack of foot movement meant he was late to the ball

2nd drop - truly awful

Im surprised he caught the 1 he did, even if it was regulation

When will the stubborn people in charge get rid of this clown posing as a 'keeper?

Badges wrote:When will the stubborn people in charge get rid of this clown posing as a 'keeper?

I really think that there is an "old boy's club" if your face fits mentality with selection and has been for some time: Bairstow, Crawley and Ali being notable examples. Crawley imparticulary must have something on someone.
Perhaps one of you can enlighten me on what McCollum actually does, apart from sitting with his feet up looking smug. With all the specialist coaches these days why is he needed?

Weren't we meant to have signed this bloke Mitch Marsh a few years ago, before he got injured a week before the start of the season? I think we got Morkel at short notice instead, which worked out ok.

Not seen much of Marsh before, but even before he has bowled a ball I can think of worse overseas signings. He would have been useful at T20 too.

Jackers wrote:Weren't we meant to have signed this bloke Mitch Marsh a few years ago, before he got injured a week before the start of the season? I think we got Morkel at short notice instead, which worked out ok.

Not seen much of Marsh before, but even before he has bowled a ball I can think of worse overseas signings. He would have been useful at T20 too.

Correct, well remembered! Although it was not Morkel we signed at short notice but Dean Elgar if I recall correctly; we were still in the EU at the time so Morkel wouldn’t have been an overseas player then.

That was excellent from Mark Wood. Absolute wheels

Marsh is listed for Surrey in the 2018 Who's Who.

I see the Headingley crowd are now showing themselves up.This has to be an all time low.Please take it to Elland Road.

How many more young players are going to be thrown under the bus because Joe Root won't bat at 3? It is where the best, highest-class batsman in the team should always feel comfortable, whether they are Bradman, Viv Richards, Zaheer Abbas or Brian Lara.

I remember banging on about Sangakkara batting at 4 behind Borthwick at Surrey. Kumar would have scored bucketloads of runs anywhere in the top order. Borthwick should never have batted above him.

Yes and how many more catches is Bairstow going to drop before England admit they are playing the country's worst keeper?
If Crawley keeps getting out for low scores move Root to open whether he likes it or not, with Duckett 2 and bring in Vince at 3, Stokes 4 and then Brook 5 who never bats at 3, Bairstow 6, Foakes 7. Then the bowlers. Vince is better than Crawley well most openers are.
A couple of quick wickets in the morning and the tail really starts at 7 with Moeen. Why is he back?

Chinaman wrote:Yes and how many more catches is Bairstow going to drop before England admit they are playing the country's worst keeper?
If Crawley keeps getting out for low scores move Root to open whether he likes it or not,  with Duckett 2 and bring in Vince at 3, Stokes 4 and then Brook 5 who never bats at 3, Bairstow 6, Foakes 7. Then the bowlers. Vince is better than Crawley well most openers are.
A couple of quick wickets in the morning and the tail really starts at 7 with Moeen. Why is he back?

This is fumbler Bairstow's 53rd test as keeper, so I doubt England will cotton on soon.

Buttler 'one stumping in 37 tests' is even worse.

Our man should be 90 more caps to the good by now. A tragedy of Shakespearian proportions. Currie, Marsh, Worthington, Bowles, Huddy, Le Tiss and Foakesy. Enough to make a grown man weep.

The scandal is not merely the selection, but how players were allowed to prepare for this series.

I watched the start of the England innings. What were the batters doing? The conditions favoured the bowlers and the ball was moving around. Yet still the batters played at balls they should have left and generally swiped at anything, barely a defensive shot to be seen. The ball beat the bat regularly as a result. What was required was a cautious approach with the intention of preserving wickets for tomorrow when the conditions may be better and the ball will be older. Edrich would have approached the situation very differently.

Missing Leg wrote:

Chinaman wrote:Yes and how many more catches is Bairstow going to drop before England admit they are playing the country's worst keeper?
If Crawley keeps getting out for low scores move Root to open whether he likes it or not,  with Duckett 2 and bring in Vince at 3, Stokes 4 and then Brook 5 who never bats at 3, Bairstow 6, Foakes 7. Then the bowlers. Vince is better than Crawley well most openers are.
A couple of quick wickets in the morning and the tail really starts at 7 with Moeen. Why is he back?

This is fumbler Bairstow's 53rd test as keeper, so I doubt England will cotton on soon.

Buttler 'one stumping in 37 tests' is even worse.

Our man should be 90 more caps to the good by now. A tragedy of Shakespearian proportions. Currie, Marsh, Worthington, Bowles, Huddy, Le Tiss and Foakesy. Enough to make a grown man weep.

Some richly talented creative players, there, but our Ben is  a supreme stopper so as an old-school Arsenal fan may I nominate the sublime Peter Simpson as an appropriate example of one who was criminally unrecognised at international level. Of course, Peter did have Bobby Moore as his contemporary, and if Ben were around 50 yesrs ago competing with Alan Knott instead of old iron-gloves the decision might be understandable.

These Ashes Tests are so ridiculously congested on the schedule that it almost feels like this is an extension of the last one. It loses a lot of the old anticipation when you had a week to ten days between each to savour what had gone and what was to come. Not sure it is beneficial for the players either. Blame the bloody 100 for this. A feature of today's instant society.

I agree that it loses a lot in terms of savouring what has been and anticipating what is to come. It's rather like serving a five-course gourmet meal (all main courses) in an hour. Totally indigestible.

I am less sure that I sympathise with those who claim that the schedule provides insufficient rest and recuperation. If players have underlying fitness issues then of course their workloads need to be managed, but otherwise a three or four day rest between games is fine. Remember, the bowlers are bowling a maximum of 90 overs per day in test cricket (and usually less).

While England are resting 25-year-old Josh Tongue after playing one Ashes test (ok, and one against Ireland a few weeks ago), Australia's 30-year-old captain is bowling as well as ever after three consecutive test matches against India and England with no rest over the past month.

Remember it was Australia that were bowling last at Lord's through most of Sunday, and Cummings and the others had to compensate for the absence of their main spinner, who would surely have bowled the, er, Lyons' share from one end.

"Resting" often doubles as ECB spin for dropped. Tongue didn't deserve to rested/dropped, of course. Deceptively quick and a high action, so offers something different to the others, apart from the appreciably faster but "skiddier"* Wood. Tongue would have done well on this fast pitch.

As for Wood, that was electrifying. Mach speed, in swinging and at the stumps. Four out of his wickets were lbw or bowled. Take iron gloves out of the equation to customise a Nassarism.

*Apologies for that. Skiddy is a polite way of saying short arse.

Surely the end for Bairstow as wicket keeper, misses chances galore and fails with the bat. You can bully the likes of Pakistan and NZ with bazball,but not a quality side like Australia!