England v Pakistan, 2nd Test, Old Trafford, 22-26 July, 2016

England squad as per today's announcement:

Cook, Hales, Root, Vince, Ballance, Stokes, Bairstow, Moeen, Rashid, Woakes, Broad, Anderson, Finn, Ball.

Anderson for Ball - that's easy.

Stokes is a shoe-in as well. If the pitch looks like being a bunsen, it would probably be at the expense of Vince.

Not that I can see much grass being taken off to be honest - the last thing England will want is to actually provide Yasir with a pitch that's suits him. So my guess is that Stokes will replace Finn with the last place going to either Moeen or Rashid.

I think Moeen might be on shaky ground. He's giving them neither wickets nor control with the ball, so Rashid couldn't do much worse. His big heave on Sunday has done nothing to help his cause, either. I'd go for-

Cook(c)
Hales
Root
Vince(last chance)
Ballance(Same as Vince)
Stokes
Bairstow+(Last chance with the gloves)
Woakes
Rashid
Broad
Anderson

It will look pretty silly if Jimmeh smashes the Wackies after being left out in T1 to "rest" while trying to bowl Stokes out in a County game.

skully wrote:It will look pretty silly if Jimmeh smashes the Wackies after being left out in T1 to "rest" while trying to bowl Stokes out in a County game.

Aye, I sensed a bit of tension in Trevor Bayliss' voice when he talked about Jimmy's omission in the post-match interview.

When does Bell come back in for Ballance?

All set for 2nd test. I think it will be over by 3rd day affair with England winning quite easily. With all eyes on jimmy, i think it will be Broad who will steal the show.

Pakistan should have gone with 2nd spinner and tried zulfiqar babar. He is a ery decent spinner and can come good on this pitch with bounce. Pakistan should definitely try to re-access Hafeez's action between 2nd and 3rd test. He can be very handy as fifth bowler.

It will be interesting to see what sort of pitch is served up.

lardbucket wrote:When does Bell come back in for Ballance?

Bell will return when hell freezes over or when Labour win another election, whichever happens first.

Pomgolia wins the toss and bats.

Hales fails.

AGAIN.

England's session.

Hey everyone, looks like there's a lack of pomgolian contributors these days so I thought I'd start chipping in again.

Good toss to win, this. I've seen a replay of Hales's dismissal. Now, feel free to disagree but I don't think an opening batsman should look that clueless against a swinging ball.

Who would've thought Chris Bloody Nice Bloakes would turn out to be a proper test allrounder, eh? Is Danny still around?

Good man, MoH. Welcome back.

Meanwhile, Chef and Neph are building a big one.

The pitch looks like a road

Silly chef, just before tea.

Vince flatters to deceive again. One more chance then I think it's 'thank you and goodnight.'

England has Pakitan on the ropes, on way to 450+ score.... Ecellent work done by Root & Cook

Pathetic from Younis. Bowlers bowling 4 balls almost every over failing to build any pressure...

Chef and Root doing more than their share of the heavy lifting.

Ballance has still got that exaggerated back and across trigger movement that got him into trouble last year.

Ballance gone - horrible-looking shot

314/4 - a good day's work.

Woakes as nightwatchman? Whose chips did he piss on?

Basil wrote:Chef and Root doing more than their share of the heavy lifting.

And in fairness after watching the replay the ball that Chef got stayed ridiculously low and not much he could do about it.

Well done to Chef and Nef on their tons. Vince, ay? He's a bit shit.

And Yasir comes crashing back to reality.

Cue a Stokes masterblast.

Looks like a good batting strip so the key will be if the England quicks can knock over Pakistan quickly in the first innings to set up a win.