The Ashes; Melbourne

[Arthur Crabtree]

Actually, last winter Ballance was in India as a squad member no one really wanted to see in the side. And he's still there.

[Durhamfootman]

Fair enough. Not sure either option sounds appealing. If Crane isn't ready......

If he isn't ready, then he shouldn't be there

[yuppie]

Judging by how Root used Ali in Melbourne, it seems that he does not see him as an option with the ball. If the captain has no confidence in his bowling, then he should not be in the team.

Can we name the pundits that said Ali was as good as Lyon? Was Swann one of them?

[Gingerfinch]

Could be a case of utilising Malan, and Root, dropping Ali and bringing in Foakes, which will allow Bairstow to bat at four/five.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Actually, last winter Ballance was in India as a squad member no one really wanted to see in the side. And he's still there.

At least Gareth Batty isn't still waiting in the wings.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Could be a case of utilising Malan, and Root, dropping Ali and bringing in Foakes, which will allow Bairstow to bat at four/five.

JB could bat at five anyway. Mushfiqur does for BD, captains the side and averaged 54.5 over the past 18 months which is ten more than JB. He has one fewer ton in a quarter of the games.

[KipperJohn]

Judging by how Root used Ali in Melbourne, it seems that he does not see him as an option with the ball. If the captain has no confidence in his bowling, then he should not be in the team.

Can we name the pundits that said Ali was as good as Lyon? Was Swann one of them?

Isn’t it also the task of the captain to try and instill confidence, especially in one who has been a proven match winner?

Setting a positive, attacking field for Moeen might just have yielded something. A couple of wickets and the confidence , rhythm etc can come flooding back .Cook for example,has had some awful periods of form over his career, but they’ve ‘ kept the faith’ - he’s never been dropped from the Test side to my knowledge. Steve Smith drops 2 chances he would normally take and Cook is suddenly rejuvenated. Spreading the field to your main spinner when trying to win the game on the final day is just sapping every ounce of positive thought from the player. Root himself demonstrated that you can take a lucky wicket - if that had been Moeen who knows?

[yuppie]

You would hope that on the 5th day of a test the captain would indeed set out attacking fields for his spinner to give him the chance to influence the game. Especially with a good lead secured.

The Jurys out on Root. Certainly he has the pre prepared sound bites when interviewed. Smith seems to give his views openly and is much more interesting to listen to. Perhaps at present Smith has the better players to work with, so can be more relaxed.

[Durhamfootman]

Isn’t it also the task of the captain to try and instill confidence, especially in one who has been a proven match winner?

Setting a positive, attacking field for Moeen might just have yielded something. A couple of wickets and the confidence , rhythm etc can come flooding back

perhaps now that the whitewash is no longer a possibility, he might just do that. SCG usually helps spinners a bit more than the others doesn't it?

[meninblue]

Any team will require at least one specialist bowler. England were taking the big risk with Moeen Ali. In spite of being a non specialist spinner he bowled some match winning spells. But it is asking too much form a non specialist spinner to bowl as many overs as a specialist spinner, whilst choking runs at least if not while picking wickets. Swann and Monty were quality. Swann had the drift which is rare to see from a England spinner and Monty had the advantage of bounce accompanied by sharp turn.England need to develop a specialist spinner.

Spin bowlers in India (especially the left arm spinners) are made to bowl longer spells than right hand spinners right from club level. The amount of spin overs they bowl is enormous right from club cricket to domestic to international matches. That kind of workload may not be possible in England given that pace bowlers may run through the opposition line up before ball is good enough for spinners to grip at the seam as well as turn. Also the wet out field due to rains may not help spinners to bowl so much. The wickets too may not favor the spinners much. But something needs to be done, a way has to be found out to build a spin culture.

India had similar problems with pace bowling, however, now due to various strategies, the pace bowling attack has been strengthened in terms of decent options as well as improvement in pace. So major overhauls are possible, if there is a good plan.

[rich1uk]

ICC have rated the pitch from this game as poor which means the MCG is at risk of not being able to host tests if another poor rating happens

[Dr Cricket]

nice a flat pitch is finally been rated poor by the icc.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Happened at Trent Bridge for England v India.

[Dr Cricket]

Happened at Trent Bridge for England v India.

yeah it did, looks like the common factor is that both teams need to complain about the pitch.
although not sure I like it that the result need to be a draw before the pitches get reported or even complained about.
thought the 2016 edgbaston game was just as bad as the trent bridge game but the pakistan collapse and england snatching a victory made people forget about the 2-3 bad days of cricket there.
likewise all of UAE pitches are dreadful.

[andy]

Im glad the pitch got marked down...can't stand drop in pitches! complete waste of time and most of the time, kills the contest!