Good game. Shame we didn’t have another hour but it was too much of a risk declaring earlier.
Quick turnaround until the next game and would be unfair to make any changes. Roy has had a wretched game and I think it’s fair to say his technique is not that of a test opener, but probably deserves one more go, and let’s face it who out there deserves to replace him at present.
The bowling attack looks okay and well balanced - Archer is looking a real find and looks a great athlete.
Fair point and I was one of the geniuses on here calling for him to be given a chance during those heady days of the World Cup but it is clear to me now that there is a massive difference between red and white ball cricket. Maybe he could drop down to 5 and let even Leach open - radical eh? ??Nor was Trescothick's an he turned out okay. Give him the series, see how much he learns. If nothing, then the experiment has pretty much failed.
Unfortunately our batting looks too brittle to drop both Roy and Denly, even though they are barely troubling the scorers.Is Anderson back for the next test? If he is then they'd have to drop a batsman as they can't leave out Archer. Woakes is scoring more than some of the batsman anyway! You'd have to say Roy and/or Denly look the most likely to be dropped.
If we dropped Roy and Denly and brought in Anderson and Curran, our bowling attack of Broad, Anderson, Archer, Curran, Woakes and Leach, would be bloody good, but then who would open with Burns and how far up the order would we play Curran and Woakes? Something like this:
Burns
Bairstow
Root
Stokes
Buttler
Woakes
Curran
Leach
Broad
Archer
Anderson
???
I don’t think we’ll see Jimmy until the 5th test, if at all.Is Anderson back for the next test? If he is then they'd have to drop a batsman as they can't leave out Archer. Woakes is scoring more than some of the batsman anyway! You'd have to say Roy and/or Denly look the most likely to be dropped.
If we dropped Roy and Denly and brought in Anderson and Curran, our bowling attack of Broad, Anderson, Archer, Curran, Woakes and Leach, would be bloody good, but then who would open with Burns and how far up the order would we play Curran and Woakes? Something like this:
Burns
Bairstow
Root
Stokes
Buttler
Woakes
Curran
Leach
Broad
Archer
Anderson
???
It'll be the same team, with the same captain.
Smith won't play.
Weather permitting - and going out on a limb here - we're in with a chance.
Would consider either dropping Roy or swapping positions with denly as he looks all at sea opening with the red ball
I actually agree with you.Short term, it looks like Bairstow has ridden the 'storm' (largely of my making) and if he's starting to find some form (we'll see about consistency later) I'd think about taking the gloves off Bairstow and suffering the resulting sulkfest. Move him up the order and play Buttler lower down. That'd help right there. I'd leave Roy where he is, he's in no sort of form really but then again there's a few batsmen on both sides we can say that about.
I'd like to eventually see Foakes, Curran and Stone in the team. What with Archer breaking through we could find ourselves with a very good team in a year or two and I think we could be just a couple of batsmen and a captain away from it
Short term, it looks like Bairstow has ridden the 'storm' (largely of my making) and if he's starting to find some form (we'll see about consistency later) I'd think about taking the gloves off Bairstow and suffering the resulting sulkfest. Move him up the order and play Buttler lower down. That'd help right there. I'd leave Roy where he is, he's in no sort of form really but then again there's a few batsmen on both sides we can say that about.
I'd like to eventually see Foakes, Curran and Stone in the team. What with Archer breaking through we could find ourselves with a very good team in a year or two and I think we could be just a couple of batsmen and a captain away from it
I actually agree with you.
How Curran doesn't make this team is beyond me. He is a better batsmen than half the recognised batsmen. Replacement for Denly and move the order?