Thought we’d better get this started before Pakistan clinch their well-earned win.
Not quite. That’s quite the useful bowling unit Pakistan have got. And they’ve done a good job exposing the cracks in the England batting line up.
England’s batting has been a worry for a while. I think we’ve almost got the people in place, it’s a bit of a case of managing them a little so that they have the confidence to play to their best.
Cook isn’t going anywhere, and shouldn’t.
I think Hayles may well be our opener for a while - he did enough against Sri Lanka to at least get a run in the side, and I’d be somewhat surprised if he wasn’t still opening at the end of the series, barring injury.
Root should be at 4. He’s so comfortable at 4 that I don’t really understand the idea behind putting him in at three. With Vince and Ballance both having to prove their place in the side, I’d think maybe Ballance at 3 and Vince at 5, with Root providing support between them, would be what I would look to do. It’s easy from here, of course, and the fact is that Root hasn’t had a good year so far.
Vince and Ballance are under pressure for their places, and need to step up and get scores to fend off the likes of Scott Borthwick and others.
Bairstow is currently making the England wicketkeepers job his own, especially with his attacking batting, but his keeping still isn’t really good enough. I think they’ll stick with him and work on his keeping, though.
Woakes has been a bit of a revelation, and gives a real alternative to Stokes. Frankly, I think they’ll both play, although I’m not sure how we’ll squeeze them in.
Moeen Ali is capable of batting well, but his shot today (running down the wicket in his first over, and missing the ball) shows his head isn’t really in the right place. His bowling seems fine for England - he’s not a match winning spinner, but we don’t have one of those in anyone else, and he bowls well enough.
Stuart Broad has been found out as a batsman, but the man can bowl, so he’s solid enough in the side.
Finn was not at his best in this test, and there’s a fair number of pacemen around at the moment. Will probably be replaced by Anderson in the next test.
Jake Ball had a decent debut, bowled better than Finn for not much reward. May well give way to Stokes in the next test.
Thing is, apart from a few details (Joe Root not being terribly good being a big one), I could have typed a lot of the above, especially about the batting, at the start of the year. Basically, our top order need to start scoring runs.
There being no test at Headingley this time, Pakistan are now favorites to win the series.
Personally, I think our bowlers are good, not great, but England just did not apply themselves to the task. Root and Moeen perished to stupid shots. Don’t know what Ballance was doing either. Hales, Vince and Ballance just don’t look convincing.
If Anderson and Stokes are avsilable for the second test, I’m guessing Ball and Finn will have to go. Would stiffen the batting no end. Broad could be batting at 10, and he should be pretty handy, his showing in this test notwithstanding.
Here’sthe England squad for the second Test:
AN Cook (Captain), AD Hales, JE Root, JM Vince, GS Ballance, JM Bairstow (wkt), MM Ali, CR Woakes, SCJ Broad, JM Anderson, BA Stokes, ST Finn, AU Rashid, JT Ball.
The difficulty with picking a bowling unit from that is deciding who to leave out.
The difficulty with picking a batting unit from that is deciding who to leave in.
As TheMightyAtlas says above, the upshot of that is you pick bowlers for their batting. Which is sort of, kind of, OK in one sense, but highly dispiriting in another. If Ball is dropped despite bowling well because we don’t have a reliable middle-order, he’s being punished for others’ failings.
What could happen:
Mo, Ball and Finn out; Adil, Stokes and Anderson in.
What I think should happen:
Vince, Ball and Finn out, Adil, Stokes and Anderson in. Bairstow to 5, Stokes to 6, Mo to 7.
What I think will happen:
Ball and Finn out; Stokes and Anderson in.
Pakistan are good. Their bowling is very good. Their tail is quite long though - our batsmen need to turn up and play well against a good attack. Our bowlers probably did enough to win this game and were let down by their batting team mates in some senses and undone by a very good performance in other senses. It seems harsh then to only change the bowling unit but I think that is what will happen - though Stokes stiffens the middle order potentially. This is why I think Vince needs to go as well (Vince looks like a player with beautiful shots but no substance; I’d drop him but the fashion is to give players an extended run - he’s probably got until the end of the summer) and Mo needs to be given licence to concentrate on scoring good runs with Adil picking up the front line spinner position. Also means we’ve got Woakes/Adil/Broad coming in at 8/9/10, which should give whoever is at 7 some partners to try and play with.
Mo is supping in the last chance saloon as a bowler, in my opinion. His numbers have deteriorated alarmingly over the last 18 months. He’s gone at 3.7 an over throughout his career - so he can’t bottle an end up - and his average in 15-15 is 51, which, frankly, is unbowlable. He should be our second spinner and (IMO) bat at 5 but Bairstow probably should be batting higher up, and Stokes has 6 locked down. Both Stokes and Anderson offer more than Ball and Finn - through no real fault of their own (thought Finn was unlucky not to get wickets in the 3rd innings in this game). As a batsman though, his numbers in England over the last 12 months are virtually identical to Joe Root’s (Mo averages 41.77, Joe nearly 40 - both have a century to their names, Joe has fewer not outs due to Mo batting further down the order) and, as such, probably deserve retention.
Agree with those saying don’t move Root to 3. This idea that your best batsmen should bat at 3 is a load of received wisdom, Australian bollocks. Viv Richards batted most of his career at 4 and was the best batsman on his side. Tendulkar batted at 4. Steve Waugh batted at 5. Sobers didn’t bat at 3. Boycott didn’t bat at 3. Gavaskar didn’t bat at 3. And on and on. This line of thinking seems to have arisen because Bradman batted at 3 and Australia like to put their best guy at 3. It’s not that you must play your best batsman at 3. It’s that you play your best batsman where he is comfortable and if that’s at 3, all well and good. Root’s record at 4 is good. He should have been left there.
ETA: Ball not being dropped for batting deficiencies. Ball being dropped because Jimmy Anderson is our best bowler, Broad warrants his place and Woakes is the form man.
Pakistan are unchanged.
England drop Ball for Anderson, and Finn for Stokes. Rashid stays out. (So full marks to Cumbrian).
Hales goes to Amir early.
He’s certainly shown this today. He’s weak to chasing wide ones and the bowlers know it - he may hit some beautiful 4s but he keeps getting drawn wider and wider. He should have been caught by Khan in the slips - an absolute sitter that hit him in the chest - but even after that chance he kept at it until he nicked one behind. I’m with you on this, he needs to go.
Gary Ballance is showing some application, though, and it’s great to see Root and Cook getting some runs.
Reality has reasserted itself in the second test. The punters had England as solid favorites going in, even after the first test loss. Hope Pakistan can regroup after this test, this series could be a great one.
Useless buggers. They need to drop Hafeez and Rahat. Play Azhar as an opener (which in first class he is) and bring in Rizwan and Sohail Khan.
Maybe take a risk and drop Sarfraz for Rizwan (who is a keeper also) and play an additional bowler; say Sohail or Zulfiqar Babar.
I think there is a definite need for Pakistan to find a fifth bowler from somewhere. 4 leaves them with perilously little margin for error. In this game, Wahab got hit on the elbow a couple of times whilst batting and then couldn’t bowl in England’s 3rd innings. If someone is getting handled by Cook/Root/Bairstow, then that situation could replicate itself with no injury involved. I think they need a little more flexibility.
On the other hand, this potentially shortens the batting order. A lot of problems would be solved by Younus solving that lifting back leg issue he’s developed and settling into the crease for some big partnerships - then the 5th bowler is fine. If the top order can’t put the runs up though, I don’t know what the answer is.
Looks like I am probably going to be wrong about Root at 3, though it’s still early days. I’m sticking to my guns on the fallacy of “your best bat MUST play 3” though. There are too many counter examples for it to be a cast iron rule.
Stokes injured. I’d like to see them play Rashid, shunt everyone a slot up the order - or switch Mo to play 6 - and take the pressure off Mo to be the front line spinner. They’ll need to play something like this in Bangladesh and India in the winter. Can’t see it though - more likely Finn or Ball comes back for Stokes in a like for like replacement in the bowling attack.
Some proper test cricket in Sri Lanka, with the host recording only their second Test victory over Australia thanks largely to an innings of 176 by Mendis.
In the second innings, Australia’s Peter Nevill got 9 runs off 115 balls, and Steve O’Keefe got 4 off 98, trying to save the game.
Wow, that is amazing! Apparently O’Keefe had a hamstring injury that prevented him from running, which partly accounts for it. Those must be two of the lowest strike rates on record (other than 0), but I can’t seem to find a stat to back that up.
England 80/3. Evenly poised. Sohail Khan seems to be a good addition.
Sami Aslam is supposed to be the next Saeed Anwar…God I hope so.
Geoff Allott scored 0 from 77 balls against South Africa in 1999.
Chris Tavare came to mind, but his 35 from 240 balls against India in 1982 makes his innings look attacking in comparison to Nevill & O’Keefe.
As a partnership, I wouldn’t imagine there has been a slower one.
Yes it was record breaking cricket:
from here.
Still fairly even, I think. England got more than Pakistan would hope, but not enough to really control the game. Pakistan’s batting tomorrow is going to be vital, England will not want to be chasing much 4th innings on this pitch.
Just as well they won’t be batting in the 4th innings, then :). Did you think they were going to skittle Pakistan and enforce the follow-on?
England need to precipitate a collapse here - all out for less than 400 would be a good result for them, par for Pakistan has to be around 500 and you’d expect them to go on and win from there, though it would in my view be only just if the weather punished them for their slow scoring rate. But they have done a much better Test batting performance so far than the England display. Amazing how it’s all turned around again just in one game.
Broad looking particularly innocuous so far, Cook taking some criticism from the commentary box for not using Woakes early enough, and it’s hard to disagree. I’d also question why they bothered to take the new ball last night, only to bring Root on just a few overs in. Easy to say with hindsight of course, but would it not have been better to take the new ball first thing this morning instead, with fresher bowlers? Sure, it could have cost a few extra runs last night, but England need wickets. I suppose had they taken a couple with the new ball last night, that would have justified the decision.
No, I just got confused 
Big lead for Pakistan here, but so far, England making good inroads into it without losing a wicket. Setting up for a really good game, actually!
Excellent batting by England today, really important innings by Mooen Ali. Bat a bit tomorrow, declare with 2 and a half sessions to spare!