England Ashes make up of the side 4/5 bowlers?

JKLever wrote:Adil Rashid I think I hear you say - still a way short of class for this level surely?

Though I agree with your premise about the need for the 5th bowler to do something other than be an up and down merchant when the ball is old.

The thing with Rashid is he'd make a good fifth wheel - he doesn't have to be Superman.

Probably wouldn't have to do owt in the first digs, maybe turn his arm over to try and break a big partnership or clean up the tail - if everyone does their job, the fifth bowler is always under-used. Three seamers and Swanny will bowl 20 overs a day each easily. So Rashid's barely 10 overs are hardly a game-changing risk.

He can then be a snappy little number seven, solidifying the tail, balancing the line-up (also a good fielder). So he'll contribute in that way.

And then if England can take the games into the final two days, with the wickets are their most worn, they've got the trump hand with two spinners on the books, each turning the ball the opposite way from the other - the dream ticket.

JKLever wrote:And he runs like a girlie. Bum him.

Fixed.

You deviant.

beamer wrote:

Basil wrote:Incedentally, we could do with Monty bowling in tandem with Swann at OT in the current test.

Where does he stand in the current pecking order for England Test spinners? Second, third, fourth, lower? I guess it's all going to depend on what kind of season he has at Sussex (the stats suggest reasonable, so far) but if he's in some sort of form you have to suspect he will be taken ahead of untried alternatives as backup to Swann.

You'd have to hope he's second. I know Tredwell went to Bangladesh, but that might have something to do with the preponderence of lefties in their top-order - not something we will come across in Oz.

Katich, Hussey, North, Johnson, Hughes....?

Gary 111 wrote:Katich, Hussey, North, Johnson, Hughes....?

Birt if he gets a gig.

DJ_Smerk wrote:Never take Bresnan to Aus. He's not nearly as talented or as workmanlike as the Hoggard's or Flintoff's that have gone before.

words of welshish wisdom, if only they'd been heeded

lardbucket wrote:

DJ_Smerk wrote:Never take Bresnan to Aus. He's not nearly as talented or as workmanlike as the Hoggard's or Flintoff's that have gone before.

words of welshish wisdom, if only they'd been heeded

He did a job in 10/11 didn’t he...

thank you for translating

Nice bumping Lardie. Only one mention of Tremlett I see (from Trev of all people). Broad's injury turned out to be a blessing in disguise.