Quote Originally Posted by The_Don_ORiordan View Post
Thing is, this isn’t hindsight. It was a crazy decision before the start.

Taking 23 wickets @ 65 doesn’t suggest at his peak he is going to be our frontline spinner against Oz.

He went for the highest runs per over of any of our frontline bowlers. So provided no control or pressure either.

I like Moeen, he’s a good cricketer. I don’t blame him.

But the decision looked stupid well before the game, and was proven to be idiotic following the injury caused by him bowling more than 3 times the number of overs he’s bowled in a day in over 3 years.

Now we will probably pick a younger spinner in a game we need to win at the worst test ground in the world for spinners.

Great work selectors.

For me you drop Anderson, and Ali and bring in Foakes and Wood.

But they won’t, because that highlights their other error in dropping Foakes.

I’m a big fan of Bazzball.

We have the talent to beat this poorer than expected Australia side. We just need to play our best side.
So you replace 2 bowlers with one bowler who at his best can bowl 3/4 over bursts and a wicket keeper? Did you watch the last test? As well as Root did you don’t want him as your main spin option. Stokes hardly bowled. Broad and Robinson were bowled in to the dirt. Dropping the best swing bowler ever to play cricket is nuts. Anderson wasn’t as effective in this test given the lack of anything in the deck but is ranked 2nd in the world for a reason.
As for ‘poorer than expected Australia’ - you know they are the test world champions and boast 4 batters in the top 10 with 2 bowlers. They are a good side but as we have all seen in recent times, most teams don’t do well away from home. This is down to a massive lack of preparation.