England 2021-22 Ashes Tour

Cracks are starting to appear, with Roots criticism of his bowlers, surely he's actually having a go at his own ability to get his message across. There was an belief before the tour that whilst this wasn't the attack that they may have chosen, with only Wood possessing genuine pace, that they could bowl with accuracy, contain & force errors. Australia countered that, in the periods that England controlled, they showed patience, & left well. England haven't had the penetration to take regular wickets, & Australia have cashed in late in the innings. Anderson & Broad have a history of bowling a touch too short, with very few balls hitting the stumps, which leaves catches as the main form of dismissal, which we tend to drop. They extract a lot less movement in Australia, so shy away from a fuller length, more bothered about saving runs than taking wickets, you don't win many matches without taking wickets, & we haven't even come close to getting a draw. The quicker Australia bowlers can afford to bowl fuller, but Robinson is a tall bowler with a high action, which gets bounce, & he has pitched the ball up the most, & got rewards.
Silverwood has said that he would pick the same sides again if given a second chance, as an ex-bowler he if at fault with selection & tactics.

Rory Burns is supposedly being replaced by Zak Crawkey for the 3rd test.

To give us a chance can Aus not play their two best batters and two best bowlers this time?!

Test Match Rankings
Batsmen :- 1-Labuschagne 2-Root 3-Smith 6-Warner 10-Head 25-Stokes 36-Burns 38-Buttler 58-Pope 74-Bairstow 82-Crawley
Bowlers :- 1-Cummins 5-Hazlewood 8-Anderson 9-Starc 15-Broad 18-Lyon 25-Robinson 28-Woakes 36-Leach 39-Stokes 40-Wood
Allrounders :- 5-Stokes 6-Starc 8-Cummins 9-Woakes 10-Root

Again Root has said he believes Australia aren't that much better than England, the rankings above are further evidence that he's deluded.

Starc looks set to play, but Hazlewood has been declared unfit.

(23-12-2021 13:58 )Whynot Wrote:  To give us a chance can Aus not play their two best batters and two best bowlers this time?!

Knowing England they would contrive to lose by an even bigger margin in that scenario

3rd Ashes Test MCG

Australia - Warner, Harris, Labuschagne, Smith, Head, Green, Carey (wk) Cummins © Starc, Boland, Lyon

England - Hameed, Crawley, Malan, Root © Stokes, Bairstow, Buttler (wk) Robinson, Wood, Leach, Anderson

For Australia, Cummins returns s captain in place of Neser, & Jhye Richardson out with a leg injury, Scott Boland will make his debut.

For England out go Burns, Pope, Woakes & Broad, in come Crawley, Bairstow, Wood & Leach

Root needs 159 runs seta new World record for Test Match runs in a calendar year.

Smith needs 46 runs to pass coach Justin Langer, & warner needs 13 to pass former captain Mark Taylor

..& I've saved the best (worst0 until last, England are 5 ducks away from equaling their duck-est year in 1998, when they totaled 54.

60 ducks and 6 batting collapses to go then