Ashes 2015 - Australia tour of England July/September 2015

[LiveLoveABD]

Me thinks, Jimmy won't mind the overhead conditions, but he'll be a bit grumpy about the turf.

 

[blockerdave]

Bell really dug us out a hole there with his "class".

 

[Dutch]

"Four balls of absolute tripe" ....Boycotts review of Bells effort

 

[LiveLoveABD]

You seem rather obsessed.

 

[richowebbo]

Yeah. It's frankly not about him hating Bell or me hating Cook. I quite dislike Cook, but I well and truly respect what he's achieved. You don't rack up the kind of numbers he's racked up unless you're good. Right now, England need both making big big runs!

I am no fan of Cook. I don't believe he is the right man to take England forward (Root for me). But he was great a few years back. Bell is highly respected in the game because he has quality. He's just bang out of form for England.

Oh and as an edit, Root should be batting at 3.

Mikey on SS has just nailed it by saying you need your best batsmen at 3.

 

[richowebbo]

Bell really dug us out a hole there with his "class".

teehee

Dave, who would you bring in for Bell? Would you move the order around and bring in another all rounder like Woakes or Jordan?

 

[Dutch]

Nice to see Johnston getting smacked about... Makes up for a lot....

 

[IceAgeComing]

The obvious backups that you have for the middle order are Bairstow who's in the form of his life at the moment and Taylor who's a good player who deserves a shot. I'd be less sure about Bairstow playing as a batsman; he's apparently improved a lot since the last Ashes but he was terrible in Australia last time. Hales is also there but he's an opener and I'm a believer in not messing players around just to get them in the side when you have better options. If Bell fails in the second innings and definitely if he fails in the Second Test England really need to think about dropping him; he's a handicap at the moment. Its ridiculous that people were demanding that Ballance be dropped for the Ashes over two bad tests when Bell's had four in a row and didn't exactly set the world on fire last year...

Jordan isn't an all-rounder by any definition of the word; he's a bowler that you can put at eight or nine if needed. You don't need a sixth proper bowler in this England team; five + Root should be enough.

 

[blockerdave]

teehee

Dave, who would you bring in for Bell? Would you move the order around and bring in another all rounder like Woakes or Jordan?

Right now probably Bairstow. Problem is someone deserved a chance to bed in from the WI tour.

No fan of Cook either, primarily as Captain though I also believe he is not as good a batsman as his record suggests: there are a lot of poor teams, lot of poor attacks in world cricket & Cook has tended to feast on those and perform less well against better attacks. Difference is Cook is a) in form now, and b)has a million times more backbone than Bell and note often than not even if he doesn't make runs you have to get him out.

I have no respect for Bell or his record. Few of his runs have ever come against a quality attack - even the Aus 2013 Ashes attack was relatively poor: probably all Ashes attacks he faced bar the 2010/11 were better. He is Graeme Hick except he's been favoured rather than scapegoated.

 

[IceAgeComing]

Not the cleanest half century I've ever seen from Ballance, but time at the crease is always a good thing, and he can afford to be slower with Root at the other end

 

[Dutch]

Blimey Mitchell changing sides of the wicket more often than DBC ai bowling on heat

 

[El Loco]

Bell has been England's mandatory number 3 for some time now, no denying his ability, but he just fails to deliver time and time again. Joe Root oozes class, definite promotion up to number 3 should be on the cards for him.

 

[bigred]

Not the cleanest half century I've ever seen from Ballance, but time at the crease is always a good thing, and he can afford to be slower with Root at the other end

Yep. Hope he goes on to prove all his doubters on this forum wrong. The guy averages 52. He's a proper player.

The obvious backups that you have for the middle order are Bairstow who's in the form of his life at the moment and Taylor who's a good player who deserves a shot. I'd be less sure about Bairstow playing as a batsman; he's apparently improved a lot since the last Ashes but he was terrible in Australia last time. Hales is also there but he's an opener and I'm a believer in not messing players around just to get them in the side when you have better options. If Bell fails in the second innings and definitely if he fails in the Second Test England really need to think about dropping him; he's a handicap at the moment. Its ridiculous that people were demanding that Ballance be dropped for the Ashes over two bad tests when Bell's had four in a row and didn't exactly set the world on fire last year...

Jordan isn't an all-rounder by any definition of the word; he's a bowler that you can put at eight or nine if needed. You don't need a sixth proper bowler in this England team; five + Root should be enough.

Hales actually prefers number 3 in red ball cricket and bats there 90% of the time.

 

[IceAgeComing]

OK; but in that case if Bell is dropped I'd rather slot Taylor in at 4 or shift Root up to play Bairstow rather than play an opener/number 3 at 4.

 

[richowebbo]

I'd either bring Bairstow in and move Butker up the order, with root at 3, Butler at 4 and Ballance at 5. Or I'd bring in hales and have him at 4 and Butler at 6 with Root at 3 and ballance at 5.