The ****ers don't really want to be there. We'd get thrashed enough as it is. Throw that into the mix and it's obvious we will face further thrashing.
Why do we never play any warm up games these days - I know that the weather was against us during the match against the Lions and Covid probably meant that we couldn't do a mini tour in Aus, but surely it is not beyond us to come up with something to get match sharp. I didn't bother staying up for it but sadly was not remotely surprised when I read the score this morning. It's a long way back from here.
Watched the 1st hour, was starting to think about risking it until 2am. Then Stokes got out. That was enough for me Popped a cheeky tenner on England to get bowled out for sub-150 at 15/8 so happy days
Burns can get hoiked out for starters. Grab someone from the Lions actually with a pair of balls, and a bat.
His technique is dreadful but it does sometimes get him runs. Quite where his front foot was going for that delivery I'm not entirely sure. Wouldn't be panicking just yet but this is a big series for him....
Have to say that this is the first Ashes series since the early sixties, (when I was too young to know what was happening), that I have almost no interest in. Q England would lose to this Australian team almost every time anyway down under, but this is being played purely for the TV rights. NO cricket for months, no warm up matches, stuffed mostly in hotels and so on, potentially no crowds at some games, and some players clearly travelling there reluctantly. On top of that English cricket is not only in a deep transitional period, it is going through it without any direction. You can live with that, but I have no confidence in Giles and Silverwood doing anything other than keep their jobs for as long as they can. They were just the guys nearest the last two chairs when the music stopped. The selection of the squad said enough really. Honestly, can any cricket fan think that Saqib Mahmood is not good enough to get into that squad? This morning's news was no shock at all and England will be doing rain dances all tour long if they want to avoid another 5-0.
We still, atm of writing, do not have any test match batting openers.... I was never a big fan of one G Boycott but we certainly could do with his like in the team now. If the openers do not give a decent start of the innings, it gets very hard for those following.
Our batting has been **** for years. Don't know why anyone is surprised by last night it's been collapse after collapse for the last God knows how many years. If Root fails England fail even sometimes when Root goes well we still fail as he runs out of partners. Only test batsmen we have who are good enough in my opinion is Root and at times Stokes. Burns Malan and Buttler may come good however Buttler has been stop start for a long time. Other than that our batting is wick