Swanny confirms what we already knew about...

I remember sitting in a team meeting - before the new fielding restrictions were brought in - and we were told that if we scored 239 we will win 72% of games. That meant the whole game was built on having so many runs by a certain stage and having so many partnerships. I used to shake my head, thinking 'this is crazy'. I remember Jonathan Trott getting close to a hundred in Colombo. We had batted to our plan almost perfectly and scored 229. Trotty got 86 in 115 balls. Everyone said "brilliant", then Sri Lanka knocked them off in 39.3 overs.

I used to sit in the changing room and I always felt we were so far behind other teams because we play such an old-fashioned brand. Some of my best mates - Cook, Bell, Ballance - are not one-day players who are going to win you a World Cup.

Alex Hales is going to win you a World Cup; James Vince, Jason Roy, Jos Buttler, Eoin Morgan. They're players I wouldn't want to bowl at, who can build a total of 360-370.

We've made the same mistake now as we did in my time, five-six years ago and in the 1990s. We're picking one-day squads on Test form. English cricket has always had Test cricket at the pinnacle, but the games are so different.

England are looking too much at these new white balls. The other teams have gone power at the top and all the way through. It's a completely different era because of T20. We got to a Champions Trophy in 2004 and we were rubbish. We just happened to get to a final in English conditions.

Dello wrote:

I remember sitting in a team meeting - before the new fielding restrictions were brought in - and we were told that if we scored 239 we will win 72% of games. That meant the whole game was built on having so many runs by a certain stage and having so many partnerships. I used to shake my head, thinking 'this is crazy'. I remember Jonathan Trott getting close to a hundred in Colombo. We had batted to our plan almost perfectly and scored 229. Trotty got 86 in 115 balls. Everyone said "brilliant", then Sri Lanka knocked them off in 39.3 overs.

beamer wrote:Swanny for JAMODI coach, the campaign starts here...

beamer wrote:Swanny for JAMODI coach, the campaign starts here...

Nath wrote:where's Fat Sam?

taipan wrote:

beamer wrote:Swanny for JAMODI coach, the campaign starts here...

Would he pick KP?

vilkrang wrote:He's joking with that 72% figure surely? I mean it literally sounds like a parody.

Nath wrote:where's Fat Sam?

Henry wrote:Well we should play Finn for a start. I don't care if he can be a touch wayward, he takes wickets and wickets tend to bring the run rate down.

Henry wrote:Moeen should be opening the batting with Hales.

Remember the ODI series we played in the Caribbean back in March/April? We opened the batting with Moeen and Lumb and we actually got off to some pretty brisk starts. But it seems the success and signs of progress we had in that ODI series has quickly been forgotten for some reason.