Bairstow ? Some other bloke ? It's just deck chair rearranging on the Titanic. Root , Stokes , Foulkes, Joffra, ....build a team around these 4 world class players . Malan is ok . Wood, when fit , can bowl fast , Robinson has a heart .
This test will probably be over by the time you've read this - up early for work and already lost 2 more wickets.
Brave brave boys finally succumbed. Heroes every last one of them. I'm amazed the umpires hadn't stopped the game this late in the afternoon - the light was definitely going. No Pope or Hameed for the next test please.
Add to that the fact the structure of the domestic game means any potential Test-quality batsmen rarely face spells from Anderson, Broad, Stokes etc in county matches so have to try to make the step-up from county cricket in the Test arena itself. Result? A plethora of poor scores which undermines their confidence further and ensures we see these regular collapses. Promising Aussie players are exposed to Shield cricket which is a step above the English county treadmill in its current incarnation, and is also brutally competitive, so it's no surprise that those who graduate into the Test squad are more experienced in both terms of requisite skill level and the mental aspect.
But theres no interest in county cricket from the paying punter. Therefore no money, investment or development. We're only going to get more and more cricketers specialise in the short format, so they can get contracts in the hundred, ipl or whatever incarnation is around in ten years time.
Vicious circle though surely? County cricket is marketed badly, takes place in the week in working hours and all the best players are on central contracts and unless England grant them a rare appearance it's basically shorn of all the big names.
This is all true, but it was also true in 2005-2013 when we whooped the Aussies. Just think we have a poor set of players at present.
Probably right, but the point is: over a longer and longer period of time the tendency is going to be to produce fewer and fewer Test quality players (especially batsmen).
I think it's more the fact that we are now seeing the impact of these trends playing out over the longer term. Most of the team even in 2013 had played and proven themselves in an environment more relevant to Test cricket than is the case since then.
Mmm, maybe. Central contracts have been going for a while now and I'm not sure county cricket has been really competitive since the 1980s. I think there is certainly a good case for making England players play more county cricket but beyond that I am not sure what can really be done.
I agree but the added factor is the increasing emphasis on shorter and shorter forms of one-day cricket.
A few stats that show how poor and out of their depth the current team has been. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/59761497
"Malan told BBC Radio 5 Live. "Everyone's up for it, everyone wants to win, which is still a good place to be."" Well that's good news anyway. The players want to win. A huge relief.
Lol Sounds like the football players at Vicarage Road. I was hoping to enjoy my Boxing Day but Watford are/are not playing at Wolves and the 3rd Test starts.
Unfortunately we have Root ,Stokes and Archer (injured) who are good enough . We are reliant on a couple of old timers opening the bowling but can't play in every test . And they may as well play me as the spinner . These are the problems but I don't have any answers #StopPress. Foulkes is top draw
Dismal and pathetic doesn't come close to describing that batting performance. Whose heads are going to roll and who will retire? Root is the best batsman so if he stepped down it would be a blow to lose him if he wasn't still part of the team. Silverwood surely has to go? I don't believe this group of players are as bad as the records they are setting indicates
There really is no point in this squad being out there other than to fulfil contractual obligations. I do feel sorry for Root. The only test quality player in the side. How the hell does he face the media at the end of the day without throwing the other 10 players under the bus ? It really doesn’t matter who the captain and team manager are. We just don’t have the quality of test player to be competitive other than occasionally on green English wickets. I mean, Haseeb continues to be selected to open for us, after years of not being good enough to be selected at county level, despite only one(?) decent innings since returning, in which even then he ground to a run scoring halt. He’s only picked as the alternatives are seen as even worse. I would now really like to see us lose this 5-0 in the most humiliating way possible. It’s the only realistic objective left.
I think a humiliating defeat is the only likely outcome. Team may lack test quality batsman but this Australia side is also weak by their previous standards. Our mental fragility is unbelievable.
I mean, we all knew it’d be bad, but I didn’t think 5-0 bad. Australia lost a test series to a reserve youthful India. This was the chance to take them in their back yard. Heads must roll at every level for this disgrace. From the build up onwards. They won’t though. We’ll trundle along with meek Joe pretending to be a captain whilst blaming his team for doing all the things he tells them to do, losing test after test and pretending that it still matters to any of the hierarchy.
Did you copy and paste this from your usual Watford previews? Having the same opinions run over to our national cricket team is a very serious matter. Get behind Root and the lads and our seriously Barmy Army. Our captain says we can pull this off and win the next 3 tests. Don’t you believe .. ? Surely we have a fighting chance - if we fight..
I seriously don't believe we have the players. The preparation couldn't have been worse but not sure you can blame the hierarchy other than for that. Was always going to be 0-5. in 2010/11 we won 3 games by an innings. I suspect this will be similar in reverse (though of course we didn't win 5-0). We have no-one who can bat other than Root and an in form Stokes, and no-one who can bowl in these conditions. Wonder how Stokes' fragile state of mind is holding up ?
Not sure I've ever suggested the only point of WFC turning up is to fulfil contractual obligations and that a huge defeat would be my preferred outcome .
On a positive note, good to see that Crawley improved on his 2021 batting average of 11.14, that should give him some confidence.
