Second Test: England v Pakistan, Headingley

[sussexpob]

Not surprised Stokes is crocked considering he has not played a great deal of cricket in recent months. Would have been better off building strength and fitness playing County Championship cricket instead of the IPL circus.

Does a lot of boxing in his spare time, so he should be fit as a fiddle.

[captaincolly]

Not surprised Stokes is crocked considering he has not played a great deal of cricket in recent months. Would have been better off building strength and fitness playing County Championship cricket instead of the IPL circus.

Does a lot of boxing in his spare time, so he should be fit as a fiddle.

[sussexpob]

I think Root will be Englands Mark Waugh

I look forward to Root becoming decidedly average for much of the rest of his career, while the other 10 men in the team largely become legends of the game and England dominate.

[Gingerfinch]

I think Root will be Englands Mark Waugh

I look forward to Root becoming decidedly average for much of the rest of his career, while the other 10 men in the team largely become legends of the game and England dominate.

Don't think any of those three will happen, sussex !!!

[sussexpob]

I am not convinced by Root as Captain, but there isnt any other players around. I think its hard to criticise his batting, if he makes 50s like he does, so be it. Scores are scores. Some people will argue big scores win matches, but if you average 52 and arent making big scores, it means you are contributing a lot. England dont need 200s at the moment, they need players who can at least put something on the board to get them competitive.

Eoin Morgan seems a good skip. Shame he cant bat at test level, but then again he performed better than this lot...

[bigfluffylemon]

If everyone in the top 7 batted like Root, England would put up 350+ every test.

His failure to convert is annoying, but the least of our worries when none of our other batsmen even pass 30 on a regular basis.

[Arthur Crabtree]

On being told he was being criticised for bowling short, James Anderson got his medals out and said that he has a lot of Test wickets and he knows better than the public what lengths to bowl.

Anderson averages 27.3 at a SR of 56. But Waqar Younis said that Anderson got his lengths wrong, and he averages 23.6 with a SR of 43. So what should I think now and who should I believe?

[Slipstream]

On being told he was being criticised for bowling short, James Anderson got his medals out and said that he has a lot of Test wickets and he knows better than the public what lengths to bowl.

Anderson averages 27.3 at a SR of 56. But Waqar Younis said that Anderson got his lengths wrong, and he averages 23.6 with a SR of 43. So what should I think now and who should I believe?

The last two years 84 wickets at 22.02.
All bowlers bowl differently and take the wickets in different ways.
Akram and Younis 28.7% + 29.5% lbws
Steyn 15% Ambrose 12.8 Donald 12.4 Anderson 13.5 lbws

[bigfluffylemon]

On being told he was being criticised for bowling short, James Anderson got his medals out and said that he has a lot of Test wickets and he knows better than the public what lengths to bowl.

Anderson averages 27.3 at a SR of 56. But Waqar Younis said that Anderson got his lengths wrong, and he averages 23.6 with a SR of 43. So what should I think now and who should I believe?

Jimmy does have a point. In the last couple of years he's gone IMO from a very good bowler to a contender for the all-time England XI and a bona-fide great. It's hard to compare across eras, but he's our best fast bowler of the last 30 years, no question.

[sussexpob]

Jimmy clearly has a bit of an ego to be carried aorund the dressing room, and I am not a huge fan of comments like the ones posted above as sometimes people do know whats best for you and its a tad arrogant to suggest you are infallible because of past records ; then again, I think when you are one of the few players in a team actually justifying what you are doing with performance, and very long term and consistent quality performances, I think I would have probably nailed Michael Vaughan to a wall by the balls if he had said I should be dropped in a team of absolute flops.

[sussexpob]

It did tickle me that Andy Flower's coaching return ended in a massive thumping for his World XI yesterday. Go Andy! Got to love the fact that he wants to bring the hands on approach back to English cricket team management according to his manifesto, then in the lead up to his first test match in the role, buggers off all week to manage a showpiece side in a friendly match. I would suggest that its ok for him to do that, hard worker and all.... but then again he did complain before that he had too much to do, and ended up picking and choosing what he did. Also has form suggesting players shouldnt take time out of test match preparations to play T20 cricket, but I guess its ok for some Andy, isnt it.

[sussexpob]

Obviously we are all praying Ben wakes up and his leg is miraculously healed. Sam Curran has scored a best of 19 runs in 4 matches this season, sounds like just the tonic for a team struggling to score runs. I think only this current England team with batting disaster a plenty would even consider replacing their number 6 with an out of form lower order bowling allrounder. If anything, England need to go with 3 full time bowlers and 8 batsman, at least then they might score enough runs to take it to a 5th day.

It might be nothing, but Mr Flower called up Sam to his World XI team this week, so hes obviously a fan. A day or two later, Sam was being piloted into the England team despite his selection making not a jot of sense.

I wonder who is picking the team.

It was Flower who was so vocal about his brother Tom. Think he once claimed that he was the future of English seam bowling...... 2 wickets for a 100 each, wasnt it?

[Arthur Crabtree]

Also has form suggesting players shouldnt take time out of test match preparations to play T20 cricket, but I guess its ok for some Andy, isnt it.

[sussexpob]

Also has form suggesting players shouldnt take time out of test match preparations to play T20 cricket, but I guess its ok for some Andy, isnt it.

You just wanted this repeated?

[Arthur Crabtree]

Sorry, I meant to say, good point.