Bangladesh V England Test Series 2016

[sussexpob]

Apart from that ball early on that whistled past his stumps, Woakes has looked probably the most assured batter at the crease so far for England.

Id be very tempted to send him up the order if he can push onto a half century from here.

The more I see the guy, the more im puzzled as to why England were so resistive to play him for so long. He certainly looks a player who has test match temperament.

[Arthur Crabtree]

England's lowest score v BD is 295, in Dhaka, 2003. I suppose their first innings ever against them. Touch and go to beat that now.

[sussexpob]

England's lowest score v BD is 295, in Dhaka, 2003. I suppose their first innings ever against them. Touch and go to beat that now.

id guess it would have been the first test. I believe the first test they played in England was in 2005 before the Ashes series. In fact, BD's first test in England must have been Graeme Thorpes last test.

Interestingly, I was shocked to find out Australia have only played I believe 3 matches in 16 years against them..... India/England havent had that many series, but 3 matches is a pretty large insult. In one of those matches I believe Australia needed a tail ender to stop them from losing (2/3 wicket win by memory), so its not like they can claim they destroyed them well enough not ot play them again.



253/7 at the end of the day..... You get the feeling England are about on par

[Arthur Crabtree]

Presuming no more wickets fall, a good recovery. Probably frustrating for BD, especially as they might have hoped for more success with the new ball. Hard for the batters to start again in the morning though. Looks like a good day's cricket on a competitive pitch.

[Arthur Crabtree]

According to my look on cricinfo, Australia have won 4/4 v BD. They had that cancelled tour of course.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Woakes walks off with a higher Test average now than Ben Stokes. No hundreds though of course.

[sussexpob]

Woakes walks off with a higher Test average now than Ben Stokes. No hundreds though of course.

And nowhere near the unjustified hype

[Arthur Crabtree]

Hasan is 19 the day after this game. He's only played 12 fc matches and no ODIs/T20. So a proper international debut. His day really, with a 5-fer, and conceding under two per over.

[hopeforthebest]

I think today has identified how Moeen should be viewed by the selectors, a sort of replacement for Collingwood at 5/6 who bowls when required.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Dunno. He looks far too loose to be a top order bat, to me. Maybe you could argue the alternatives are worse, but I'm not sure he's a long term option. Maybe ok at six or seven, but bowling would be part of that package, in my opinion.

Curiously, survived five reviews today!

Shame we won't get a look at Leach, maybe even Rayner, bowling on this pitch.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Not sure Mo likes it up him too much either.

[Gingerfinch]

Mo will chip in with a score at times, but he's not a top order player imo. He needs to take wickets or at least be tight.

[hopeforthebest]

He not good enough to be a front line spin bowler and he seems to bat better when there's a crisis. When Stokes was injured he said he felt better batting higher up the order.

Must say I was impressed by Woakes today apart from a couple of waffs at wide deliveries he was in control. Duckett got out making room in classical one day mode and showed too many stumps, not a test openers way of playing, so Hameed might be in line next game. How did Ballance ever score those centuries? are they a figment of our combined imaginations.

[Aidan11]

After the morning session I'll happily take that score at the close.

[sussexpob]

After their relative innings today, Ali averages about 3-4 runs better than Stokes, similar amount of game, same amount of hundreds. Ali has also played far less in the top 6 than Stokes, playing the most as number 8. Just to put this into context about how much more difficult it is to play meaningful innings that low down, Stokes has 5 innings below 7 in his career...... and its Duck, Duck, Duck, Duck and 12..... The 12 runs came at over a run a ball....in game where he had Cook at the other end trying to save a test match. What you really need with 8 wickets down and 150 runs behind on day 5, a defensive batsman set on 60 odd at the other end... is to slog.

Ali gets the brunt of England fans distain, but hes making more useful contributions than Superman Stokes most of the time. Ali has an emerging ability to dig in when times are hard, hes lpayed 3-4 innings by memory where hes done very well at the teams time of greatest need. Stokes just picks up the bat and goes in to hit attacks around, if his team are 50/5 or 500/5, no change.

I have a feeling that this 7 match streak might end with Stokes being dropped. People who picked his lack of ability to spin will have watched his innings and only solidified their opinions. If he ends up having a horror two tours here, and his average flirts with dropping to the 20s, can England really afford to continue with him? If anything, his position at 6 changes

He got a doing over today, so Jadeja and Ashwin are going to massacre him. I can this his tour being low score, low score, low score, low score, run a ball 50 with chances, low score, etc etc.