Sibley and Crawley both made ducks in their only 4 day game in months. I agree it doesn’t make sense to pick them.
Pope and Foulkes could have come in though. Burns is never going to be a test batsman, so I’d have given Pope the nod.
Harder to pick another player to drop. Buttler maybe, but if we were doing that, I’d pick Sam Curran to bat at 7 and give us a left arm option.
Denly will open again, so can’t drop him.
Sadly I think we will be in decline for a few years. Broad and Anderson coming to an end and a dearth of batsman coming through.
But Australia have simply been better and sometimes you have to just hold your hands up.
Cummins would have bench-warmed for Lee in competition with Tait, Hazlewood would have replaced Gillespie mid-way through as he's an English wicket bowler.
I would struggle to put many current England players in the 05 team on this year's form, maybe Stokes at 5 but with KP and Freddie already in it would have been a big choice and Buttler would replace Jones. That 4 man seam attack was too good even for Jimmy so none of the others would get in.
Buttler over Jones !! Never in a million years !
Buttler wouldn’t even be considered.
Nowhere near good enough as a test batsman. He doesn’t have it mentally to play test cricket.
Buttler over Jones !! Never in a million years !
Totally agree.Disagree Buttler is fantastic player and you could see he was starting ti adapt to test match cricket Id stick with him.
Looking forward to TMS from the Oval. Will Aggers be a little deferential to Sir Geoffrey?
It's impossible to do this because we have no real appreciation of the likes of Grace, Trumper, Hobbs, Sutcliffe, Rhodes, Hutton, Hammond etc.Seems we are moving towards naming an all time best XI team worldwide.
I’ll go with
Gavaskar
Greenwich
Dravid
Tendulkar
Lara
Kallis
Sangakkara
Warne
Marshall
Muralitharan
McGrath
It’s hard though with so many amazing players over the years.
Edit: Missed out Bradman and IVA Richards, but not sure who to drop!
well done to Sir Geoffrey
speaks his mind and knowledge of the game is spot on, the ECB would do well to listen to his idea's ?? and even in the modern game at test cricket its simple when told how to bat and play simple cricket, on one of his master classes on BT-sport even ricky ponting agreed with his idea's by saying just keep it simple and basic learn all the the right things like watching the ball on to the bat, head over the ball, elbow pointing straight, and a good stride, basically saying learn a good defence first and work from there
watching buttler and roy and many others in this england team its clear they are ODI cricketers ?? because the lack of movement in there legs they stand and don't really move forward or back and the feet get stuck in the crease, they have learned to swing from the hips like a golfer and they all have this big gap from bat to body and just stand up tall
look its not going to be a over night job and and quick fix ?? the england set up is crazy and taking the ODI world cup players into test cricket was mad, ok 1 or 2 but 5 or 6 ??? and late summer with pitches coming to a end of there life and bad weather you are asking ODI big hitters to block and stay in for long hours ????
Best test team ever? Windies late 70's and 80's or Aus mid 90's for the next 10 or 12 years?
Aus just edge it for me overall.
Actually miss him on the TMS podcasts, where he now seems to have been replaced by Vaughan. You sense that some of the younger participants sneer at him, but the truth is that he’s generally spot on in his analysis. How far Test standards have slipped was evidenced by Vaughan recently when he said that Roy should just go out when opening and play in T20 mode, as if that was an acceptable proposition for someone, or a team, opening in a Test. Uncle Algie would never have approved. The other formats of the game have called for sometimes radical changes in technique, but Test cricket batting has not, yet modern culture is so obsessed with instant change that it struggles to accept this reality.
I rather fear that instead of returning to coaching and creating batsmen with an orthodox technique, Smith’s idiosyncratic style will now be held up as an example of how the unorthodox can excel in Test cricket, but that will be to misunderstand just how exceptional he is. Now, where did I put that rhubarb...
It's impossible to do this because we have no real appreciation of the likes of Grace, Trumper, Hobbs, Sutcliffe, Rhodes, Hutton, Hammond etc.
Your list is a list of players who have been captured regularly on film which is fair enough.
On that basis I'd have Richard in for Dravid and Hayden in for Gavaskar.
Wasim Akram, Imran Khan, Mike Proctor, Barry Richards etc would all be good squad members.
Yes.Bradman has to be the biggest shoo-in of the lot surely
West Indies.
Its such a close call, I was thinking both would probably win at home tbh.
That Windies pace attack was unreal, the best ever.
Its such a close call, I was thinking both would probably win at home tbh.
That Windies pace attack was unreal, the best ever.