Antigua Test

[pablo]

Graves and others have prioritised white ball cricket. The players prioritise white ball cricket. The domestic season is prioritised around it and will soon be more so. You get what you sow ( and something tells me we won't win the World Cup either !)

[Andy]

Graves and others have prioritised white ball cricket. The players prioritise white ball cricket. The domestic season is prioritised around it and will soon be more so. You get what you sow ( and something tells me we won't win the World Cup either !)

Yes. I fear that we'll end up with neither Ashes or WC trophies...frankly, I would be quite happy.  It's got to the stage that Graves and the ECB are a huge threat to the longer term future of the game. The only way to get rid of them is to show the (bad) fruits of their policies.

[IlfordEagle]

Roll on the time when Jofra Archer can play for Eng in both red & white ball cricket, he is quick & can bat & also fields well, I cannot understand why Ben Coad isn't near the Eng team yet, he is at least Porter's equal but again cannot bat. Bailey too is decent & can't be far away.

[JasonP]

Roll on the time when Jofra Archer can play for Eng in both red & white ball cricket, he is quick & can bat & also fields well, I cannot understand why Ben Coad isn't near the Eng team yet, he is at least Porter's equal but again cannot bat. Bailey too is decent & can't be far away.

He's not that quick, about the same pace as Porter.  He has the same problem Porter does in that they're unlikely to play in the same team as Anderson.  They may play in England but not abroad.

[JasonP]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/47175439

Jennings back.  He must be the luckiest player in England history.  His record against anything other than spin is horrible.  Honestly Mickleburgh would be no worse!

Harsh on Foakes but it's the best balance to the side having Bairstow back in the middle order and keeping.  We need to pick a specialist opener and number 3 next summer to go with Burns. 

[jwb]

I think I’ll sleep on the suggestion of Mickleburgh being no worse

[JasonP]

I think I’ll sleep on the suggestion of Mickleburgh being no worse

https://inews.co.uk/sport/cricket/england-cricket-west-indies-stats-keaton-jennings-jonny-bairstow/

Keaton Jennings’s average against pace bowling in Tests sunk a little further to 16.9 – the worst pace-average of the 197 top-six batsmen who have faced seam in 20 or more innings since 2001

It's impossible to average much worse than 16.9!
No team is going to be stupid enough to bowl spin at him again.

[jwb]

I bet Jaik could have given it a good go though

[Oldhasbeen]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/47175439

Jennings back.  He must be the luckiest player in England history.  His record against anything other than spin is horrible.  Honestly Mickleburgh would be no worse!

Harsh on Foakes but it's the best balance to the side having Bairstow back in the middle order and keeping.  We need to pick a specialist opener and number 3 next summer to go with Burns.

I'd rather we dropped Buttler. We've got too many dashers, Foakes is a more orthodox  bat, and our best keeper.

I assume Woakes isn't fit, otherwise surely he'd be ahead of Curran for this one?

[Andy]

I think I’ll sleep on the suggestion of Mickleburgh being no worse

https://inews.co.uk/sport/cricket/england-cricket-west-indies-stats-keaton-jennings-jonny-bairstow/

Keaton Jennings’s average against pace bowling in Tests sunk a little further to 16.9 – the worst pace-average of the 197 top-six batsmen who have faced seam in 20 or more innings since 2001

It's impossible to average much worse than 16.9!
No team is going to be stupid enough to bowl spin at him again.

Clearly we need to bat Keaton at 8. Perhaps he can job share with Moeen Ali.

Snowflake generation brought up on flat tracks in white ball cricket where there’s no seam. Take away their PlayStations and get them focused upon books. Perhaps a tome or two about how to bat for 10 days at a time by the late lamented Geoffrey Truman.

[Oldhasbeen]

"It's impossible to average much worse than 16.9!"

Well, KJ's average against seam is even lower now after eight of the most torturous runs in Test Match history. An I'll wager that his average will drop even further after his next, and final, Test innings.

I do feel sorry for the guy, by all accounts he works extremely hard at his game but he just doesn't have the ability.

There's a good, and grimly amusing, analysis of KJ's woes on cricbuzz:

https://www.cricbuzz.com/cricket-news/106609/england-tour-of-west-indies-cricket-the-curious-case-of-keaton-jennings

[Andy]

I'm a little fed up with the KJ kicking.  Clearly he has problems against the new ball with anything above fast medium.  Clearly, bringing him back in for this match was not ideal for him and I appreciate that not all are kicking him specifically, but when you have Ali who was once an opener but also fills his pants rather than his boots when faced with a little chin music down at 8 and Johnny Bairstow going a bit, well, loco you do wonder what's going on in Ed Smith's (apparently) huge brain.

Chef's rather clueless point about the better selection for this test suggests that he perhaps shouldn't be commentating on a team that he is too close to - we don't want Boycottesque moronic criticisms, but some realism. 

Pound to a penny Chef will be back for England this season...either that or he'll drop out of the game altogether as he's so insightful - plus he's probably worked out that its money for old rope. 

[JasonP]

I'm a little fed up with the KJ kicking.  Clearly he has problems against the new ball with anything above fast medium.  Clearly, bringing him back in for this match was not ideal for him and I appreciate that not all are kicking him specifically, but when you have Ali who was once an opener but also fills his pants rather than his boots when faced with a little chin music down at 8 and Johnny Bairstow going a bit, well, loco you do wonder what's going on in Ed Smith's (apparently) huge brain.

Chef's rather clueless point about the better selection for this test suggests that he perhaps shouldn't be commentating on a team that he is too close to - we don't want Boycottesque moronic criticisms, but some realism. 

Pound to a penny Chef will be back for England this season...either that or he'll drop out of the game altogether as he's so insightful - plus he's probably worked out that its money for old rope.

The selection is better.  Others have said similar including Atherton.  The side looks better balanced and atleast this time the top 3 managed to bat 30 overs to set a platform for Buttler and Stokes rather than them coming in after 10 overs.  They obviously don't have the right personnel on the tour and need better than Jennings and Denly but picking people in their right positions is a start.

[nat]

I'm a little fed up with the KJ kicking.  Clearly he has problems against the new ball with anything above fast medium.  Clearly, bringing him back in for this match was not ideal for him and I appreciate that not all are kicking him specifically, but when you have Ali who was once an opener but also fills his pants rather than his boots when faced with a little chin music down at 8 and Johnny Bairstow going a bit, well, loco you do wonder what's going on in Ed Smith's (apparently) huge brain.

Chef's rather clueless point about the better selection for this test suggests that he perhaps shouldn't be commentating on a team that he is too close to - we don't want Boycottesque moronic criticisms, but some realism. 

Pound to a penny Chef will be back for England this season...either that or he'll drop out of the game altogether as he's so insightful - plus he's probably worked out that its money for old rope.

Agree. Apparently KJ has a father (Ray Jennings ex SA) who is rather demanding. May explain his intense/stiff approach to batting.

[Andy]

The selection is better.  Others have said similar including Atherton.  The side looks better balanced and atleast this time the top 3 managed to bat 30 overs to set a platform for Buttler and Stokes rather than them coming in after 10 overs.  They obviously don't have the right personnel on the tour and need better than Jennings and Denly but picking people in their right positions is a start.

I agree the selection of the squad leaves little room for manoeuvre. However Foakes is a better bat that KJ, yet is brought back immediately.