Thoughts on the next Test Squad

[Valentines Park]

Is it too early to initiate a 'sack Smith' campaign?!

Smith is a toffee nose ex Kent player who will no doubt select that other toffee nose ex Kent player when his finger gets better.

So you might be a tad premature in your case. 

[JasonP]

Is it too early to initiate a 'sack Smith' campaign?!
What message does this send to players when Buttler is selected on the back of no recent 4 day cricket or form as a replacement for Vince who just scored 200+ in a lot of balls?!!!!!!!!!

That he rates Buttler higher than Vince?

[JasonP]

Stoneman is bang average   

To be fair he used to be effing useless so he has improved.

Yet when he was scoring runs for fun people kept wanting to get him into the team. Leach'injury probably threw a spanner in the works. I am surprised that they didn't go back to Ali.

Maybe Bairstow will be at 3 Buttler around 7. Can't see the two keepers being picked if they weren't both going to play.

Both will play I'm sure with Buttler at 7.  Either Woakes/Wood or Bess wont play.  According to Dobell on cricinfo Malan will bat at 3.

After talking to Smith he's now saying Root will be at 3

[Andy]

Let's face it, there's perhaps 6 inevitables, the rest is a case of 'perm any five from...'

Pity for the likes of Hildreth who'll never get picked now. Maybe Bess is better off carrying the drinks. The Ali experiment has ended - ironically as he'd probably do well with the bat down the order.

[Valentines Park]

Pity for the likes of Hildreth who'll never get picked now.

He's a contemporary of Chef so he's had well over a decade to figure.

Rather him than Northeast though.   

[pablo]

So the selectors only response to the Lords debacle is to recall Keaton Jennings. Ye Gods ! One would have thought for once that some radical surgery was needed and if that means blooding lots of kids then so be it they couldn't do much worse. I would seriously consider bringing in Tongue, Clarke, Gubbins,Helm, even Sam Cook based on current form alongside Lawrence. Wells of Sussex is another I would consider, as I would Pope and Brook of Yorkshire. I see no reason for playing Broad again and we might have to bite the bullet regarding Anderson and Cook too. There are risks - 'You don't win ought with kids ( C. Allen Hansen) but we have to do something.

Of course the issues run a lot deeper - most of it leading back to Graves and the ECB. It's funny how Test cricket is apparently becoming an irrelevance and yet a defeat like this concentrates the mind of the Press and indeed the sporting public at large. Not something we would see or care about if we lost to say New Zealand in a 20:20 international.

[nat]

Test cricket  = a 5 course meal in a fine restaurant.

20-20/ODI cricket  = a snack at McDonalds.

[LeedsExile]

The England team are said to be underperforming consistently. Perhaps they are performing precisely as instructed by some Asian bookmakers? I have run out of other theories as to why they are so bad.

[Andy]

The England team are said to be underperforming consistently. Perhaps they are performing precisely as instructed by some Asian bookmakers? I have run out of other theories as to why they are so bad.

I thought the same thing....then I thought "why waste money brining England to play badly?"

[IlfordEagle]

Dropping Stoneman is the right action, Jennings is now back in form & probably deserves another chance, don't really know who else to bring in. One other area of concern is Captaincy, Root is struggling & the Press will turn on him soon like they do eventually on all Captains. A strange decision to bring in Wood on a wicket not renowned for extreme pace, Woakes would have been a better option & he can bat, Bess did ok & deserves more chances, although Anderson is still our top bowler he will be near 37 for next year's Ashes & we have to think about his successor sooner rather than later especially if he gets injured or breaks down or loses form,slightly less in Broad's case as he is 2/3 years younger.

[Oldhasbeen]

Agree with dropping Stoneman for Jennings. The former looks mentally shot while the latter is in good form. Jennings looked awful against the saffers last year but has really worked at his game and looked a different batsman when I saw him make a one-day ton on the box last week, far less rigid and with much better head position and foot movement. He deserves another go, although Gubbins has every right to feel disappointed (again).

Given the awfulness of our performance, however, it must have been tempting to make more changes. Steve Waugh famously said that fielding is an insight into the soul of a team - if he's right, our lot look destined for the pits of hell. I don't always agree with Michael Vaughan, but his suggestion of dropping Broad is, I think, a good one, not least to start shaking things up.

IMHO we are paying the price for the over-conservative NZ selection this winter. We should have been  bringing in more new blood then and looking to the future.

One more bad performance and it will have to be time for some serious, high-risk, butchery. Another "learn some lessons" and "keep the faith£ sermon form Root and I am going to scream.

[Oldhasbeen]

Excellent article by Simon Hughes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/44281297

"Any batsman bowled between bat and pad should be made to do community service" - Spot on.

[LeedsExile]

I have never understood why people speak so highly of Mark Wood. Speed alone is pretty ineffective if you cannot bowl straight. His record is pretty poor.

[Andy]

I have never understood why people speak so highly of Mark Wood. Speed alone is pretty ineffective if you cannot bowl straight. His record is pretty poor.

Then we go in with 4 seamers all chugging away at the same speed and wonder why we don't do well! However, the issue is we've gone back to square one with our spinners, we keep picking Broad who comes off periodically and our top order batting is so poor as well.  If you persevere with certain strategies (e.g. a failed opener who can bowl a bit of spin being used at 8 to bail out the top order; giving the captaincy to our one decent batsman; picking a coach who's completely in the dark about the English game and/or Test cricket) then when these don't/no longer come off then we look in a right muddle.  We could do with a Border type captain.

[nat]

Agree that Broad should be dropped. Increasingly ineffective and a barack room lawyer. Give Wood one more chance. Give me an 80mph bowler who moves the ball over a 90mph pie thrower anyday.