The english tail is a fucking joke. You’re sacrificing one of the best batsmen in the team, possibly the second or third best, so the tail has someone to play with. They do by the way. His name’s Moenn Ali.
Bairstoe should be batting 4 or 5. Having him at 7 is complete stupidity. But that’s fine, we’ll take it.
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You clearly don’t follow English cricket very closely. Bairstow is a lower middle order batsman/wicket keeper. On occasions when he has been moved up the order, to replace an injured Kevin Piersrsen against New Zealand, I think it was and Ian Bell in India, his form and batting averages immediately nose dived. I don’t recall Adam Gilchrist batting in test cricket too often outside of Number 7.
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Adam Gilchrist had a very good tail to bat woth and a formidable top order ahead of him. England currently have neither.
Austrailia are cruising here 79-0
Any comment to make about Bairstow’s less than stellar previous performance with the bat when he has been promoted further up the order? You’re previous comments referring to a ‘fucking joke’ and ‘complete stupidity’ are not really all that insightful.
The absence of Stokes will be the difference between the teams in this series.
Yes. When there’s so many holes in the team elsewhere, Stokes covers a multitude. Anderson and possibly even Broad are entering the final lap of their careers, its unrealistic to expect them to have to shoulder the lions share of the bowling burden still. Cook looks finished as well. When Cook prospered, a lot of it was down to powers of concentration and grit. After 11-12 years of test cricket that’s gone.
Mark Wood is a huge loss too. He’s quick and refularly around the 90mph mark. The 7th Australian wicket fell yesterday at 209/7, still 93 runs behind England. They were all out for 328 putting on 119 for the last three wickets. England didn’t have the express pace, which you need in Australia to finish them off. England were 185/7 this morning when the 7th wicket fell. They were all out for 195.
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This looks like resembling the last Australian series albeit not quite as bad for England maybe, where England actually got themselves into half decent positions in some of the games before abjectly showing the belly.
Stokes is an enormous loss, and even if he comes back, will by then make little difference as the tide will be in full rip.
Not playing ali where he can bat is bizarre. He is mentally very strong, and will happily ignore all the floundering around him.
Edit, apparently he’s out of form.
It’s a fairly similar enough scenario to four years ago in that then as now, outside of Warner and Smith, you had a less than stellar Australia batting line up and Brad Haddin had to save the day initially in all five tests. Australia were 5 wickets down for less than 150 runs in all 5 tests and Haddin scored a half century in each test. What you had with England in 2013/14 was a successful side who had gone over the hill and a dressing room riven with division and big egos at war. Root hasn’t lost a dressing room, but he’s dealing with a very limited hand.
England have to get something out of Adelaide as Perth is just a write off. England have lost the last 7 Ashes tests there and of the 12 played at the WACA only won once in the 78/79 series, which you couldn’t really count with all the Kerry Packer defections.
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Last last?
They should have brought Plunkett. Wood is there with the Lions I think
Any sign of a pronouncement from Avon & Somerset Police? They’ve been very slow in dealing with this. It shouldn’t take two months to take a few statements and watch a bit of cctv footage.
Well?
Safe
That’s the public sevice tor you
Sweep sweeping takes time.
Perceptive posts by @GeoffreyBoycott overnight. England could have won this first test if they had a good top order, middle order, stronger tail and a more potent bowling attack.
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They’d have been certainties if they had all of those. Middle order is okay, though they need to improve on this offering. Batting from the tail should never be an issue. They’re there to get you 20 wickets. If they get a few runs it’s a bonus. 1 to 7 should be getting you nearly all the runs you need.
Bairstow being investigated for head butting Bancroft in early November in Perth.
Wood was playing with the Lions against a QLD XI today.