Printable View
No 100's in Australia live rent free in Joe Root's head
You have to wonder if some of the "cricket experts" of Fleet Street have ever faced a Kookaburra at any where near genuine pace. They use terms like gutless, inept, "less stout hearts than sacrificial lambs" as if they themselves are made of sterner stuff. We've seen Australian teams torn to shreds by the Aussie press for poor sportsmanship and cheating; but I don't recall such savage language about on-field efforts.
I'm as disappointed as anyone that Tests 3 & 4 won't be live contests, barring a miracle. But I think England's problem mainly stems from a lack of red ball cricket. Most of their side has played only a hand full of County Cricket matches. Whereas Covid has conspired to allow many of our Test players lots more Shield Cricket than they otherwise might get in. That doesn't mitigate poor selections and tactics, but it's a different question.
This is gutless from England, I've remember back as far as the 90/91 Ashes and I reckon this is legit the worst English side I've ever seen.
Dave Warner, Steve Smith, Alex Carey, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc didn't play any Shield Cricket as they were playing at the T20 World Cup.
Ashes series in Australia have been decided by the 3rd Test in almost every tour since 98/99 other than the series that England won in 2010/11. In the other couple of series since 1990/91 England have been 2-0 down after two Tests.
Edit: It's been something like 4010 days since England won a Test in Australia.
The best showing from England this cricket series is their continued high quality commentary team. Isa Guha, Alison Mitchell and now Izzy Westbury how good are they.
Even I would have had some difficulty with the Australian bowling attack,on that pitch!
Well there's the proof, Jargs. Gutless is over the top. Even Gunny would have had his stumps smashed by the peach that undid Stokes today.
That's one of the most bowler friendly pitches we've seen in some time. But I don't disagree that this is the worst England Test sides in quite a while.
Bowler friendly pitch? It had a little bit of grass on it but it's hardly a green monster.
England's batsman have simply been insipid against a world class pace attack and a bald man - the price England pay for going all in on white ball Cricket.
Top 3 run scorers for England this year:
1. Root
2. Burns
3. Extras
Yep. Our lot looked likely to have a similar 1st dig total for a long period. We'll never know, but they may have been in a similar situation barring the toss and a bit of luck.
My original point. The seasoned incumbents aside Harris, Head, Green, Boland, Carey, Labuschage, have all played a good deal of first class cricket.Quote:
England's batsman have simply been insipid against a world class pace attack and a bald man - the price England pay for going all in on white ball Cricket.
Agree to disagree on the gutless then. You have to have plenty just to face first class pace.
on to 20/20--is a waist high full toss considered a dangerous ball?
Harris and Head weren't exactly setting the world on fire in the shield and Harris struggled until he managed to scrape 70 off yesterday. Green is a talent and will be a great player once he fixes up a few things. Point is most of the major contributors weren't playing a lot of Red Ball Cricket either.
The English side looked like they hadn't played a game of Red Ball Cricket in years yet have played 15 Tests in 2021. Ben Stokes was rushed back after not having played for 6 months which was gamble but the rest of them look like they don't know which of the bat to hold. Some of them like Hameed only average 30 in First Class Cricket in England.
Team selections have also culled any chance England had given both Anderson and Broad should have played in Brisbane and Broad should have played in Melbourne on a wicket that was doing a little bit.
are the scorchers just treating this game as a practice match,or is there a Indian bookie in the stands?
Travis Head ruled out of the 4th Test after testing positive for covid