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[SD]

It is a cause for concern when you see the fitness gap between those coming from county cricket into the international game.  Talent is one thing - there aren't enough good players to fill 18 professional sides and this has been made worse by the international calendar restricting quality overseas players and by Brexit removing the Kolpak route - but there is absolutely no excuse for poor fitness. 

[Jimbo]

You'd think that the performance pathways should be emphasising the importance of excellent fitness to all the players coming through, nobody should really get to the test side without an ECB coach seeing them and assessing their fitness.

[Buzz]

Surrey's very much does.
Anyway good days cricket today, Blundell batting brilliantly to keep NZ in the game.
Breezy start from Duckett and Crawley before Chaos with Stuart Nighthawk Broad.
Really hope England can bat all of tomorrow and build a huge lead.
No idea where that fits into Bazball world though.

[Jimbo]

If they bat as they have done and bat all day it'll be one hell of a lead 😅 I hope Root ticks along at good pace rather than trying to force it. Him, Pope and Foakes balancing out likes of Stokes, Bairstow, Duckett, Brook seems like the most obvious refinement of BazBall.

[Manormanic]

It is a cause for concern when you see the fitness gap between those coming from county cricket into the international game.  Talent is one thing - there aren't enough good players to fill 18 professional sides and this has been made worse by the international calendar restricting quality overseas players and by Brexit removing the Kolpak route - but there is absolutely no excuse for poor fitness.

Though...until you get onto an international contract, you have no way of limiting the amount of cricket you are asked to play.  As a result, I think a lot of county players play through niggles and tiredness, and probably don't have the time for the elite level strength and fitness work that is required at the top level of the game - maybe with the exception of Surrey, who have a good program on the back of being able to finance a huge squad in professional terms.

[DiscoStu]

The quality of strength and conditioning programmes must vary wildly across county teams. And getting access to good training equipment and spaces when you are on the road for weeks on end must be an issue as well as eating correctly. Central contracts mean the top players can devote much more time to getting their bodies right. So for those coming into the England set up there may be a gap before they get into optimimum shape.

EDIT: I think I'm just repeating @Manormanic 's point

[Jimbo]

One of 'those' Broad spells, lovely stuff.

[Buzz]

Batting under lights doesn't seem fun.
What Broad (and Robinson and Anderson) is doing here is really attacking the stumps.

This is a change when we have for years bowled too short or in the channel.

Forget the batting. This is the biggest change that Stokes and Baz have brought to the Eng team and we have got 20 wickets in every single test.

[SD]

Surrey's very much does.

Dom Sibley came through the Surrey pathway and was one of those highlighted as being well below the fitness levels required to play for England.

It's now twenty years since Michael Vaughan persuaded the ECB to provide funding for every county to employ a fitness coach to improve standards across the domestic game but it appears to me to be far to amateur in the standards demanded of players

[billyb]

Well, that didn't take long.

[rickjames]

Didn't realise we hadn't won in NZ for 15 years. Jesus. Wish Broad would have spells like that more often - doesn't do it anywhere near enough like he used to.

Brook is an absolute star

[FattusCattus]

There is some nucleus here (and I'm not fool enough to think that some of them will have some form problems with the pace that 'Bazball' is played at).

I'm pleasantly surprised by Pope and Duckett, doing better than I thought, and Brook seems to be a superstar, as well as Foakes chipping in.

I still think that Robinson will be an understated superstar in the way that Fraser was.

My only concerns are whether Crawley will run the race and how much rope Leach will get.

What price a test attack in 18 months time of:

Stokes
Ahmed
Robinson
Potts / Mahmood
Stone

[Jimbo]

Still think that would be very early to throw Ahmed into conditions that don't lend themselves to legspin, but then with the way they prioritise wickets in this team now it might afford him the extra leeway needed to make a success of it.

[FattusCattus]

Would he be any less potent than Leach?

I'm sure he has his supporters, but Jack just doesn't feel like the real deal or a match-winner to me.

[Jimbo]

Potentially not, although I think Leach is one of those where you do almost miss how decent his stats are because of the image he projects. Ahmed would certainly add more with the bat.