OT Ashes

[60YearsAPie]

Apparently some doubts about the fitness of Anderson, Ball and Moheen. I thought that Broad dodged the question of Anderson’s fitness really well when he was interviewed.

[Elite_Pie]

Three times in this game England have worked themselves into a position of dominance - 246/4 when batting, and reducing them to 76/4 then 209/7 when bowling. Three times they've allowed the Aussies to regain the initiative. Unfortunately, I think we'll end up paying the price for not pressing on when we had the chance.

[Notts78]

Smith was sensational. No one can blame the bowling for that.
My concern was with how our batting collapsed from 250/4 in our first innings. That was pivotal for me as if me had got 400 like we should have, an England loss was all but impossible.

[legs77]

In my view it’s going to come down to who has the best bowling attack and it is clearly Australia if Jimmy is injured we might as well return home Monday.

If Ball and Moeen are injured as well then that is shocking selecting them too risky put it this way lose next week and Ashes are gone as we aren’t winning in Perth it’s been a mess from the moment we set off ECB messing about with Stokes issue offering no clarity at all.

Plunkett should be in our squad as he is a better bowler than Ball Garton and Curran.

I can see another 5-0

[Observerpie]

I have big doubts about Cooke these days, it's been a long time since he hit three figures against Australia or South Africa, teams where pace bowling is their main weapon. The bowling, Anderson and Broad apart, looks lightweight and somebody like Plunkett could beef that up.
Spin bowling is a dilemna, we pick Moeen because he can bat but he wasn't getting anything like the turn that Lyons got, the concern if we replace him with Crane is the already weak tail. The other option is to replace Ball or Woakes with him, leaving us with three seamers and this shows where we miss Stokes. Can't see us getting much, if anything, from this series I'm afraid.

[Elite_Pie]

So the concerns many of us had about the England squad proved to be true - we just don't have the batsmen to score enough runs, and we don't have the mental strength to take control of the game when the opportunity arises, as it did three times in this test. The latter is the more worrying because this isn't a particularly good Australian team, but they won this game at a canter.

[jackal2]

England's batting has been the weakness for so many years now. That's not to say we haven't had some talented individuals, but not enough of them at any one time. We need a couple of batsmen who can just drop anchor (Boycott style) and not give their wickets away, even if they aren't scoring at a great pace. It would provide the foundations for a good innings. With our batting line-up, even when we get a good partnership going, you know that if one wicket falls there will probably be several. It's not a problem unique to us though. Many teams now seem to have players unable to cope with the longer form of the game where you have to wait for the right ball rather than try to play a stroke all the time. Pyjama cricket has done a lot of damage.

[queenslandpie]

So the concerns many of us had about the England squad proved to be true - we just don't have the batsmen to score enough runs, and we don't have the mental strength to take control of the game when the opportunity arises, as it did three times in this test. The latter is the more worrying because this isn't a particularly good Australian team, but they won this game at a canter.

From an ability point of view one man was the difference in the first 3 and a half days. From an attitude point of view there is a huge gulf. There is little to choose between these 2 sides in terms of ability but the gulf in attitude is huge. England should be ashamed of themselves. Absolutely disgraceful to let Australia win by 10 wickets from the position they were in. Just goes to show as we know with Nolan one man can make all the difference!

[Notts78]

England's batting has been the weakness for so many years now. That's not to say we haven't had some talented individuals, but not enough of them at any one time. We need a couple of batsmen who can just drop anchor (Boycott style) and not give their wickets away, even if they aren't scoring at a great pace. It would provide the foundations for a good innings. With our batting line-up, even when we get a good partnership going, you know that if one wicket falls there will probably be several. It's not a problem unique to us though. Many teams now seem to have players unable to cope with the longer form of the game where you have to wait for the right ball rather than try to play a stroke all the time. Pyjama cricket has done a lot of damage.

‘Pyjama cricket’ has done what?
The best 2 teams in world cricket, Australia and India have some of the best players that play in all formats. Warner and Smith would not agree with you. Unless of course you think our best players don’t play enough PJ cricket?

[jackal2]

‘Pyjama cricket’ has done what?
The best 2 teams in world cricket, Australia and India have some of the best players that play in all formats. Warner and Smith would not agree with you. Unless of course you think our best players don’t play enough PJ cricket?

I'm saying the quality of all (or certainly most) Test match teams have been damaged by PJ cricket. The best Test teams now are not as strong as they were a couple of decades ago. Australia's batting may be good enough to beat us at present, but it is nowhere near as good as it was the likes of Boon and Border were around. They knew how to stay in and play long innings. You just don't see (as) many batsmen these days who are able to strike the right balance between playing shots and protecting their wicket. That's not to say players twenty years ago didn't play flair shots, but they knew how to be patient and wait for the bad ball, rather than forcing play.

I understand the commercial realities that 20/20 cricket is where the money is to be made, and that it does appeal to younger spectators and gets them interested in the game, so we're never going to go back, but it definitely has diminished the quality of the longer format.