England's cricket tour to Bangladesh

Second test Day 4 Mirpur

Bangladesh 2nd innings 172/6 off 68 overs

Bangladesh only have a lead of 95 runs with 4 wickets in hand although Shakib Al Hasan is unbeaten on 25 he is the key man for Bangladesh and if they lose him early on then im backing England to win this 2nd test and take the series.

654321, in answer to your question over Tremlett he has a few injuries not as worst as Simon Jones but have kept him out of action, he has moved from Hampshire up to Surrey (I think???) though so hope his career can pick back up now with the move.

Trott, would be the batsman I would drop but I don't like it now they look at him as a number 3, he came in at 5 and on debut gets that century. But I would of kept him there and have Bell or Pietersen up at three, mind you back in the summer I would of picked Rob Key for The Oval test.

Morgan could be the next batsman to get a go. I think perhaps we could have rotation for a couple of spots this summer, Bangladesh over here and what could be a weak Pakistan side. I'm not talking about handing out caps here and there like crazy but give Morgan a couple of matches, rotate Finn and Onions (although he is injured for the early part of the season). Need six pace bowlers for the Ashes down under, Tredwell if he stays in form is a like-for-like replacement for Swann, Davies needs a couple more international games to get used to the step up but he is a worthy number two keeper to take next winter. Batsmen reverse list would include Carberry, Bopara, Morgan and maybe Moore one of them go as a back up batsman to the five in the side at the minute and AS obviously.

As far as giving players a chance goes, i'm going to throw young Adil Rashid into the mix....What the hell are the selectors doing with him? Leg spinners that can actually turn the ball are like gold dust and this kid can handle a bat as well, it's farcical that we've dumped him back into county cricket after only two or three one day games.

Sure, he got tonked around a bit, but that is what the one day game is all about and it was quite clear that S.A picked him out as a target and zeroed in on him. Surely a tour to Bangladesh with two test matches in it would have been the ideal platform to give the kid a go?

He clearly has talent, the aussies wouldn't have hesitated putting him in their test team if he had showed such promise as an australian.

Second test Day 5 Mirpur

Bangladesh 2nd innings 285 all out off 102 overs

England 2nd innings 209/1 off 44 overs

England won by 9 wickets and take the test series 2-0

Shakib Al Hasan was the top scorer for Bangladesh in the 2nd innings with 96 but overall England won the match with ease.

Well, the tour is over and England somehow managed to avoid humiliating themselves against a side who, with the greatest of respect and best wishes for a group of talented young players in the future, are a bit rubbish. What have we learned from the winter tours that we can take forward? I've put together a list of bullet points of the nuggets we've picked up in R.S.A. and Bangladesh...

1. Stuart Broad is an annoying, sulky little tit.

2. Graeme Swann is our strike bowler in the absence of Jimmy Anderson.

3. Tim Bresnan might yet become the new Gus Fraser or Matthew Hoggard, provided he's able to remember to bowl line and length instead of trying to be the world's fattest, whitest, least convincing Malcolm Marshall impersonator.

4. Paul Collingwood is actually Alan Ball in disguise. He's short, ginger, does nothing with any great level of skill, yet somehow manages to tie everything else together so that the team functions incorrectly without him in it. Its a puzzling but fundamental truth of the current England squad.

5. Steve Finn is really very tall indeed. Since he's only played against Bangladesh, I'm reserving any further judgement beyond the blindingly obvious. (Even the height thing may be deceptive, since the Bangladeshi squad seems to consist of Tamim Iqbal, plus a huge selection of left arm spinning, middle order batting midgets. He could turn out to be relatively normal in height, as opposed to the freakishly tall, gangling collection of wind-milling arms and legs that Bell, Collingwood and the Bangladesh team make him look.)

6. Alastair Cooke is an attacking batsmen, whose captaincy makes that of Mike Atherton look innovative and aggressive.

7. With the exception of Bangladesh, every test nation in the world is better than us. Why we keep doing well is a mystery on a par with the Marie Celeste or how Paul Harris keeps taking wickets.

8. Ian Bell only scores runs when it looks like he's about to be dropped.

9. Matt Prior is not a no.6 batsman, however much he, the selectors and the English public want him to be. We should all accept this fact, then either drop him and try to find someone who provides better balance, or play with four bowlers and hope against hope that our mediocre seamers can somehow shine.

10. Kevin Pietersen is a dickhead. This isn't based on anything in particular over the winter, I just don't like the man.

10 a. Vikram Solanki is the dullest pundit EVER. He makes those interchangeable Aussies who commentate on the IPL sound like Aggers, Bumble, Sidhu or Shastri.

That about covers it for England. Away from partisan and nationalistic concerns, let me just say that the West Indies vs Zimbabwe series has shown me that my new favourite player is Ray Price. Moderately talented off-spinners with no great flight, variation, or mystery deliveries should not behave like Glenn McGrath or Allan Donald on the rampage. Price however, is blissfully unaware of this unwritten rule and behaves like the most belligerent of fast bowlers. Long may this scowling hobgoblin continue to erroneously think he's terrorising batsmen with his inoffensive, nude and predictable finger spinners.



^^^ My new hero!^^^

"Kevin Pietersen is a dickhead. This isn't based on anything in particular over the winter, I just don't like the man."

Everyone knows that K.P is an arse of the first order, weirdly enough i reckon that he knows it too.....

But so long as he scores bucketfulls of runs (particularly starting around November) i really don't give a shit and i reckon that the selectors and his team mates think along similar lines.

"With the exception of Bangladesh, every test nation in the world is better than us. Why we keep doing well is a mystery on a par with the Marie Celeste or how Paul Harris keeps taking wickets"


Gotta call you on that one.

The Windies are better than us? They're a complete shambles, root and branch. Currently every aspect of their test cricket is a mess, the playing staff, the selectors, the exec's in the boardroom, the whole shebang.

colino Wrote:Everyone knows that K.P is an arse of the first order, weirdly enough i reckon that he knows it too.....

But so long as he scores bucketfulls of runs (particularly starting around November) i really don't give a shit and i reckon that the selectors and his team mates think along similar lines.

He puts me in mind of Boycott, although his batting style is the complete opposite of course. Universally loathed, but tolerated because of his innate ability to score runs and fix his technique the moment a deficiency appears. Like any true cricket fan with a rabid dislike of a player, I shall of course continue to beat the drum for his removal from the side at the slightest hint of a shortcoming, then pretend I did no such thing, when he corrects said shortcoming. This two-facedness is my right as an English cricket fan, I'm sure it's written in the Magna Carta or something.

(25-03-2010 19:55 )Mister Gummidge Wrote:  He puts me in mind of Boycott, although his batting style is the complete opposite of course. Universally loathed, but tolerated because of his innate ability to score runs and fix his technique the moment a deficiency appears.

Spot on.

As a comparison, i wish i'd have thought of it.

(25-03-2010 19:47 )colino Wrote:  "With the exception of Bangladesh, every test nation in the world is better than us. Why we keep doing well is a mystery on a par with the Marie Celeste or how Paul Harris keeps taking wickets"


Gotta call you on that one.

The Windies are better than us? They're a complete shambles, root and branch. Currently every aspect of their test cricket is a mess, the playing staff, the selectors, the exec's in the boardroom, the whole shebang.

In truth? Yes, I think they're better than us. Or at least more gifted. If Windies had the administrative stability and consistent leadership that England have had over the past ten years or so (barring the brief disaster that was K.P. as captain) and, most importantly, the financial growth English cricket (at the national - rather than county- level) has had, they'd be in a much stronger position than England are right now. Despite the consistent downturns in popularity of cricket as a sport in the Caribbean, the Windies have still produced Sarwan, Bravo, Chanderpaul and a few genuinely quick bowlers (Best, Roach and Edwards for a start), who would have benefited greatly from the support structure England have for young seamers.

In terms of talent, I think the Windies have several more gifted batsmen than we do. The seam bowling departments are about level in terms of natural talent, we have a world class spinner, which the Windies have lacked for, well, at least 50 years, maybe they've never had one? The extra batting ability they have on us shades the overall talent on display in their favour. Where they fall down is in terms of coaching, training, administration and at the moment, morale. A buoyant, confident Windies side would probably beat the current England side. At least on paper. The Aussies and the Saffers should have murdered us, hell they very often did murder us, yet somehow we're unbeaten in test series since last summer began... Therein lies the mystery of England's current run of good results.

Do I honestly think that every test nation is better than we are? Probably not. I think we should have the measure of Pakistan and New Zealand. I just wanted an opportunity to make the joke about Paul Harris' bowling. (As if anyone who's watched him bowl thinks jokes are needed. )