England v West Indies, 3rd Test, Edgbaston, 7-11 June, 2012

SO, the Brezmeister has redeemed himself. No changes for England for T3?

Can Lara, Richardson, Dessy and Gordon come out of retirement for the Ganjas?

Narine in, Shillingford out.

The only change for England could be Finn for Jimmykins. I think they'll give bairstow another chance.

JKLever wrote:The only change for England could be Finn for Jimmykins. I think they'll give bairstow another chance.

Is Jimmeh injured?

Nah, resting I imagine. Dead rubber contest. SAF just on the horizon. They'll want him fit all summer.

Don't imagine, Smerk, get the news. His own captain says he's got a "quad niggle". Stick that one in your pipe and and blow bubbles.

Step up Graham Onions.

Cheers lads. Quad strain. Sounds like 4 hammy tears.

He'd probs be alright to play, so initial mumblings are going. They are maybe just thinking about capitalising on a rare dead rubber.

Prolly a fair call. No point in bowling one of your best into the ground with the SAffie series just around the corner.

Looking forward to that. Carn Engulund.

The punditry's all like 'ooh, he's too proud, no-one wants to miss a game for England, he'll be looking to pick up quite a few wickets, add to his tally'. They don't care that he's not a machine, do they. I'm all like 'series won, dole out the restage'. But, that's me in a nutshell. I see it doubly advantageous as we can see how a couple of back-up bowlers are fairing up in case of mid-SA series injury. But, that's me not in a nutshell but in a very convoluted and painful way.

I'd rest both Jimmy and Broad and bring in Finn and Onions. But it's likely that only Jimmy will get a break. Bairstow gets another chance.

are there any non pomgolians not barracking for the windies?

aside from Skully are there other non pomgolians who will barrack for the Poms when they play against the saffies..woops.... aside from red

Even as an English supporter i've been hoping for a contest from the Windies. And to be fair, for 75% of the games it has been. It's just those horror sessions they have that completely swing the game in the opposition's favour.

I was a bit disappointed when Rampaul steered it to slip yesterday as Marlon was just starting to open his shoulders and if he'd been able to get them a 180 lead it could have been very interesting.

Henry wrote:I'd rest both Jimmy and Broad and bring in Finn and Onions. But it's likely that only Jimmy will get a break. Bairstow gets another chance.

I, too, would give them a break.

Bairstow should probably be sent back to Yorkshire to get his act together. There's one thing fine tuning your game on the job, quite another trying to learn the f*cking basics of batting. Shocking against the short ball - and if it turns as well at Edgbaston, he might be the least equipped batsman to play Tests since Chris Martin.

Was rather shocking how poor he was against the short ball.. Makes you wonder if he ever set the bowling machine to 'short'

How can England have not known? He's been in the "system" for a couple of years now.

Weird.

Incredibly inept. Really, quite something. I tried to analyse it. I couldn't imagine how he'd ever come about thinking that's how to play a bouncer. I really couldn't.

India will no doubt target him later in the year.

England have released Johnny B to play for Yorks this week. Get him some confidence against a couple of county pie merchants.

Strangely - when they're considering resting a couple of seamers - they've sent Finn and Onions off for a game with their counties too. Good thinking: knacker out the probable replacements too.

James Harris is back for his county. Maybe they could give him a chance.

Dello wrote: Good thinking: knacker out the probable replacements too.

Knacker out? KNACKER OUT??? 139 overs this season, that Graham Onions has bowled. Stevie Finn? 94. Overs.

In a month and a half.

What is wrong with you?

Poor little things... in my day i'd be approaching 1000 overs by June and then have to work down t'pit.

With coal sammies for Lunch.

It's not a lot though, is it? Hardly what could be called knackering out