West Indies v England 2019 Tour

England 56/0 at stumps.

Absolutely outstanding. expected this in the odi. And to think that the Aussies have problems leading into the ashes

No wickets in a whole day's play after 18 wickets on the previous day.

The 2nd test starts today from Antigua.
Joe Denley's replacing Keaton Jennings as openner, but they could have replaced most of the team.

I think a lot of the time on this tour they will likely use the different opening pairings to fill the gap left by Alistair Cook's retirement. I have always hoped that the West Indies would eventually find a team that can bring back the 'calypso cricket' times of the past ad maybe this team might be the one as I often feel that cricket without a strong, competitive west Indies team is a different sport altogether.

(31-01-2019 09:51 )Charlemagne Wrote:  Joe Denley's replacing Keaton Jennings as openner, but they could have replaced most of the team.

There will be more changes than that surely, as Stuart Broad must be included this time. Jack Leach may get selected too.

As for replacing most of the team, why would they want to do that? OK the first test was lost by 381 runs, but at the moment all test countries have the habit of collapsing and suffering heavy defeats. Only today India were bowled out by New Zealand for 92 (in an ODI admittedly). Panic measures in the face of defeats only make things worse.

At least England will have greater match readiness this time as they didn't look very well prepared for the first test.

Denly's not the future though as he's only a year younger than Sir Alistair Cook!

(31-01-2019 13:30 )William H Bonney Wrote:  As for replacing most of the team, why would they want to do that?

All the batting was unprepared. Keaton Jennings is being replace but he also was unprepared. Therefore if you replace one of them you could easily replace all of them.
And why do they need three wicketkeeper?
And they need both Broad and Woakes back in the team.

They are picking three keepers because there are no specialist batsman good enough to take their place. The lower order has been bailing England out of trouble for the last couple of years, unfortunately they were due for a failure and it exposed just how vulnerable the top order is. The openers are incapable of putting together a decent partnership which means Root and the middle order are exposed to the new ball far too early and the collapse is on.

(31-01-2019 13:49 )Charlemagne Wrote:  All the batting was unprepared. Keaton Jennings is being replace but he also was unprepared. Therefore if you replace one of them you could easily replace all of them.

Jennings isn't being dropped because he was unprepared. He's being dropped because after 16 tests he averages only 25.86 - and he only seems to score runs against spin bowling, which the West Indies don't use very much.