England vs West Indies 2nd test Headingley

[bigfluffylemon]

Bishoo survives. Anderson hasn't made him play enough.

Five overs short.

[backfootpunch]

Bit of swing for woakes

Could be a big threat tomorrow

[KipperJohn]

Should the risk of injuries mean England should field an extra bowler? I'm not against the extra bowler if it doesn't weaken the batting- which arguably it shouldn't. But if you have to pick one because of fear of injuries, then arguably the bowler in question needs to be rested. Anderson's recent overseas record shouldn't make his place automatic anyway.

Agree here, but my argument was that our bowlers/allrounders are better bats than any of the specialist batsmen being picked at the moment.

does that not also mean that England have an almost unprecedented opportunity to pick the two specialist batsmen that they feel are most likely to become good test cricketers and stick with them instead of chopping and changing from one series to the next. At the start of his career no-one (or perhaps it was just me) could understand quite what Fletcher saw in Ian Bell, but he went on to become an England stalwart. Bell wouldn't have made it past that 2005 series if he'd been treated in the same way as Compton/Robson/Jennings et al

I thought Bell was dropped after 2005 but came back when MV was injured and then got centuries against Pakistan. Shame his form has dipped so much otherwise he'd be a shoe in in the present circumstances. Must be kicking himself.

[backfootpunch]

Should the risk of injuries mean England should field an extra bowler? I'm not against the extra bowler if it doesn't weaken the batting- which arguably it shouldn't. But if you have to pick one because of fear of injuries, then arguably the bowler in question needs to be rested. Anderson's recent overseas record shouldn't make his place automatic anyway.

Agree here, but my argument was that our bowlers/allrounders are better bats than any of the specialist batsmen being picked at the moment.

does that not also mean that England have an almost unprecedented opportunity to pick the two specialist batsmen that they feel are most likely to become good test cricketers and stick with them instead of chopping and changing from one series to the next. At the start of his career no-one (or perhaps it was just me) could understand quite what Fletcher saw in Ian Bell, but he went on to become an England stalwart. Bell wouldn't have made it past that 2005 series if he'd been treated in the same way as Compton/Robson/Jennings et al

I thought Bell was dropped after 2005 but came back when MV was injured and then got centuries against Pakistan. Shame his form has dipped so much otherwise he'd be a shoe in in the present circumstances. Must be kicking himself.

Bell was our top scorer in the tour to Pakistan that followed the ashes iirc

The series where akhtar blew us away

[Durhamfootman]

Is it time for England to stop thinking about youth and start thinking about experienced old campaigners... Mitchell or Madsen, or such like

but then, I suppose that was Carberrry.... until he was foolish enough to suggest that KP might not be the devil incarnate

which of course he was, is and always will be

Canute!

[backfootpunch]

Is it time for England to stop thinking about youth and start thinking about experienced old campaigners... Mitchell or Madsen, or such like

but then, I suppose that was Carberrry.... until he was foolish enough to suggest that KP might not be the devil incarnate

which of course he was, is and always will be

Canute!

KP would still get in this team

[Durhamfootman]

not now

can't even stay fit enough to play T20

[Arthur Crabtree]

I remember just before Strauss terminated KP, he said there was no place for him in the team on merit anyway. That was a side with Gary Ballance in it. A bit of an unnecessary insult.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Loose shot from Stoneman.

Not the sort of shot you expect from an opener in the first session on the first morning.

[Arthur Crabtree]

And from Malan too. They're not compact at all. A session with IJLT might do them some good.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Fair to point out Stokes was playing those kinds of shots, but had a rare allocation of luck.

[The Professor]

Anderson is playing as well as he ever has....will go on and on.

[mikesiva]

Bishoo out for one...two down.

Kyle Hope out for three...three down.

[The Professor]

Jimmy Anderson - The Federer of cricket

[bigfluffylemon]

Is it worth a shot of Ballance at 5? As with the example of Bell above, he started at 3 and had a pretty torrid time of it and was dropped, but when Vaughan was injured he came back in the summer of 2006 to bat at 6, and scored 3 consecutive hundreds and cemented his place in the middle order for the rest of his career. He averaged 48 at 5 and 60 at 6, but well under 40 at 3 and 4.

I understand Ballance bats at 4 or 5 rather than 3 for Yorkshire - is it worth a shot moving him below Root in the England set-up?

Obviously it doesn't fix the top order problem, but I'm coming to the conclusion that the skills to open the batting in England against top quality test bowling just don't exist on the county circuit any more. And it's not just England - since Strauss' retirement, the only visiting openers to average over 40 in England have been Chris Rogers and Murali Vijay (qualification - at least 5 innings batted), although Warner just falls short. Most other visiting openers have managed mid-30s at best, or often much, much worse even that England's efforts.