England Lions in Sri Lanka

Dello wrote:SL A 357/3 (Karunaratne 156, Tharanga 116, De Silva 59*)

Sam Robson's part-time (what's less than part-time? Part-time part-time?) leggies brought him a first ever senior wicket in any cricket.

At this rate, it might help him get the nod over Carberry and Compton...

Carberry and Compton's Carberry and Compton-ness is probably his biggest aid.

We all know Root's the chosen one, though. His Root-ness hasn't counted against him at all.

They might want to bat him at 3, though. Or any number he hasn't batted yet. Perhaps give him the gloves, or the captaincy, or opening the bowling...

If Ian Bell doesn't man the f*ck up and bat at three - having banged on for his whole career about how he wants to bat there (until he found the going nice and cushy at numbers five and six) - I'm going to photoshop the crap out of him.

Little weasel.

Dello wrote:SL A 357/3 (Karunaratne 156, Tharanga 116, De Silva 59*)

Sam Robson's part-time (what's less than part-time? Part-time part-time?) leggies brought him a first ever senior wicket in any cricket.

Less than "part-time" is "occasional".

Kerrigan seems determined to prove JD's shout that he is not Test class.

2-155 off 42 (match figures): grim reading in SL against a B side..

A touch of first night nerves is fair enough, and many have come back from poor debuts, but to go to pieces like he did at the Oval I think shows it's pretty unlikely he will ever have a successful international career.

Not only that, but he got marmalised in the tour game for the Lions in the build up to that Test. No Sky cameras around that day. No large crowd. No "big match nerves". Just a pretty unimpressive spinner getting treated with the destain he deserves.

destain?

Sounds like a good name for Lewinsky's launderers.

The trouble is that it's looking like being a high speed revolving door for the spin position, with lots of inadequate contenders who are all likely to get multiple chances.

Perhaps it's for the best if they just make a call that they won't play one except on subcontinental tours, unless someone with outstanding potential emerges.

Not Moeen, with a little help from Root?

It would be good if they had a wily old fox coaching them though. An offie, preferably.

Emburey! comes to mind. If he could stop swearing for a bit.

Well a batsman who bowls would probably do the job. Less pressure than an out-and-out specialist, if he can hold an end up, take a few wickets @ 40 and save the captain some over-rate fines, that would be doing his job.

There's always Unslim Sam.

Going from being a part-time spinner for your County to England's main spinner in a test match is a huge challenge mentally, I'd imagine. Someone like Mooen, who has been a batsman who bowls a bit all his life, would suddenly have to go into a cricket match with a different mind-set.

It's extremely unlikely to work.

Well we're not saying we're expecting him to be Warne, Murali or even Swann... just to bowl a few overs to give the seamers a rest, if he picks up a few wickets and averages under 40 it's a bonus.

There's nobody worth picking as a specialist so we have to think of other options that don't involve Cook being suspended for slow over rates every other Test. Actually, on second thoughts that might be to our advantage, let's just pick five fast bowlers who start their run-ups from the boundary...

I think they'd be better off giving Borthwick a good run. I don't think he had a terrible Lions tour. You know what you're gonna get with him- Quite a lot of poor balls, and an economy rate of 4+, but also wickets. Some with good deliveries, some with rubbish balls. And even if his bowling gets hammered, he is capable of contributing with the bat at seven or eight and Root can keep it reasonably tight with his part-time offies.

Picking Moeen as the main spinner would be raising the white flag before the battle (to find a replacement for Swann) has even started.

Well, I'd be seeing it as picking 5 or 6 batsmen, with the requirement that one of them can bowl a few overs of spin. Judge them on their batting and anything with the ball is a bonus.

Picking a spinner for the sake of it is like picking an all-rounder for the sake of it in the 90s. Anyway, we'll probably just pick Monty and barely bowl him, leaving him as a specialist crap fielder and number 11 specialising in surviving a few overs for a draw!

PeterCS wrote:Not Moeen, with a little help from Root?

It would be good if they had a wily old fox coaching them though. An offie, preferably.

Moeen is being coached by Norman Gifford - not an Offie but at 76 he comes into the wily old fox category.

Henry wrote:Going from being a part-time spinner for your County to England's main spinner in a test match is a huge challenge mentally, I'd imagine. Someone like Mooen, who has been a batsman who bowls a bit all his life, would suddenly have to go into a cricket match with a different mind-set.

It's extremely unlikely to work.

Moeen has to all intents and purposes been our frontline spinner for the last couple of seasons - with mixed results I grant you, but he's definitely improving and certainly at County level, he's a batting allrounder.

And lo and behold, so far at least the failures of the last match have done all right in this - and vice versa.

Robson 0, Taylor 14

Chopra 83, Woakes 42*

Good old England.


(Lees has not made a score yet. Perhaps they should have taken Moore, not Lees?)

Lees? Ah yes, the sort of player that TrevDello bigs up on the back of a tiny sample size of ultra-FTBing. In fact, I reckon TrevDello are probably selectors.

No you don't.

That sounds very like "Oh, no you don't."


Coincidence? Maybe.

So is everyone agreed that Chris Woakes is now officially a batsman who bowls? If he gets picked for England, it should be because he's good enough to bat in the top six.