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[rickjames]

I must have missed the 20 test match centuries that Watto made

Score in the 40s or under 10 for the past year. Time for a change.

[edge]

Time for the new generation of England batsmen to show us they can bat long, this test match is by no means unsaveable. Probably too much depends on Root though.

Cook and Root both struggling with injury today is terrifying...

[smilley792]

Hales and Taylor in for root and cook at this point!


Not much batting left in the squad. Patel picked for spin may get the gig for his batting!

Let pray no more injuries

[rickjames]

I think Cook will be fine, he's invincible. Have 6 days between the tomorrow and the next test as well.

Keep Root in, play for the draw, job done.

[kdale6]

Anyone else feel like shah has been a bit overrated? No doubt he's decent but he's not lethal. Just from a spectator point of view I'd rather watch rashid as he gives it a bit more air and turns it more. I'd rather see the millionaire Arthur Mailey type of leggie who goes for runs but can produce the spectacular. We know bowling quicker on these decks can be preferable but,whilst rashid has the opposite problem, Shah does get a bit flat with his trajectory and that's as bad as giving the batsmen more time to choose their shot as it's easier to track.

Agreed, I watched some videos of his bowling in YouTube and he picks up a lot of his wickets with catches on the boundary when people take him on

Seems v good, but not he messiah of leg spin he's made out to be

[smilley792]

Joe root to 3000 runs. Only cook faster in terms of age.
And beats kps record by 1 innings.!

[rickjames]

It's 6:15. It's too early for this...

[smilley792]

It's 6:15. It's too early for this...

Wish it was! I leave for work in 4minutes. Already walked me dogs.

[rickjames]

It's half term so my working hours are half days. And to think I'm up for this...

Bat the day out plz lads

[edge]

I'm into my second week of six or seven laid up off work, thank goodness for cricket to keep me sane!

Previous generation of the England team had a habit of big Collingwood-inspired blockouts for a draw, hopefully the newer lads can follow on... shiiiiit as I type Root goes

Chance for Bairstow to prove he belongs and nail down an England spot for a good while here.

[rickjames]

We are losing this match by a rather large margin

[Kulli]

Still an outside chance of saving this but hard to see it given the two recognised batsmen left are both in bad for and complete dashers, probably more chance of these two chasing it down than batting out two sessions!

[smilley792]

Bye bye buttler. Hopefully see you in the limited overs stuff sometime!

[gazr5]

Has Buttler produced any notable score in tests? I also hear that Bairstow is the better keeper but I've never really seen Bairstow keep

[ppccopener]

I don't think Bairstow is a better keeper but there's not much between them. Butler is just in a rut and low on confidence, it happens......

England have invested a lot in him but it might be time to play him in the shorter format where he can play more freely.

Bairstow can 'do a job' keeping and we could get either hales or taylor in the side.

Have to say it was obviously Ali opening was not going to work and it's proved that way. I don't think Hales is the answer either so we are in a sticky situation.

we will go down 1-0 shortly so might be time to give utler a game off in the next match and try to find form in the one dayers and t20