See that The Other Notts national team well and truly messed it up.
See that The Other Notts national team well and truly messed it up.
You could argue the ECB dont give a sh*t now they have this pathetic Hundred to talk up.
England were a joke but there isnt much they can bring in as nobody is playing red ball so you have to gamble on Pope coming back from injury or pick someone who has been playing slog cricket.
India deserve to be 2-0 up its as simple as that.
You are making excuses for England’s short comings. When did the India side play all their red ball cricket? A couple of warm up games against county 2nd teams and an inter squad game. All were weeks ago.
I hate the Hundred. Passionately. Their is zero need to have a T20 and Hundred competitions. The 50 over cup has gone to rat **** as a result. In terms of the county game, those games are now being played at arguably the toughest times of year, when the weather isn’t great and tracks can be green and nibble more.
I love test cricket and all that it can bring. The 2nd test ebbed and flowed until England’s short comings were hugely exposed with both bat and ball.
I’m not making excuses at all I said we deserve to be 2-0 down and if it didn’t rain at Trent Bridge we would be.
My point is people keep saying drop XYZ but we are either going to have to go back to Crawley/Lawrence or pick players with no batting practice.
You are right India haven’t had much practice but being at home you “should” have the advantage of having a pool of players to select from but we don’t have that.
My honest view is it wouldn’t matter as India NZ and Aussies are much better than us but at least prepare properly.
I am very glad that all things being equal and as it stands, I will not have to endure the first test at the Gabba this year as it is going to be a whitewash of monolithic proportions. I have been to the last 4 and been humiliated enough at times with the odd courageous performance ( such as Cooks record stand, but also seen Peter Siddell's hat trick!).
The latest performance is indefensible. It looks like the national cricket team is managed by Neal Ardley relying on Callum for inspiration ( read Root).
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My honest view is it wouldn’t matter as India NZ and Aussies are much better than us but at least prepare properly.[/QUOTE]
I can’t agree that those countries are prepared better. We played India in India recently, whilst we were ‘preparing’ by playing some Indian school team the India side were still in Australia.
India have been in the UK since June. JUNE. In that time they have played 3 proper games, 2 v us and one v NZ. Other than that the players were again tasked with playing sub standard cricket.
The England players would have all the excuses in the book if that was them. India have got in with it.
I agree that those teams you mentioned are better than us. In white ball cricket we are the dominant country in World cricket. Yet the players that play in that can’t or won’t transfer their obvious talents to the longer format of red ball cricket. Our players should look no further than the Indian openers. Both excellent white ball batters. How have they got on in these 2 tests? Then you look at our openers…
None of this is new. It started when we started messing around “resting” our best players.
The confidence is shot.
Whilst there may not be another Root in first class cricket. There surely is someone who has a technique which means their bay comes down straight. That’s surely a start.
On bowling for me that isn’t a selection issue it’s entirely with the coach’s approach and him leaving too much leeway to his senior players.