England v West Indies 3 Match Test Series

A convincing win is a suitable ending to England's best ever bowler.
Jimmy Anderson ended his international career with 704 wickets which is 3rd in the list behind Warne and Muralitharan.

But time catches up with all of us and Jimmy is now approaching his 42 birthday. He will probably return to the England squad as a bowling coach.

The quality of catching really stood out for me.
Harry Brook and Ollie Pope in particular took some absolute corkers.

(13-07-2024 07:09 )Charlemagne Wrote:  A convincing win is a suitable ending to England's best ever bowler.
Jimmy Anderson ended his international career with 704 wickets which is 3rd in the list behind Warne and Muralitharan.

But time catches up with all of us and Jimmy is now approaching his 42 birthday. He will probably return to the England squad as a bowling coach.

I believe Jimmy new role will be as a mentor rather than an out an out coach, so not heavily focused on the technical side of bowling, more of an open role were bowlers will come to him for advice, he will offers input on how to bowl in certain situations, field placings, against specific batsmen on different wickets. He has a wealth of experience which will be invaluable to such a young bowling group will limited International experience.
With Woakes 35 & Wood 34, both have been blighted by injuries, Anderson's help will be invaluable.

Really sad that the West Indies couldn't offer more resistance. Playing in England for both bowlers & batsmen presents very unique challenges. For the batsmen, No.s 2-5 had only 10 Test caps between them going into the 1st match, they will have to learn very quickly to prevent more one-sided results like this.
It is worth pointing out that the great West Indies sides of old played mainly first class cricket, & most had long County careers in England, the T20 circus has robbed an era of their best players.
The stand-out bowler for the West Indies was Seales who has played 4 day cricket for Sussex this season, as has Holder.

Fast bowler Mark Wood has been added to the Test Squad, with a hope that he will be available for selection in the 2nd & 3rd Tests, after a short break from cricket after the T20 World Cup. Wood is injury prone & his work-load has to be carefully managed.

2nd Test England v West Indies - Trent Bridge Day 1 Close
Toss - West Indies elected to field
England 416 (88.3 overs) Pope 121 no Duchkett 71 Stokes 69 Woakes 37 Brook 36 Smith 36 A Joseph 3-98 Hodge 44-2 Sinclair 2-73 Seales 2-90

England bring in Mark Wood for the retired Jimmy Anderson, West Indies make one enforced change with Motie unable to play due to illness, Sinclair comes in.

Before the start of play the Trent Bridge Pavilion End was officially renamed The Stuart Broad End, with an unveiling ceremony performed by Stuart, with his family in attendance.

Ben Duckett's partner is expecting a baby, imminently, he already looks like a man in a hurry as he has raced to a quickfire half-century coming off just 32 balls with 11 fours.
Today has all the hallmarks of a Bazball reset.

West Indies dragged it back a little after the Duckett onslaught, although Pope has been no slouch, hr was given a life when a sharp chance went down, he needs to make them pay with a 3 figure score. If any batsman is under pressure to perform Pope is that man, since he has been backed by Stokes & Baz to take on the difficult number 3 role & has added responsibility as a vice-captain. He has a modest Test average of 34 after 44 matches, his talent should be delivering more. Dan Lawrence is waiting for a chance.