England tour of West Indies 2015

[barmyarmy]

I'll no doubt get shot down in flames for this, but I'd like to see the skipper and coach replaced. Cook is just not bold or aggressive enough in my opinion. The persistence with Trott and Stokes and two part time spinners for example; the refusal to use Lyth or Rashid (in the latter's case, when since Swann's retirement we haven't employed a proper frontline spinner, unless you believe Tredwell is).

Definitely the majority view!
My latest article is here.

 

[blockerdave]

Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will all those express bowlers they have? My point is and will remain the same. You're better off picking the good younger bowlers who bowl well in County Cricket, like a Woakes, over the likes of Mills, who has pace but nothing else. You can be as quick as you like, if you're averaging close to 40 with the ball against County Pros, you're not going to suddenly average 25 in Tests, because the batsman down the other end is World class as opposed to the 50th best batsman in England. Ability is more important than speed.

There are plenty of bowlers in County cricket, doing well who deserve a go. I don't see the need to bypass them and go to someone who is struggling for wickets just because he bowls 4mph quicker.

Mills may not be the one, but we need pace.

Actually Bangladesh did have a quicker bowler than us, but the general point is their batsmen coped with right arm medium fast reasonably comfortably, and we are about to face much much better lineups.

Head in the sand.[DOUBLEPOST=1430745478][/DOUBLEPOST]

The root for captaincy thing confuses me because it seems like the same approach taken with Cook (take the best batsmen and make them captain) and that's worked oh so well for them

It was also the same with Vaughan and Strauss. Our best players play so little county cricket, few if any of the England squad players have captaincy experience.

Would you keep Cook? If not who. Root is picked in hope more than expectation, but who else?

 

[blockerdave]

Of course if we're saying our keeper can bat 8 could they play Foster as captain? Would he have missed the stumping?

 

[MUFC1987]

Mills may not be the one, but we need pace.

Actually Bangladesh did have a quicker bowler than us, but the general point is their batsmen coped with right arm medium fast reasonably comfortably, and we are about to face much much better lineups.

Head in the sand.

Well who then? I'd like Don Bradman's English born, regen in the side too, but he doesn't exist. So who are these mythical fast bowlers who should be playing for England? It's very easy to point our problems, without going out on a limb with a solution.

 

[blockerdave]

Well who then? I'd like Don Bradman's English born, regen in the side too, but he doesn't exist. So who are these mythical fast bowlers who should be playing for England? It's very easy to point our problems, without going out on a limb with a solution.

Well I personally would pick Mills, I think he's got potential if handled judiciously. Plunkett is an alternative, Overton before Saker got his hands on him.

We're picking spinners who aren't quite ready, why not an out and out quick?

 

[MUFC1987]

I wouldn't call Plunkett quick, but then he's an experienced bowler who has done well in the Championship, so I can understand why he got a chance and that he probably should be looked at for the next Series, so we agree on that one, even though he didn't exactly tear it up.

It's a similar issue with the spinners for me. Kerrigan was confident a couple of years ago and got destroyed on his Test debut. How can you expect a young pacer, who is likely to spray it around a bit, faring any different? If they were averaging around 30, I'd say yes, throw them in. But they're not. That's my issue. The likes of Wood deserve the next go for me, because they've performed well. And frankly, neither Mills nor Overton are ready yet.

 

[blockerdave]

Plunkett is not express, to be sure, but he's quicker than what we have and quick enough. But he must be used as Clarke uses Johnson, few overs, shock bowler, and accept there'll be wayward spells. (Same as should be with Mills).

Which actually makes what's happened with Trott such a shame, because if you could keep him in the middle order to provide defensive overs when the proper quick isn't doing much and the other seamers need to rest. I can't think of anyone else who can do that.[DOUBLEPOST=1430747038][/DOUBLEPOST]re the Kerrigan example, there's merit in what you say but it's much harder to smash a guy at 90-95mph than a spinner at 50mph.

 

[Aislabie]

how people can suggest a bowler with first class figures above 40 (Patel) is beyond me

I certainly wouldn't suggest him as a long-term option, but as someone who could join forces with Root for two or three Tests to bowl twenty overs between them and give the seamers a bit of a rest, he might be worth a go. I was just appalled by how lazily Moeen batted in the last couple of Tests. That mix-up with Cook was entirely his fault, for instance.

I've also always rated Samit - probably over-rated him. Long term, though, Simon Kerrigan looks like the only option who might be anywhere near ready in the short term. I would have suggested Briggs until he gave up bowling spin and went full-Yardy bowling darts.

Well I personally would pick Mills, I think he's got potential if handled judiciously. Plunkett is an alternative, Overton before Saker got his hands on him.

We're picking spinners who aren't quite ready, why not an out and out quick?

Again, I think the truth is somewhere in the middle ground. Mills has great potential, and could play for England if handled properly, but is nowhere even approaching ready yet. That's why I'd go Footitt - relatively quick, but crucially coming off the back of a superhuman season last year for Derbyshire. I reckon the variation in the attack is possibly more important than a bowler of genuine pace, but equally that bowler of genuine pace could be that variation.

 

[IceAgeComing]

don't say tymall mills; he's been shit in the first couple of championship games for sussex and picking a player just because "he's quick" would be a very bad idea

Like all of Sussex's wickets have been taken by Ajmal Shazhad and Magoffin: the former has played international cricket and didn't do that well and the latter is Australian.

 

[War]

I agree with @blockerdave on Mills, have been calling for him to picked since last Ashes & erudite judges have recently been nothing he could be game changing quick ENG needs - Andrew Miller: Can Tymal Mills fill England's bowling vaccum? | Cricket | ESPN Cricinfo

Nothing major from his bowling in 3 FC games this season, but ENG cricket could do with him running through a few county batting line-ups soon.

 

[ParkedTheBus]

Might sound crazy but actually, England could do what Dhoni's sides usually do regarding spinners. Rather than use them as out-and-out wicket takers, using them just to contain might be an useful idea in the short term. The likes of Anderson could attack at the other end while Kerrigan/Briggs sucks the life out of the opposition. And this gives room for the proper express bowlers like Mills to be a bit wayward in their quest for wickets.

 

[cooks1st100]

Might sound crazy but actually, England could do what Dhoni's sides usually do regarding spinners. Rather than use them as out-and-out wicket takers, using them just to contain might be an useful idea in the short term.

Correct me if I'm wrong but is this not how England utilised Ashley Giles?

With the seamers I'd like to see a left handed bowler in the team to add variety and give the opposition batsmen something different to face. Footitt or Topley possibly at the expense of Stokes I guess as Jordan has to keep his place in my opinion because to drag out that old but very true cliche "catches win matches".

As far as Batting options go has everyone written off Nick Compton and Michael Carberry already?

 

[blockerdave]

Correct me if I'm wrong but is this not how England utilised Ashley Giles?

With the seamers I'd like to see a left handed bowler in the team to add variety and give the opposition batsmen something different to face. Footitt or Topley possibly at the expense of Stokes I guess as Jordan has to keep his place in my opinion because to drag out that old but very true cliche "catches win matches".

As far as Batting options go has everyone written off Nick Compton and Michael Carberry already?

They did indeed use him to tie up an end (and Hoggard too) while Harmy, Flintoff & Jones attacked at the other end).

Re Compton/Carberry - I'd really like to see us move toward the future but at the end of the day if they stack up the runs why not?

 

[IceAgeComing]

In hindsight ditching Compton and moving Root to open kinda wasn't the best idea, was it? I mean I supported it at the time but it never really lasted, and Root's quite happy at number 5.

Might sound crazy but actually, England could do what Dhoni's sides usually do regarding spinners. Rather than use them as out-and-out wicket takers, using them just to contain might be an useful idea in the short term. The likes of Anderson could attack at the other end while Kerrigan/Briggs sucks the life out of the opposition. And this gives room for the proper express bowlers like Mills to be a bit wayward in their quest for wickets.

This is actually what England were trying to do and probably was the reason they went for Moeen over Rashid in the last test - control. Oh and he was "unselectable" which is a great thing to say about a player during a series, especially all he played in were two bullshit warmup games...

Also that boring Conservativism of Dhoni is a big reason why he kept on picking Jadeja over Ashwin as soon as they went anywhere outside the subcontinent, despite the latter being a batter bowler and batsman than the former...

 

[blockerdave]

In hindsight ditching Compton and moving Root to open kinda wasn't the best idea, was it? I mean I supported it at the time but it never really lasted, and Root's quite happy at number 5.



This is actually what England were trying to do and probably was the reason they went for Moeen over Rashid in the last test - control. Oh and he was "unselectable" which is a great thing to say about a player during a series, especially all he played in were two bullshit warmup games...

Also that boring Conservativism of Dhoni is a big reason why he kept on picking Jadeja over Ashwin as soon as they went anywhere outside the subcontinent, despite the latter being a batter bowler and batsman than the former...

Ironically, Root's average as an opener was better than any of Cook's other partners since Strauss.