England's WI tour

side named:

England: Alastair Cook (c), James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Gary Ballance, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Chris Jordan, Adam Lyth, Liam Plunkett, Joe Root, Adil Rashid, Ben Stokes, James Tredwell, Jonathan Trott, Mark Wood.

Rashid has done well to get there after nearly drowning in Dello's spunk a couple of years ago.

No Robson. No Taylor. Trott to open?


13-17 April: 1st Test, Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua
21-25 April: 2nd Test, Grenada National Stadium, Grenada
1-5 May: 3rd Test, Kensington Oval, Barbados

Sadly no Tests in Jamaica, Trinidad, or Guyana; the cradles of WI cricket (along with Barbados) when WI cricket was strong.

lardbucket wrote:No Robson. No Taylor. Trott to open?

Probably Lyth by the looks of it.

Bad times anyway. But it'd have to be:

Cook
Lyth
Ballance
Bell
Root
Rashid / Buttler
Buttler / Rashid
Plunkett
Jordan
Broad
Anderson


Mehwoogreat

Brass Monkey wrote:Bad times anyway. But it'd have to be:

Cook
Lyth
Ballance
Bell
Root
Rashid / Buttler
Buttler / Rashid
Plunkett
Jordan
Broad
Anderson


Mehwoogreat

Bit of a tail. Stokes for whoever's currently shitter out of Plunkett/Jordan?

Winkle Spinner wrote:

Brass Monkey wrote:Bad times anyway. But it'd have to be:

Cook
Lyth
Ballance
Bell
Root
Rashid / Buttler
Buttler / Rashid
Plunkett
Jordan
Broad
Anderson


Mehwoogreat

Bit of a tail. Stokes for whoever's currently shitter out of Plunkett/Jordan?

I personally think we'll have to deal with it (assuming Broad can stop being an absolute shandy). Ben Stokes is neither batsman or bowler. He's definitely become a better player out of the side. He hasn't produced the results, which people tend to ignore. 'Got something about him'? Yes. Uses that something about him? Meh.

Oh. Left Ali out. Would probably be:

Cook
Lyth
Ballance
Bell
Root
Ali
Rashid / Buttler
Buttler / Rashid
Plunkett
Broad
Anderson

...in the Windies, with their dobby pitches

Brass Monkey wrote:Oh. Left Ali out. Would probably be:

Cook
Lyth
Ballance
Bell
Root
Ali
Rashid / Buttler
Buttler / Rashid
Plunkett
Broad
Anderson

...in the Windies, with their dobby pitches

so did the selectors ...or he is injured

Oh shit yeah:

Linky

Bairstow's a lucky boy - but where else could England turn to for a reserve keeper? Kieswetter's out of contention and it's surely a step too far at the moment for Billings.

Buttler was hardly tearing trees up in the WK/batsman dept. I'd get Billings in ASAP. Natural sportsman by all accounts. Young. Bairstow is filth. Fock. Him. Off.

Adil Rashid? What does he bowl now?

If you ask Dello: hand grenades. If you ask me: gentle leggies

Brass Monkey wrote:If you ask Dello: hand grenades. If you ask me: gentle leggies

I don't know where this notion has come from that I've been all over Rashid like a tramp on chips. He's an improved cricketer - an all-rounder - but I wouldn't have said that it's on the bowling side that he's been making the most progress.

Gentle leggies is a reasonable description. And that's his problem - doesn't bowl with enough fizz. Maybe Belly can give him the same advice he gave to turn Moeen Ali into an Indian-destorying spinner extraordinaire: "bowl it quicker, beardy."

Not that Rashid will play. James Tredwell will be the front line spinner. Because he's all steady and shit.

Dello wrote:

Brass Monkey wrote:If you ask Dello: hand grenades. If you ask me: gentle leggies

I don't know where this notion has come from that I've been all over Rashid like a tramp on chips. He's an improved cricketer - an all-rounder - but I wouldn't have said that it's on the bowling side that he's been making the most progress.

Gentle leggies is a reasonable description. And that's his problem - doesn't bowl with enough fizz. Maybe Belly can give him the same advice he gave to turn Moeen Ali into an Indian-destorying spinner extraordinaire: "bowl it quicker, beardy."

Not that Rashid will play. James Tredwell will be the front line spinner. Because he's all steady and shit.

Which goes to show how reliant we've become on Moeen. His combination of fizzy-ish off spin and lackadaisical, bouncer-shy batting has meant a lot less work for James Chocolate and his good conversations.

How the fark does Tredwell get in, he barely even plays four-day county cricket these days does he?

Don't know a lot about Wood really. At least he's not Bresnan. And the Trott recall, well it's potentially a nice story but it's a sticking plaster solution to the top order issues and he will be a sitting duck for the sledgers if he plays in the summer.

beamer wrote:How the fark does Tredwell get in, he barely even plays four-day county cricket these days does he?

A very lucky man. Riley keeps him out of his county side, yet he's possibly our premier spinner according to the selectors. Incredible really. Strauss says he's a good tourist, so that's a clincher

Not only does Riley keep Tredwell out of the Kent team, he also went on the Lions tour to SA the other month.

So they've got this young, promising off-spinner, who is already part of the set-up, yet the selectors - after some good conversations - have picked his understudy, who barely gets a FC game these days.

I'd like to say it makes no sense. But, depressingly, it makes perfect sense. England-sense. Which is the same as nonsense.

Finn misses out - unselectable again?

Basil wrote:Finn misses out - unselectable again?

I hope so. How did they ever convince themselves that someone who had lost 10mph in 12 months in spite of having no injuries was "back to his best" in the first place?

Wall to wall incompetence.

Dello wrote:Not only does Riley keep Tredwell out of the Kent team, he also went on the Lions tour to SA the other month.

So they've got this young, promising off-spinner, who is already part of the set-up, yet the selectors - after some good conversations - have picked his understudy, who barely gets a FC game these days.

I'd like to say it makes no sense. But, depressingly, it makes perfect sense. England-sense. Which is the same as nonsense.

1854 FC balls bowled last year, 23 wickets @ 41... Shit. May was well get Middlebrook in there...

Middlebrook, Middleton (Kate or Pippa), Middlesbrough (any randomly selected inhabitant of...) would be equally as useful as Tredwell.

Still, at least Nancy Kerrigan seems to have got the NTPFEA stamp.

Brass Monkey wrote:

Dello wrote:Not only does Riley keep Tredwell out of the Kent team, he also went on the Lions tour to SA the other month.

So they've got this young, promising off-spinner, who is already part of the set-up, yet the selectors - after some good conversations - have picked his understudy, who barely gets a FC game these days.

I'd like to say it makes no sense. But, depressingly, it makes perfect sense. England-sense. Which is the same as nonsense.

1854 FC balls bowled last year, 23 wickets @ 41... Shit. May was well get Middlebrook in there...

17 wickets @ 56 the season before.

19 @ 39 the season before.

So that's about 19 wickets @ 45 per FC season over the last three years.

England-ready. England-sense.

Batty. Totally batty. Gareth batty.