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

Feels odd if Hales is not opening.

The double Gilchrist plan-? Two opening keepers.

Buttler likes it at the top after the IPL.

16 innings 700 runs at 50.00 6 50s HS 95* s/r 160.92

Hales 31.65 s/r 133.82
Roy 19.19 s/r 133.85
Bairstow never opened - no 3 s/r 147.29

Isn't that two batters who haven't opened in a T20I being preferred to one of the best T20I openers around? Roy could be dropped (he's not done as well in T20Is) and one of JB1/2 bat at the top.

From memory, Bairstow hasn't been in the T20 side much.

My side (ideally Stokes and Woakes would be at 6&8):

Hales/Bairstow/Root/Buttler/Morgan/Moeen/Willey/S.Curran/Plunkett/Rashid/Jordan

T.Curran/Roy/Ball.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Feels odd if Hales is not opening.

Not sure he should be playing at all. It's been a few years since he passed 50 in international T20s. Roy's recent record isn't too good either.

Good to hear that Buttler is set to open. Personally I'd have looked at him opening with Malan, but he's been dropped from the squad.

01 Buttler 02 Malan 03 Bairstow 04 Root 05 Morgan 06 Stokes 07 Ali 08 Willey 09 Plunkett 10 Rashid 11 Wood

Though I'm not sure we need to put Root in there. He can play very quickly, but can also get bogged down - see annual strike rates: 142 in 2015 and 2016, just 102 last year albeit only from 4 games. You could easily move Morgan, Stokes and Ali up. But then who plays 7? Another bowler is overkill. A batsman wouldn't have much of a role.

andy wrote:I don't know why they are so hesitant to try Foakes?

It's not that they're hesitant to try Foakes, it's that they're hesitant to take the gloves from Bairstow when he's doing a good job. Though Foakes has a good enough record to be considered as a specialist batsman.

Fair enough about Hales over the past three years, his record isn't much better than Roy's. Can't really carp about England's decisions in white ball, as they have been so successful, and really transformed themselves under Bayliss/Morgan. Here are England's batting stats in the last three years.

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

However, if England open to open with JB1&2 they would look pretty strange with Hales and Roy in the middle order. This is the side cricinfo predicts, which looks a bowler light to me. And they've got JB2 at 5.

1 Jos Buttler, 2 Jason Roy, 3 Alex Hales, 4 Joe Root, 5 Jonny Bairstow, 6 Eoin Morgan (capt), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Jordan, 9 Liam Plunkett, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 David Willey

Still it's just T20. Just a bit of fun, right!?

Shame we don’t have the same luxuries at Test level.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:And they've got JB2 at 5.

JB1 at five! So hard to remember.

Should be a pleasant evening in leafy Edgbaston with the current heatwave and the warm thermals currently elevating English limited overs cricket to unprecedented heights. Nice evening for a cold drink and to take off your jacket after work and feel the heat of the sun fade away into a purple sunset. Would be nice to be there. But I'm going to see a play so I won't even get to follow it on cricinfo while standing next to an open window.

1 Aaron Finch (capt), 2 D'Arcy Short, 3 Travis Head, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Nic Maddinson, 6 Alex Carey (wk), 7 Ashton Agar, 8 Marcus Stoinis/Mitchell Swepson 9 Kane Richardson, 10 Andrew Tye, 11 Billy Stanlake

Cricket Australia isn't taking its responsibilities towards climate change very seriously if it has flown Maddinson and Mitch4 out for a standalone T20!

The Aussies also have someone called Jack Wildermuth along with them, as well as Jhye Richardson

another win

it'll be interesting to see how they get on when they square up to India

Looking at Stokes in T20 over the last 3 years - 13 games 13.22 HS 35, bowling 8 wickets at 46.12 econ 8.64. Definitely should be in the ODI team though.
He returns and someone drops out. Who? Why did Morgan move himself above Root?
Top 4 Batting Buttler Roy Bairstow Hales

Stokes re-called for India ODI'S no suprise there...big call as to who he comes back in for though...

andy wrote:Stokes re-called for India ODI'S no suprise there...big call as to who he comes back in for though...

Hales

certainly one of the batsmen rather than one of the bowlers. They surely can't leave themselves having only Root to rely on if a bowler is getting tonked or gets an injury

I think Hales too, unless they want to rest/rotate or otherwise manage the workload of the all format players

Was looking at the last series we played India in England - funny series, Cook takes a wicket and Anderson gets 81 at TB and Sharma bounces England out at Lords
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/england-v ... ype=series

Ali had a great time 19 wickets at 23.00. Is it going to be Ali or Bess for Tests? Suppose we will see how Ali goes in the ODIs.
Most wickets in the 6 white ball games will be Rashid, Ali, Chahal and K Yadav.