West Indies v England, 2nd Test, Bridgetown, 16-20 March, 2022

Any changes to either side?

Looks like Wood will miss out. So either a return for Tommy Robinson or a debut for Mahmood or Fisher.

Rikki time.

Mahmood gets the nod. Let’s hope he’s better than Uncle* Saj…

*As with the Crawleys, no evidence they’re actually related…

In the Mahmood.

Think it was Dello who was always Saj the Wonder Horse’s chief cheerleader.

Hadn’t realised he played as many as eight Tests, I’ve got more memories of his Jade Dernbach-like (no, that’s a bit too harsh, surely…) JAMODI efforts.

England bat. Fisher also called up in place of the unwell Overton, so the seam attack comprises two debutants alongside Woakes and Stokes.

...and Creepy gets a duck

Lees makes double figures for the first time (seemed some disagreement between commentators last week regarding ‘Leez’ vs. ‘Leece’, incidentally… any Yorkshire/Durhamites here to clarify?)

Lees going full Sibley here, is this pitch as lifeless as last week’s? Even Captain COARIAB is striking at sub-40.

beamer wrote:England bat. Fisher also called up in place of the unwell Overton, so the seam attack comprises two debutants alongside Woakes and Stokes.

Quite possibly our most inexperienced seam bowling attack since the days of Mullaly and Giddins.

Basil wrote:

beamer wrote:England bat. Fisher also called up in place of the unwell Overton, so the seam attack comprises two debutants alongside Woakes and Stokes.

Quite possibly our most inexperienced seam bowling attack since the days of Mullaly and Giddins.

Let’s hope they can bat better than those two, at least! Though we might not need them to. Stokes and Woakes both have well over 100 Test wickets, which I know is chicken feed compared to Anderson and Broad, but what isn’t…

Good acceleration by Root and Lawrence. The England captain now has over 2000 Test runs since the start of last year, nearly twice as many as anyone else worldwide.

And that’s why Lawrence isn’t yet a Test cricketer. 4, 4, caught at cover, in the last over of the day with a first century at this level in his sights. What was he thinking, get there with a 4 and a 6 so he’s not waiting for it overnight?

beamer wrote:Lees makes double figures for the first time (seemed some disagreement between commentators last week regarding ‘Leez’ vs. ‘Leece’, incidentally… any Yorkshire/Durhamites here to clarify?)

They speak their own way in Yorksher.

Hoggard used to pronounce (Adam) Lyth to rhyme with "with".

Anyway, can Jonny and the three towering Oaks help the captain lead us to a mammoth score today?

Would be nice for two debutant seamers to start off with 500 to bowl at.

Root knows how to fill his boots against inferior opposition!!!!!!!!!!!!

Red wrote:Root knows how to fill his boots against inferior opposition!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like India, who he averages 60 against?

Stokes not messing around, smashed 18 (plus two leg-byes) off one Joseph over. We could bat them out of this by tea at this rate.

And Stokes makes it to 5,000 runs and 150 wickets in Tests, joining Kallis, Sobers, Botham and Kapil Dev. Some club to add your name to…

beamer wrote:And Stokes makes it to 5,000 runs and 150 wickets in Tests, joining Kallis, Sobers, Botham and Kapil Dev. Some club to add your name to…

Who's the next most likely? Holder? Is Shakib finished with Tests? (he's in the 4000 runs, 200 wickets club).

lardbucket wrote:

beamer wrote:And Stokes makes it to 5,000 runs and 150 wickets in Tests, joining Kallis, Sobers, Botham and Kapil Dev. Some club to add your name to…

Who's the next most likely? Holder? Is Shakib finished with Tests? (he's in the 4000 runs, 200 wickets club).

Noddy’s only just past 2,500, so some way to go. Ashwin has nearly 3,000 runs but can’t see him going on long enough. Jadeja also mid-2000s and a couple of years younger.

Many of those in the “all-rounder” rankings are essentially specialists, Root is 13th

Anyway Mahmood’s batting must be really shite, they wait until Leach is out then declare 9 down without sending him in

or Yorkshire Joe doesnt like him

Yeah, they don’t like Lancastrians much do they (though he’s a Brummie by birth…)

Interesting that we have four Yorkshiremen in the side given all that’s happened recently, though Lees now plays for Durham. A strong Yorkshire means a strong England, they used to say…

The pitch is taking a bit of spin. A chance for Leach to properly establish himself as our No. 1 spinner.