I’d drop him in fact I wouldn’t have even picked him for the tour his record is shocking against the Aussies he is damage goods! But we know England it’s let’s give them another chance.. is pope our back up wicket keeper?
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I’d drop him in fact I wouldn’t have even picked him for the tour his record is shocking against the Aussies he is damage goods! But we know England it’s let’s give them another chance.. is pope our back up wicket keeper?
Decent piece from Agnew
The Ashes: England's Bazball message is dead, says Jonathan Agnew
If Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum are questioning the mentality of the England players, they need to look at themselves, says Jonathan Agnew.www.bbc.co.uk
As with many prior TMS commentators, he regularly doesn't pull punches.
It was noticeable that Prior was more willing to criticise directly on TNT, probably helped in having been retired for 10 years and further away from the current side.
Yep I watch the broad Buttler YouTube podcast and it’s tame full of excuses they don’t want to lay into the players
MillionMilesAway
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Same with Finn, I think - not been with England for quite a while now, but only retired recently.
Buttler's not going to criticise current teammates, and I don't think I've heard him say anything consequential - is he any good?
Postman Pep
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I dunno maybe the reason these ex players aren't laying into the current lot is because they've all been part of teams that have capitulated down under while being lambasted from the commentary box by the previous generations failures. Even the sprinkler dancers of 10/11 have the whitewash of 13/14 on their CV's. This lot have a way to go before they scrape the bottom of the barrel where that tour lies. Players quitting mid series before going off to bitch about each other in their memoirs.
We still try and smash it out of the ground
Decent piece from Agnew
The Ashes: England's Bazball message is dead, says Jonathan Agnew
If Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum are questioning the mentality of the England players, they need to look at themselves, says Jonathan Agnew.
As with many prior TMS commentators, he regularly doesn't pull punches.
It was noticeable that Prior was more willing to criticise directly on TNT, probably helped in having been retired for 10 years and further away from the current side.
It should be one simple question asked to Stokes ? What the fuck is going on
Why are we miles away from them in both bowling and batting departments and why are we not learning from the first test, We had 12 days to pick the bones out of the first test and change it and its still happening
brian the blue
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It’s more frustrating this time round because we genuinely had a chance going into the series. Now it’s going to be 5-0 unless there’s some rain around to force a draw.
Sick of watching the top order throw their hands at the ball and Brook mindlessly tossing his wicket away hiding under “it’s how I play”
Sick of watching the top order throw their hands at the ball and Brook mindlessly tossing his wicket away hiding under “it’s how I play”
super_city_si
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Not really followed cricket too deeply for a good while so forgive me. Dont all the countries play the short game now? isnt T20 big everywhere? Where do the likes of Australia Cricket differ with ours when it comes to playing test cricket?
What are their younger players being subject to thats different?
Alan Harper's Tash
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Not much. The Aussies are just using the older players that grew up as T20 was exploding.
All countries are going to have problems with test cricketers in the future.
Batters can’t build innings and bowlers try their variations and when they run out, they revert to bouncing the opposition out, all within one spell.
Earlyriser
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On what basis do you think we had a chance? You only had to look at the tour schedule to realise this was not a serious cricket tour and the sycophantic articles written pre-tour about Archer, Pope and Crawley by travel writers rather than serious cricket journalists
This is a very good point. Maybe the hype was all fake about our chances
England play well at home against everybody, but on tours, we never even plan for them or have any warm-up games to get used to the conditions. Also, it's the set of players who are on central contracts that are picked, even if they have had a bad summer in england
This Ashes series has hit home more than ever before ? It's so bad that nobody is defending them in the media.
It's full on shit and everybody knows it
They don't blow smoke up people's arse. If you're not good enough, you're out very quickly
England has a central contract system of about 15 players on a 2-year contract and about the same with a 12-month contracts for youth development.
This means Nobody else can get a look in or a chance after a good season in county cricket, it's a closed shop
liamctid
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I said pre series that England needed a lot to go in their favour to have a chance in The Ashes.
Mark Wood injury for the 2nd test aside England have had a lot of luck; we would have all ripped your hand off a couple of weeks ago if you knew that Hazlewood and Cummins were out for the first two tests, Khawaja out injured, Lyon dropped (+ his arsey interview about it all) and the knowledge that we skittled them out for 132 in their first innings of the series.
To parrot what Jonathan Agnew said in the latest article, "Bazball" has had it's purpose - the team needed to change it's mindset after the last 18 months of Silverwood, 1 win in 17 tests at the time, everyone looked nervous. 2022, from the despair of the 1-0 series loss in the West Indies ended up being very exciting, Bairstow chasing down New Zealand, beating India, winning 3-0 in Pakistan, we needed it at the time. That tour of Pakistan was when this battling line up was formed - Crawley, Duckett, Pope, Root, Brook and Stokes.
The positive style of playing seemed to suit our batsman, which I still believe is the case, but from 2022 we've had 3 years for these players to understand when to be positive and when to soak up the pressure. The messaging hasn't been to take a breath, and realise that this game is 5 days long, it's just been the same since 2022 - go hard and if that doesn't work go harder. You can still play positively without throwing away your wicket - this is exactly how Australia have played against us in 3 innings out of four.
England's bowling in the first innings of the Perth test and Root's century apart, there's no positives to take from the series so far. It's as pathetic as it ever has been in Australia.
Difficult not to think that the whole landscape of England's test team won't look very different again come the summer. Trying not to be kneejerk here but there's loads of questions.
Since 2018/19 England have backed Crawley and Pope to be central parts of the England team by this point in their careers, they've both got plenty of experience but not the average to back it up. Root and Stokes for me are still genuinely world class but do we see them in Australia again in 4 years? For moving on for the "younger models" in their position (and county!) but are we any better off with Bashir over Leach and Smith over Foakes? Surely Rehan Ahmed's CC performances suggest he needs to be more than just an extra spinner in the sub continent? Bethell is talented but who else is coming through who can get themselves in the team?
I can see McCullum sticking around until the T20 world cup but then after that who knows.
Mark Wood injury for the 2nd test aside England have had a lot of luck; we would have all ripped your hand off a couple of weeks ago if you knew that Hazlewood and Cummins were out for the first two tests, Khawaja out injured, Lyon dropped (+ his arsey interview about it all) and the knowledge that we skittled them out for 132 in their first innings of the series.
To parrot what Jonathan Agnew said in the latest article, "Bazball" has had it's purpose - the team needed to change it's mindset after the last 18 months of Silverwood, 1 win in 17 tests at the time, everyone looked nervous. 2022, from the despair of the 1-0 series loss in the West Indies ended up being very exciting, Bairstow chasing down New Zealand, beating India, winning 3-0 in Pakistan, we needed it at the time. That tour of Pakistan was when this battling line up was formed - Crawley, Duckett, Pope, Root, Brook and Stokes.
The positive style of playing seemed to suit our batsman, which I still believe is the case, but from 2022 we've had 3 years for these players to understand when to be positive and when to soak up the pressure. The messaging hasn't been to take a breath, and realise that this game is 5 days long, it's just been the same since 2022 - go hard and if that doesn't work go harder. You can still play positively without throwing away your wicket - this is exactly how Australia have played against us in 3 innings out of four.
England's bowling in the first innings of the Perth test and Root's century apart, there's no positives to take from the series so far. It's as pathetic as it ever has been in Australia.
Difficult not to think that the whole landscape of England's test team won't look very different again come the summer. Trying not to be kneejerk here but there's loads of questions.
Since 2018/19 England have backed Crawley and Pope to be central parts of the England team by this point in their careers, they've both got plenty of experience but not the average to back it up. Root and Stokes for me are still genuinely world class but do we see them in Australia again in 4 years? For moving on for the "younger models" in their position (and county!) but are we any better off with Bashir over Leach and Smith over Foakes? Surely Rehan Ahmed's CC performances suggest he needs to be more than just an extra spinner in the sub continent? Bethell is talented but who else is coming through who can get themselves in the team?
I can see McCullum sticking around until the T20 world cup but then after that who knows.
The main thing was that Archer and Wood were available, we knew pace and bounce is key to taking wickets.
Everything was based on our bowling attack blowing them out of the water cheaply
Our batting has been the worst I have ever seen down under in the Ashes ? Every ball we faced is a wicket wicket-taking ball ? not because of the quality of the Aussies bowling attack, but our lack of batting skills
Didn't england have different coaches for both formats, red and white ball cricket ?
McCullum got one more test, the 3rd test, when we lose that and lose badly again it will be enough and once the ashes is over he's gone
liamctid
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They did initially, Matthew Mott came in at the same time as McCullum took over the red ball side but after the shambles World Cup in 2023 he resigned and McCullum took the white ball team too, can't see him stepping down until the T20 World Cup is done in Feb/March and then he'll completely step away.
Earlyriser
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With respect relying on the supposed fitness of Archer and Woods was delusional. Archer has bowled 169 overs in first class cricket in the last 2 years whilst Wood has bowled 11 overs this calendar year. To expect either to rock up in Australia given the heat and harder pitches and deliver defies belief. The fact that they are permanently injured is precisely the problem
The Stockport Iniesta
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So much of it is down to no preparation, if they'd played a couple of four day games before the first test some of the faults might have been exposed, they should definitely have played a day night game as one of the two.
They are just taking the piss, going for a little golfing holiday after six days of Cricket with big breaks in between the games, it's comical. From the outside it looks more like a social event than a serious attempt to win the ashes back.
Earlyriser
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It all rather reminds me of a story in the late Danny Blanchflower's biography. Danny was a player who was not afraid to speak his mind at a time when footballers were not supposed to have opinions. The Club he was playing for engaged a new Manager who in his first team meeting told the assembled players that in future between Mon-Fridays they would not be training with a ball. The new Manager explained his approach by stating that by the Saturday they would be so hungry for the ball they would run through brick walls to get it. After a few moments silence Danny piped up ' But Boss by Saturday I will have forgotten what a ball looks like'. I find it rather like England's view to playing practice matches.