2021 Team

[mawallace]

I missed it until today.  It was part of the Glamorgan match pack, which I usually ignore.

Found it - like you it was at the bottom of the match pack - I usually ignore them too!

[Reddevil]

Geoff Boycott has today written a typically forthright scathing but oh so true indictment of England’s young batsmen, Lawrence included, and more importantly criticising heavily the quality of coachingl

It is a compelling read, one which every budding County batsman should read. Fellow contributors to this board will agree will everything he states.

Whatever we think of Boycott he could bat a bit and knows his cricket inside out.

As he now has  retired from commentating, he has offered his services to every County Club, tongue in cheek not sure, but I am sure his advice would improve batsmanship significantly.

I bet he gets no takers. Sad or what.

[dazedpenguin]

Looks like the same squad for tonight's game, so no Chopra again and Wheater still out. I'd guess RTD will come in for Khushi, but there has to be a case for playing both of them and leaving out a seamer.

All of which is probably shuffling deck chairs this season.

[JasonP]

Looks like the same squad for tonight's game, so no Chopra again and Wheater still out. I'd guess RTD will come in for Khushi, but there has to be a case for playing both of them and leaving out a seamer.

All of which is probably shuffling deck chairs this season.

No idea why Lawrence can't play.  In the last two days he has done 10 overs fielding.  There's no more Test matches for ages.

[Can the Can]

Chopra didn't play in the second 11 T20 game yesterday or the one before that. His last second 11 T20 game was on the 8th June. The fact that he's not even featuring for the seconds makes me think he might be injured, either that or he's persona non grata.

I don't think many people would claim Chopra to be the solution to all our T20 ills but members do at least deserve to be informed as to why he's not playing at all at the moment.

[nat]

If VC was injured I'd have expected the club to say so. The fact that they have not suggests something else is going on.

[vim]

At one time you would know who was a non person and not just injured or ill. When they were spotted undertaking the duties of crawling to the Corporate guests at Colchester. In September if the parking place sign at Chelmsford with the players name on it had disappeared that was also a giveaway.

[JasonP]

Looks like the same squad for tonight's game, so no Chopra again and Wheater still out. I'd guess RTD will come in for Khushi, but there has to be a case for playing both of them and leaving out a seamer.

All of which is probably shuffling deck chairs this season.

No idea why Lawrence can't play.  In the last two days he has done 10 overs fielding.  There's no more Test matches for ages.

Bracey played for Gloucestershire 2nds today, Crawley is in the Kent squad for tonight and Lawrence not playing for Essex.  Why?

[kingstonj1]

Have to assume personal choice?

Also doesn't seem to be any domestic T20 on sky tonight oddly.

As an aside been told the club haven't managed to sell out tonight and now on general sale?

[vim]

As I am now a non member at present I received an e mail advising that tickets for tonight are on general sale.

[bwildered]

 Club selling tickets live on website for tonight’s match.
 So does that mean the extra 200 did not go to ballot or have they not selling extra on ballot due to not enough applicants ?

[Slogger]

The process was offer the 200 firstly to members who had included this fixture in their ballot application, then to all members yesterday and to the public today. Given the forecast and England v Scotland I didn't bother with Friday. Now sat in the park waiting to go into my first T20 at Chelmsford in over a decade!

[ytsejam1]

We cant score runs so once again we choose FIVE specialist bowlers + allrounder Neesham plus Tendo and Walter (who were both bowlers when they started and have been regularly used in previous T20 campaigns) + Westley (who was a main one day spinner 2 or 3 years ago!!) Does this club never learn?!!

[Reddevil]

Watching Essex currently is not so much a question of whether they will win, as to the margin of defeat.

Once again tonight our batsman unable to dominate, admittedly a strong bowling side, strong side full stop, but the rate of scoring is never going to trouble our opponents.

As other board members have commented where was Lawrence tonight?

Is he injured if so the least the Club can do is tell us? There seems to be a worrying pattern of non transparency. Surely supporters should me made aware of selection issues caused by injuries.

If there are personality clashes, at the expense of team unity and morale, we can kiss goodby to any meaningful success in any format, for some time, based on our current performances.

Judging tonight’s performance Essex should be knocking hard on Boycott’s door, pleading with him to sort out what laughably are referred to as batsmen. Insult to the term.

I can’t even bring myself to keep checking the score. Too depressing.

I know how resilient we have been, but that seems a quality unrecognisable in this side.

If we somehow win this game, it will have been through superlative performances from our bowlers and a case of supreme over confidence by Sussex.

[JasonP]

We cant score runs so once again we choose FIVE specialist bowlers + allrounder Neesham plus Tendo and Walter (who were both bowlers when they started and have been regularly used in previous T20 campaigns) + Westley (who was a main one day spinner 2 or 3 years ago!!) Does this club never learn?!!

I genuinely can’t understand how Harmer can think he’s good enough to bat at number 7  behind such a poor batting side.  I presume he has a big impact on picking the team as it seemed to be him that dropped Chopra and demoted Ravi when he took over.  2019 was a glorious fluke but it seems to have persuaded the Essex management team that last year was a blip.  We haven’t had an even half decent t20 side since Grayson left.  We’ve won 3 home matches since the start of 2018.