5th day pitch .. decent bowling .. and a few flawed techniques .. though Roy and Denley did well to stay there as long as they did tbh .. but Roy needs to sharpen his technique up and close the gap he creates to survive at this level .. Stokes was unlucky trying to leave one .. and Denley got a horrible one from Lyon so dont see how we are giving wickets away ... just a combination of the three things I mentioned at the top
I know our batting is dreadful but I get some consolation from knowing we've been without Jimmy Anderson all series. I don't think Aus would have scored so freely if he'd been fit.
Ah well, always next time. Now, about the Wigan game... Hey, it's always time to open the booze, celebrate or comiserate it's all the same to me.
In a sense, I'm happy we lost... The exploits of Stokes and a few cameo performances have papered over the cracks of the worst English batting lineup I've ever seen. If we want to be a force in test cricket then we need a complete rethink here. Root is not a good enough captain. He walks into the side as a batsman but the captaincy and moving to three to try to solve that problem has ruined him. Bowlers? Yes they are magnificent at times but too often when it really matters they go missing as a unit. Smith's a freak. Without him it would have been a different story but we need to address the problem from within, not look for reasons beyond our control.
Listenting to a report on the radio, An Aussie commentator said that Smith would walk into an all time Aussie side alongside Bradman as the opener. He also pointed out that like any team, in any sport where they know the coach is leaving, it all becomes a little unravelled. But as Ernie said there has to be a major overhaul, Root needs the captaincy taken away and I think it will be a while before we are a force again. The county game is so apologetic, I dont see where the next Englands stars might come from..
I was on a cruise around the Med when we lost the first test. I can honestly say that all of the Aussies on the boat I spoke to were fantastic. The banter was light hearted and there was no arrogance or nastiness, just the kind of piss taking you’d expect. They gave it and took it in good spirits. Makes you wonder where they get their cricketers from because they appear to be the polar opposite. Absolute arseholes.
Tbf that's pretty much spot on ... Roots captaincy has been very poor and I do believe its effected his batting .. too many of this unit have one day mode in their head .. seems the art of defense has been lost. Let us not forget we were lacking Anderson and Wood who I'm sure would have made a bit of difference .. I would certainly look at Foakes for Bairstow at least for the next game .. we need a back up to Archer and Broad as third pace bowler not reliant on Stokes .. who seems to have buggered his shoulder anyway .. and despite Leach's heroics with the bat he ain't a test class spinner. As for the batsmen were do you start .. the majority of their techniques have been born out of the one day game, and just dont stand up to the rigours of the test arena .. it's called a 'test' match for a reason and for the large part they have failed.