Sport The Ashes - 1st Test - Brisbane

[ZeroTheHero]

Ouch. Went to bed knowing we'd won the toss and chosen to bat and had a bit of an idea what the news might be when I woke up!

 

[Sharp Edges]

So we go to Australia and the weather gives us the perfect English pitch and overcast skies. Luckily we have two of the best bowlers the game has ever seen in such conditions.......

Leave them out and save them for when the series is lost and they are bowling on a road, bet Warner slept well last night.

I can see this being 5-0 and Silverwood being out of a job before the summer. We had next to no chance with our batting but the weather gave us an opportunity, we handed it back.

 

[Sarge]

So we go to Australia and the weather gives us the perfect English pitch and overcast skies. Luckily we have two of the best bowlers the game has ever seen in such conditions.......

Leave them out and save them for when the series is lost and they are bowling on a road, bet Warner slept well last night.

I can see this being 5-0 and Silverwood being out of a job before the summer. We had next to no chance with our batting but the weather gave us an opportunity, we handed it back.

I do hope so

 

[Essexyellows]

Wasn`t good was it?

 

[Big Ron]

Wasn`t good was it?

That first ball set the tone - a decent but not unplayable yorker and bowled around his legs. That horrible technique takes him right across the stumps and he ends up falling away.

 

[Oufcrealist]

That first ball set the tone - a decent but not unplayable yorker and bowled around his legs. That horrible technique takes him right across the stumps and he ends up falling away.

It did set the tone. If Burns had got in he'd have clipped it for four, one of his favourite shots.
IMHO and also some of the pundits Starc got lucky. It was a loosener and unexpected, Burns weird technique then turned it into a leg stump yorker with a bit of swing.
As another poster said we have handed the game to them.
Poor by Root, that pitch had green grass on it and it was humid and overcast which suited our bowlers. If Anderson doesn't play then you play Broad. Not really sure what Root and Silverwood we're thinking.

 

[Marked Ox]

Well at least this England team are predictable. The England fans out there need to start a rain dance.

 

[tonyw]

Yes very predictable.
The problem with Burns and Malan is do we have anybody better?
Sure we can all come up with names , but most have been tried and failed!

So I agree that we probably had no choice but to roll out Burns and Malan for these Ashes. You can't send an untried youngster down under and expect them to contribute - you'll probably destroy them forever if you do.

What frustrates me is the circular thinking and lack of a coherent plan over the last two years. Basically since we got back from South Africa/Sri Lanka in 2019/20, our batting has been a disaster zone other than Joe Root. And all we seem to do is cycle through the same half dozen top order players (Burns, Malan, Sibley, Jennings, Crawley etc. etc.) who play one good Test innings in ten.

Once you've played 15-25 Tests, then you've pretty much established your baseline. If you're a good Test batsman you should be averaging over 40. If you average 35-40, you're not very good but just about serviceable. None of the players I've named above average more than 32.

And many of them aren't even young any more. I could maybe understand the logic in going back to Zak Crawley, because he's 23 and he still has time to get it. But Burns & Malan are both over 30. They're both not good enough and they never will be good enough for Test cricket.

We should have been experimenting with some young, talented batsmen over the past two years with these Ashes in mind. The fact that we haven't means that one of two things are true:

Either the current England management have no clue when it comes to evaluating batsmen. It's not enough to simply look at the county averages - many great Test players (e.g. Trescothick, Vaughn) didn't have great records in First Class cricket before they got called up. You've got to be able to identify players with the right technique, and the right attitude and then work with them.

Or there genuinely are no young batsmen with Test potential in England. Which would be a pretty sad indictment of the level of coaching at the counties (although I look at the England Lions squad and see that they've picked both Dom Sibley and 28 year old Alex Lees......which makes me worry that this might be the case)

Anyways, rant over. Let's hope the bowlers embarass themselves a little less today.

 

[Leysboy]

Tea on Day 2 of the first test at Brisbane.

Aus 193/3

Warner not out on 94

But they’ve removed Smith (wood)and Labuchagne (leach) before tea.

It’s a beautiful sunny day out there, and it makes you wonder why we decided to bat first on a bit of a green top, without our two best bowlers.

 

[unification]

A lead of 125 for the Aussies.

This England batting line up is so brittle they could declare and I genuinely don’t think that England could scrape past that.

 

[Big Ronaldo]

Oh for a one end blocker like Boycott.
Someone who just wears down bowlers.

 

[Leysboy]

343/7 looking ominous, and not looking forward to watching our 2nd innings with the bat around lunch time tomorrow.

The bowlers on the whole did well, bit disappointed with Leach. He doesn’t have the ability to block and end and stop the flow of runs, and he’s been very expensive.

 

[Tomox]

I think this might very well be a whitewash. Our batting is just so poor.

 

[unification]

We’ve got 23 more days of this!*

Stokes and Robinson limping off, Leach targeted (the poor bloke has got pretty good at bringing the drinks on over the summer), Burns dropping things again, Travis Head going into Gilchrist/Haddin mode. They had enough when they passed a lead of 150. I expect to wake up tomorrow and it’ll all be over. It’s a shame as I thought the weather would at least stretch it out further - England have no hope of that.

Question - are we a worse team under Silverwood than we were were Bayliss? To me, it’s a definite yes.

*the maximum figure of course. We know England can barely make it to day four in most instances.

 

[Foley]

343/7 looking ominous, and not looking forward to watching our 2nd innings with the bat around lunch time tomorrow.

The bowlers on the whole did well, bit disappointed with Leach. He doesn’t have the ability to block and end and stop the flow of runs, and he’s been very expensive.

It sounded as if Robinson, wood and Woakes bowled well and were unlucky.
Burns dropped Warner and Stokes bowled somebody off a no ball. Did I hear right that Stokes' previous 15 odd balls had all been no balls that had not been called because the technology wasn't working?
Tomorrow will not be enjoyable I suspect, but lets hope that 3 or 4 batsmen least score some runs and get some form

 

[Foley]

We’ve got 23 more days of this!*

Stokes and Robinson limping off, Leach targeted (the poor bloke has got pretty good at bringing the drinks on over the summer), Burns dropping things again, Travis Head going into Gilchrist/Haddin mode. They had enough when they passed a lead of 150. I expect to wake up tomorrow and it’ll all be over. It’s a shame as I thought the weather would at least stretch it out further - England have no hope of that.

Question - are we a worse team under Silverwood than we were were Bayliss? To me, it’s a definite yes.

*the maximum figure of course. We know England can barely make it to day four in most instances.

We are a worse team but it's hardly surprising.
Broad and Anderson near the end (Robinson has been a really good find), no spinner to speak of and despite trying a load, no batsmen that can seem to bat long (notable exception of Root)
Is it due to the coach or is it due to a paucity of players?

 

[SteMerritt]

We are a worse team but it's hardly surprising.
Broad and Anderson near the end (Robinson has been a really good find), no spinner to speak of and despite trying a load, no batsmen that can seem to bat long (notable exception of Root)
Is it due to the coach or is it due to a paucity of players?

It's due to the system in England, the favouring of white ball cricket, The Hundred and T20 in particular taking all the money. The County Championship isn't fit for purpose - too many teams spreading the talent too thinly. This has been coming for at least the last 5 years.

 

[Essexyellows]

Too many game formats, too much money at the wrong ends and any talent chases the money rather than any sort of County loyalty.

Sounds like football - numbers on spreadsheets has fudged it.

 

[Sarge]

The Hundred ...thats to blame too... ( worth mentioning twice methinks )

 

[ECYellow]

Harsh to criticise Leach too much. He has played 5 first class games all summer after having a 28 wicket series in Sri Lanka last winter. Asking him to step into conditions not akin to spin bowling, in Australia is tough.

Broad not being selected is a ludicrous decision. Silverwood and Root will fall on their respective swords after this series. For 18 months we have been advised that the Ashes is the end goal down under. Rest and rotation were forming part of the greater plan - a heavy series defeat here will put their positions under increased scrutiny.