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[stevat]

Joking, but Stoneman and Jennings will continue to score big in the Championship - has to be about more than weight of runs.  Jennings I think was a bit unlucky today, awful shot (if you could call it that) but that ball shifted a mile to pin him, great delivery.

Do like Burns though, has to be worth a shot.

[Mister Le Chiffre]

Worth bearing in mind regarding Bell's supposed renaissance that his stats for the season are offset by his minnow bashing against Glamorgan whom are the worst side in division two.

Bell has 871 runs at 61 across the season, yet not bad. But he's got 425 off those against Glamorgan out only once. Against the other sides he's averaging a rather modest 34. So he's hardly the overwhelming choice to address the batting woes.

I don't see how Root going down to 4 would improve us. Root and Bairstow are the two best batsmen by a country mile. The side should be built around them batting at 3 and 4.

For the Oval I'd like to see
Burns
Vince
Root
Bairstow
Moeen
Stokes
Buttler
Curran
Woakes
Rashid
Anderson

Stokes should be ok to bowl so we maintain four fast bowler. Moeen has 30 first hundreds give him the responsibility to bat 5. Buttler shouldn't be above 7 and Stokes averages nearly 40 at 6. Fresh openers, Burns averages mid 40s it's his home ground no brainer. Vince can come in and add to impetus ala Sehwag/Warner.

[thedon]

I think India's bowling was very good..let's give them some credit...wasn't all down to bad batting!

[northernboy1987]

England don't generally like to make big changes during a series nowadays but if Jennings fails second innings and they don't see him being the opener in the winter then I'd like Burns to come in for the last test, give him a home test (nationally and his home ground at county) before dumping him into the thick of it on Sri Lankan sandpits.

[mad_abt_cricket]

Get Butler open the innings with Cook. He can be 'the Sehwag' for England with his clarity and see ball hit ball approach. Aggressive approach can put any bowling attack under pressure.

[Kulli]

Get Butler open the innings with Cook. He can be 'the Sehwag' for England with his clarity and see ball hit ball approach. Aggressive approach can put any bowling attack under pressure.

Combined with his discs lined ability not to chase wide ones?

[mad_abt_cricket]

Combined with his discs lined ability not to chase wide ones?

Obviously he will need to be more selective. There is too much emphasis on technique, while most important thing is clarity of mind and keeping it simple. Over thinking leads to dismissals like Jennings and Root. Sehwag' had a minimal footwork. Hardly anyone gave him a chance to succeed at Test level, let alone as an opener. Great hand eye coordination, still head, clutter free mind and positive approach despite minimal footwork was key to his success. Butler has identical attributes. He has shown with couple of centuries since his come back. He must have also tackled the second new ball at the number he comes in. I personally don't see a harm going with this positive approach as if he clicks England will end up scoring 350 in a day more often than not. England T20 and one day setup has this mentality since past couple of years,hence the success. With such long batting lineup even in tests they can afford to take this aggressive approach.

[Bats_Entertainment]

It's almost like people haven't been paying attention.

[stevat]

Obviously he will need to be more selective. There is too much emphasis on technique, while most important thing is clarity of mind and keeping it simple. Over thinking leads to dismissals like Jennings and Root. Sehwag' had a minimal footwork. Hardly anyone gave him a chance to succeed at Test level, let alone as an opener. Great hand eye coordination, still head, clutter free mind and positive approach despite minimal footwork was key to his success. Butler has identical attributes. He has shown with couple of centuries since his come back. He must have also tackled the second new ball at the number he comes in. I personally don't see a harm going with this positive approach as if he clicks England will end up scoring 350 in a day more often than not. England T20 and one day setup has this mentality since past couple of years,hence the success. With such long batting lineup even in tests they can afford to take this aggressive approach.

India had Dravid and Tendulkar and Laxman and Dhoni to fall back on mind if Sehwag failed.  He was a great player, but crucially part of an even better team with probably the best batting line up of all time.  I'm not sure Buttler could be allowed to free his mind in quite the same way that Sehwag was allowed to.

[SLA]

It's almost like people haven't been paying attention.

England collapsed under the weight of Andy Flower's ego from being the indisputable best test team in the world between 2010 to 2012 (albeit against limited competition) to being an absolute laughing stock in the 2013/14 Ashes.

and here's the thing, despite having a handful of good players (Anderson in particular), and despite playing some of the weakest opposition in living memory, they've never actually recovered. They're default position is still to be just as incomprehensibly awful as they were down under in 13/14.

There have been the occasional brief flashes of competence, mostly against South Africa for some reason, but the normal service of the past 5 years has actually been of crushing incompetence on a level not seen since the 1980s, and possibly ever. This is without doubt, far and away the weakest England test team I have ever seen, and I watched all through the 90s. The sad thing is, they've (No Swearing Please) with the domestic set-up to such an extent, and repeatedly promoted failing coaches into positions of increased responsibility, that we don't currently look capable of ever producing a test quality cricketer ever again. Sam Curran is probably the best prospect and he's half Zimbabwean and has only been tested in home conditions anyway.


But on the bright side, we're good at ODIs, the one format that hardly anyone cares about and will probably soon be abandoned.

[mad_abt_cricket]

India had Dravid and Tendulkar and Laxman and Dhoni to fall back on mind if Sehwag failed.  He was a great player, but crucially part of an even better team with probably the best batting line up of all time.  I'm not sure Buttler could be allowed to free his mind in quite the same way that Sehwag was allowed to.

India had Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman much before Sehwag' started to open. India whatever success outside subcontinent started when Sehwag' and Gambhir clicked as an opener and started giving India a positive start more often than not. Before them, Indian opening was all about finding a scapegoat to face the music, be it Nayan Mongia, Parthiv Patel etc. England has more than decent batting lineup which goes way down. They need to trust their ability and play positive. I appreciate Kohli for showing guts and playing with only 5 specialist batsmen. Except him none of the rest have shown sign of consistency so far. With this long tail, once India is 6 down rest 4 comes off real cheap. England is gifted with multitude of genuine all-rounders. They should learn from Butler and Sam Curran's positive approach when it comes to batting.

[mad_abt_cricket]

On a different note, I was bit surprised by India's tactics against Sam Curran. They kept bowling at him from over the wicket. Looking at his technique he likes to keep himself leg side to the ball and capitalize on any width outside off,somewhat similar to Bairstow. Would love to see Ishant and rest from around the wicket taking the ball away from him, much like they have been doing to Cook and Jennings.

[SLA]

On a different note, I was bit surprised by India's tactics against Sam Curran. They kept bowling at him from over the wicket. Looking at his technique he likes to keep himself leg side to the ball and capitalize on any width outside off,somewhat similar to Bairstow. Would love to see Ishant and rest from around the wicket taking the ball away from him, much like they have been doing to Cook and Jennings.

Bowl at the stumps and the batsman has to play at it, combine this with movement away and you might get a nick. Doesn't really matter which side of the stumps you bowl. The only advantage to going round the wicket to a LHB is that you're less likely to get an lbw denied for the ball pitching outside leg.

[mad_abt_cricket]

Bowl at the stumps and the batsman has to play at it, combine this with movement away and you might get a nick. Doesn't really matter which side of the stumps you bowl. The only advantage to going round the wicket to a LHB is that you're less likely to get an lbw denied for the ball pitching outside leg.

Not the same thing, over the wicket you can't target the stumps with the bowl going across and it is much comfortable angle for left handers to leave the ball. Agressive left handers like Curran and De cock pounce even on slightest of width from over the wicket.

[SLA]

Not the same thing, over the wicket you can't target the stumps with the bowl going across and it is much comfortable angle for left handers to leave the ball. Agressive left handers like Curran and De cock pounce even on slightest of width from over the wicket.

The only difference between a bowler bowling over the wicket vs round the wicket is where the ball can pitch for lbw - over the wicket the ball is more likely to pitch outside leg, round the wicket the ball is more likely to hit the pad outside off. There is no other difference. There is no difference in angle - its just a trick of the camera.