Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

And his bowling stands up among his colleagues.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine ... pe=bowling

I think I'd give him a chance at six and use him as a fifth bowler.

Brathwaite/S.Hope/Bravo/Chase/Blackwood/Holder/Dowrich/Bishoo/Gabriel/Roach/CumminsorJoseph.

Provisionally. They could do with a little batting in that tail (now I've taken Holder out of it!). As I say though, it is tempting to look at new bats in that top six in the hope someone can cut it. But lately, they've not survived for long and/or not excelled: S&K Hope/Vishaul/Powell/Johnson/Chandrika/Hetmyer.

bhaveshgor wrote:if BCCI were thinking this, everyone would be criticising them, then again only BCCI has to care for cricket and no one else has to.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2017 ... edgbaston/

Maybe the West Indies would have entered the England tour in better shape if the recent India series consisted of a couple of test matches, instead of a limited overs only series straight after the Champions Trophy.

Test was last year this was the odi part of the tour.
Split tour.
Also isn't it England duty to giving out proper preparation and warm up game to England, not India couple of months ago.

bhaveshgor wrote:Test was last year this was the odi part of the tour.
Split tour.
Also isn't it England duty to giving out proper preparation and warm up game to England, not India couple of months ago.

Got the split the wrong way round then, makes no sense to play ODIs straight after the Champions Trophy and not play tests when both India and West Indies have test series against Sri Lanka and England respectively.

Three three-day matches against Essex, Kent and Derbyshire is proper warm up preparation.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:I think I'd give him a chance at six and use him as a fifth bowler.

Brathwaite/S.Hope/Bravo/Chase/Blackwood/Holder/Dowrich/Bishoo/Gabriel/Roach/CumminsorJoseph.

Provisionally. They could do with a little batting in that tail (now I've taken Holder out of it!). As I say though, it is tempting to look at new bats in that top six in the hope someone can cut it. But lately, they've not survived for long and/or not excelled: S&K Hope/Vishaul/Powell/Johnson/Chandrika/Hetmyer.

Well that is probably what they''ll have to do - but as the figures you put up show he really isn't a top six Test batsman. (Or a main bowler- regardless of how well he compares with his colleagues) Not that I have an answer - think this is at present an insoluble problem and all they can do is make the best of a bad job.
At least a five man bowling group including a decent spinner gives them some chance of dismissing England for a reasonable score and then they can hope that someone has a great day with the bat...

Not holding my breath.

If you gonna go by that logic.
Then wi and other teams should be playing test every month to prepare for test matches.
England should have played test against ireland to be better prepared for the South Africa series so they didn't lose the 2nd test.
Actually thinking about in 2014 they should have played test in the wi and then they maybe would have won the series against Sri Lanka that followed instead of playing odi.

bhaveshgor wrote:If you gonna go by that logic.
Then wi and other teams should be playing test every month to prepare for test matches.
England should have played test against ireland to be better prepared for the South Africa series so they didn't lose the 2nd test.
Actually thinking about in 2014 they should have played test in the wi and then they maybe would have won the series against Sri Lanka that followed instead of playing odi.

It's all about making proper use of the cricket calendar, what purpose was there for West Indies to host an ODI series straight after the Champions Trophy when both sides had test commitments the following month?

There is no logic in England touring West Indies in April (2015 being an exception due to the World Cup) and playing a one-off test against Ireland when the County Championship is in full swing.

Woakes confirmed to come in at the expense of Roland-Jones.... im not against it, however remeber what england camp said before the first test...Woakes wasn't in XI, because he had a lack of match pratice...well he hasn't played since....

andy wrote:Woakes confirmed to come in at the expense of Roland-Jones.... im not against it, however remeber what england camp said before the first test...Woakes wasn't in XI, because he had a lack of match pratice...well he hasn't played since....

Yes 20 overs of first class cricket this year. I thought Woakes would play against Lancs and then come in for the 3rd Test. As well as Roland-Jones has done he was an injury replacement.

TRJ has been dropped!

Three Tests, 14 wickets at 19.4 with a 5-fer.

23 with the bat.

Destined to be English cricket's Andy Ganteaume

No coincidence England's form has shot up since the introduction of Toby Roland-Jones, never change a winning team! Even though I am a fan of King Woakes.

Huge game for Mark Stoneman...i know 2 tests isn't enough..but if he dosen't make a big score here then could be curtains for him...selectors keen to chop and change atm, so could easily miss out on OZ if he dosent register a score here..

England 1 Alastair Cook, 2 Mark Stoneman, 3 Tom Westley, 4 Joe Root (capt), 5 Dawid Malan, 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 8 Moeen Ali, 9 Chris Woakes, 10 Stuart Broad 11 James Anderson

West Indies 1 Kraigg Brathwaite, 2 Kieran Powell, 3 Kyle Hope, 4 Shai Hope, 5 Roston Chase, 6 Jermaine Blackwood, 7 Shane Dowrich (wk), 8 Jason Holder (capt), 9 Kemar Roach, 10 Devendra Bishoo, 11 Shannon Gabriel

Bishoo and Gabriel in for Joseph and Cummins.

Bowling changes as expected...Shai Hope and Kieran Powell living on borrowed time. Hetmyer and Reifer surely must be in the reckoning for the final Test if it all goes wrong again this weekend.

England win the toss and bat. Reports say the pitch looks a good one for batting, so expect England to be 70-3 or similar by lunch, as per usual.

Unlucky for Toblerone, he hasn't put a foot wrong since being called up, but England clearly feel that their strongest side includes Woakes. Nonetheless, TRJ will be on the plane to Australia, and I will be surprised if he doesn't feature in at least some matches down under.

The batting quandry continues. Hard to imagine England succeeding in Oz if the top order doesn't make runs, but will a couple of 50s against a limited WI attack prove much for Stoneman, Westley or Malan? There's a bit of a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' here, as fail to score runs against a relatively weak attack and you'll be labelled a failure, but make them and they still won't be counted for very much. Only big hundreds are likely to give any confidence, and as we saw with Lyth, Compton and Jennings, even a hundred or two in your early games don't mean much when you come up against a good attack.

West Indies look to be stronger for the return of Gabriel and Bishoo for Joseph and Cummins, but it would still be a brave person to be against anything other than an England win. With the weather set fair for 5 days, the odds are currently England 10 to 1 on favourites, with West Indies and outside 20 to 1 shot before a ball has been bowled. Ouch.