England 2021-22 Ashes Tour

They should just come home now to save us any further embarassment.

Then we can discuss the sackings. First out of the door will be Silverwood.

^^ OK, sack Silverwood, he's no doubt made mistakes, the main one being selections. sack Root, he's poor tactically, & he deserves a break to focus on his batting, as this team can ill afford an out of form Root. A new coach & captain will only go so far in improving our fortunes.
A radical chance is required. The people that should be top of the list for the sack are the administrators of our game. What we are seeing in this series is the culminations of over a decade of neglect. The breeding ground for our Test Match players (4 day Championship Cricket) no longer serves this function in it's present form. The move from 3 to 4 day Championship Cricket (1993) was possibly the last positive move that was made, only last year a result was achieved in just over 1 day, that 4 completed innings, laughable.

Take Jos Buttler for example, clearly one of the games most talented batsmen, & is regarded as a great mind for the game, yet he has no idea how to go about constructing a Test Match innings. His long vigil in the 2nd Test was one of his few exceptions, but then, any fool could work out what was required to save a match. If he'd learnt his trade in Championship Cricket, he'd have come across all the different game situations, & apply this catalogue of knowledge when similar scenarios faced him in a Test Match. He played 10 matches in his 1st season at Lancashire in 2014, none the following year, & only 6 matches in the next 3 years, the last being just one match in 2018, & none since. He should never be considered to play a Test Match.

Going back to my original point, we now have a full generation of County Cricketers, playing in a system where they are limited in what they can achieve at the highest level. With batsmen brought up on a diet of medium pace, with a bowler friendly ball on poor pitches. Hardly ever face high pace on fast bouncy wickets or quality spin on tuning surfaces.
I wonder how many aspiring young cricketers believe they could have a future as a Test match player under the current system, the easier & potentially more financially rewarding option is to develop the skills required for T20 cricket, & potentially a longer career as well.
There's no doubt that batmen suffer the most in equipping themselves with the required tools to excel at Test level within our county set up. But bowlers need to learn how to take wickets on unresponsive surfaces, which in general is what you get in Australia, hence they produce better & more fast bowlers. The only plus that a bowler can take from the T20 game is variations, which can come in handy in a Test Match, but they still need overs under their belts in match situations to develop a stock ball. having a stock ball can be a disadvantage in a T20.
Sacking coaches & captains is like putting a sticking plaster on a fractured skull. The ECB need to get their house in order. The T20 format was suppose to somehow save our game, bringing in crowds & money, The Hundred was suppose to reinvigorate it further. The administrators have just got greedy, white-ball overkill at the expense of the Test Match format. For now the cash is still rolling in, & we are among only a handful of nations that have good Test Match attendance, but for how much longer will they come through the gates in these numbers ( I for one will not part with hard earned cash to watch a team incapable of competing.
Well done to the ECB for playing a major part in killing Test Cricket in our country, we are fast becoming a side not even worthy on Test Match status.

This calendar year Root has scored 1708 runs. The next nearest is Burns on 530. As has been said we need to get back to basics and develop batsmen who can play long innings and that means knowing how to defend. At present we don’t have openers who can “see off” opposition opening bowlers because they don’t have the technique. Major structural reform is needed.

Joe Root "The best 18 county players are on this tour"

Mark Ramprakash highlighted the fact that there were people within the ECB that believe that Championship Cricket isn't the best indicator for selecting our Test Match players. That's worrying, but I guess that some of these people with those views have been instrumental in weakening what should be our premier competition. As a result our teams & squads are a combination of world class white-ball cricketers who play little or no domestic red ball cricket, & players with decent domestic red-ball records & form that can't transfer that success into the Test Match arena, because the conditions that they play in championship cricket are a million miles removed from a Test Match.

Compare the 2 debutant bowlers for Australia in this series, both experienced at 32, & didn't look out of place.

(28-12-2021 17:48 )SecretAgent Wrote:  This calendar year Root has scored 1708 runs. The next nearest is Burns on 530. As has been said we need to get back to basics and develop batsmen who can play long innings and that means knowing how to defend. At present we don’t have openers who can “see off” opposition opening bowlers because they don’t have the technique. Major structural reform is needed.

Third in the run scorer rankings for England in 2021 is Extras.

Classy player that Extras.
Never gets out

No. of days in quarantine on arrival in Australia 14
No. of Days to lose Ashes series 12

England have set a new record for test match ducks by opening batsmen for a calendar year with 14.

The previous record was 9 by New Zealand in 1994 and Pakistan in 2002.

(28-12-2021 17:32 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  Take Jos Buttler for example, clearly one of the games most talented batsmen, & is regarded as a great mind for the game, yet he has no idea how to go about constructing a Test Match innings. His long vigil in the 2nd Test was one of his few exceptions, but then, any fool could work out what was required to save a match. If he'd learnt his trade in Championship Cricket, he'd have come across all the different game situations, & apply this catalogue of knowledge when similar scenarios faced him in a Test Match. He played 10 matches in his 1st season at Lancashire in 2014, none the following year, & only 6 matches in the next 3 years, the last being just one match in 2018, & none since. He should never be considered to play a Test Match.

He's never ever been a red ball player, the Somerset management worked him out years ago and told him straight that they didn't think he would every be good enough to get in Somerset CC side which is why he left, he's a great white ball player when he's not got time to think and going along on adrenaline but he just can't concentrate for hours in a slower game, that will never change, I think that fits a few of the England side at the moment

(28-12-2021 19:27 )KerrAvon Wrote:  Joe Root "The best 18 county players are on this tour"

Definitely not the best 18 county championship plays on that tour lol two totally different things and think sadly show how little Joe watches or knows of the CC , England player are to removed from the rest of the game in this country