4th Test England v Pakistan, The Oval, Aug 11-15

[hopeforthebest]

If only these two were batting 4 and 5 not 6 and 7

Its like you could almost just lift up the batting order by one place. Drop on Batsman and then bring in a spin bowler, and hey presto, England would look pretty balanced.

Now where to find a spin bowler......

That's what they will do in india

Bring rashid in drop vince move everyone up one

Rashid is currently o-133 at the moment against Lancashire.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Rashid doesn't always have to bowl at top order bats either. Suspect he might be so prominent among those in line to replace Moeen because he hasn't been tested this summer.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Well done to Yas on number 94.

England need at least one spinner who can bowl a lot of overs cheaply this winter, ideally two. I'm not convinced it's helpful for the England selectors to just lament there isn't one, and keep picking Mo (who has done well in ODIs, and is giving his best). Since Swann was injured on the Ashes whitewash tour (since that tour), thirty Tests have passed with only Tredwell coming in for Mo when injured, and doing well, and Rashid being added for three games in UAE. Arguably Mo did well enough at home v India to be looked at further, but I wonder if 3 or 4 other bowlers could have usefully been given an opportunity by now. There will by a spinner in the CC who can do a better job than Moeen.

[backfootpunch]

Well done to Yas on number 94.

England need at least one spinner who can bowl a lot of overs cheaply this winter, ideally two. I'm not convinced it's helpful for the England selectors to just lament there isn't one, and keep picking Mo (who has done well in ODIs, and is giving his best). Since Swann was injured on the Ashes whitewash tour (since that tour), thirty Tests have passed with only Tredwell coming in for Mo when injured, and doing well, and Rashid being added for three games in UAE. Arguably Mo did well enough at home v India to be looked at further, but I wonder if 3 or 4 other bowlers could have usefully been given an opportunity by now. There will by a spinner in the CC who can do a better job than Moeen.

We need someone who can at least do an Ashley Giles and bowl accurately enough to block up an end

[Arthur Crabtree]

I wonder if Kerrigan's display at the Oval encouraged England to give up on spin.

[Making_Splinters]

is it really surprising most of the english team support brexit or Conservatives considering most are the upper class folks or privete school funded folks.

That's actually a bit of a myth to be honest.

Out of the team playing this test Ballance, Cook, Bairstow, Vince and Broad were privately educated. The rest aren't.

Hales was as well
only really Anderson, Ali been to state school.
And finn went to one of the best school in the uk and is essentially a state school type private school.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmiter%27s_School

even most people in the county game are from private school upbringing which really isn't that surprising considering urban areas/states school don't have the facilities to produce cricketers.

No, grammar schools and selective state schools are not private schools.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Woakes and Yas as POTS?

[Arthur Crabtree]

Root and Bairstow went to a private school, as did Taylor. State funded batters are a rarity. Ballance did of course (Harrow?). Finn is somewhere in between.

[sussexpob]

is it really surprising most of the english team support brexit or Conservatives considering most are the upper class folks or privete school funded folks.

That's actually a bit of a myth to be honest.

Out of the team playing this test Ballance, Cook, Bairstow, Vince and Broad were privately educated. The rest aren't.

Hales was as well
only really Anderson, Ali been to state school.
And finn went to one of the best school in the uk and is essentially a state school type private school.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmiter%27s_School

even most people in the county game are from private school upbringing which really isn't that surprising considering urban areas/states school don't have the facilities to produce cricketers.

No, grammar schools and selective state schools are not private schools.

You can argue about the minutiae of definitions, but its pretty well clear to see that very few of England's cricket stars come from a "normal background". This on its own is a nothing fact, I am not going to look down on peoples qualification for tests based on their education, but the ECB's official policy does.

If cricket wants to grow then the highly biased channels to favour people from high education backgrounds needs to change. At the moment I think its simply the fact "better" schools are more inclined to play the sport than others.

[backfootpunch]

Woakes sold down the river

The old start to sprint then shout no from bairstow

Another gift to add to the collection

[backfootpunch]

Gift after gift

Only cook and moeen have been got out

[Dr Cricket]

is it really surprising most of the english team support brexit or Conservatives considering most are the upper class folks or privete school funded folks.

That's actually a bit of a myth to be honest.

Out of the team playing this test Ballance, Cook, Bairstow, Vince and Broad were privately educated. The rest aren't.

Hales was as well
only really Anderson, Ali been to state school.
And finn went to one of the best school in the uk and is essentially a state school type private school.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmiter%27s_School

even most people in the county game are from private school upbringing which really isn't that surprising considering urban areas/states school don't have the facilities to produce cricketers.

No, grammar schools and selective state schools are not private schools.

they would still be upper class folk which is correct since only Ali, Anderson are lower class people or working class people.

Can't see many cricketers in the england team or county cricket coming from State school with no cricket facilities or cricket hardly ever played in PE.

[KipperJohn]

The extra sharpness in the field that was needed from Pakistan has brought two wickets in one over.

[ddb]

Cricket is an extremely expensive sport to play tbh. Typical gear will cost you 300-400. Then you've got pay a club membership then pay for games etc. If it's not played at your school, it's difficult to see how those people would get into it.

[Dr Cricket]

is it really surprising most of the english team support brexit or Conservatives considering most are the upper class folks or privete school funded folks.

That's actually a bit of a myth to be honest.

Out of the team playing this test Ballance, Cook, Bairstow, Vince and Broad were privately educated. The rest aren't.

Hales was as well
only really Anderson, Ali been to state school.
And finn went to one of the best school in the uk and is essentially a state school type private school.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmiter%27s_School

even most people in the county game are from private school upbringing which really isn't that surprising considering urban areas/states school don't have the facilities to produce cricketers.

No, grammar schools and selective state schools are not private schools.

You can argue about the minutiae of definitions, but its pretty well clear to see that very few of England's cricket stars come from a "normal background". This on its own is a nothing fact, I am not going to look down on peoples qualification for tests based on their education, but the ECB's official policy does.

If cricket wants to grow then the highly biased channels to favour people from high education backgrounds needs to change. At the moment I think its simply the fact "better" schools are more inclined to play the sport than others.

having played about 10 middlesex cup games the biggest difference is the facilities.
we got outplayed against posh schools considering most of the people in the state school played street cricket or tennis ball cricket and didn't really have the facilities or money to actually play cricket with the hard ball or opportunities to play more cricket like that.

was quite funny though since at school we always thought white people don't like cricket and should trash teams when the entire teams is white was a big culture/society shock.
since in urban areas only asian play cricket and the non asian are so awful at cricket most don't know how to hold the bat or even bowl properly.