England v Pakistan, 2nd Test, Ageas Bowl, 13-17 August, 2020

Stokes ruled out for the rest of the series, having travelled to New Zealand for family reasons. Massive blow for England, are Pakistan now once again favourites to retain the Inzamam-Hair Trophy?

I guess the selectors will be happy with Buttler at 6 and Woakes at 7 now, so Crawley will come in for Stokes with Root dropping back down to 4. Resting Anderson will still probably be in their thoughts. Presumably another batsman/batting all-rounder will be brought in as cover?

Wow. Must be serious. Stokes will be in the cooler for a minimum of 2 weeks before he is allowed out.

skully wrote:

beamer wrote:... the Inzamam-Hair Trophy...

+2

horace wrote:Wow. Must be serious. Stokes will be in the cooler for a minimum of 2 weeks before he is allowed out.

Yeah - sounds like his Dad is nearing the end.

That's sad for the Bovver Boy.

JGK wrote:

skully wrote:

beamer wrote:... the Inzamam-Hair Trophy...

+2

They could play the reverse series for the Gatting-Rana Trophy...

Is there actually an official trophy name for this series? Assumed there must be but it didn’t appear anywhere on a list of them.

Isn't it called the Dil-Dil-Pakistan Cup?

Abbas-Root?

After we’ve all been baking in our home offices for the past week, the weather looks like taking a turn for the worse in time for this Test, with likely thunderstorms and then potentially lighter more persistent rain later in the match.

So, Stokes replaced in the squad by Ollie Robinson. A 14-man squad including 7 seam bowlers. Surely they’re not actually considering playing 6 bowlers and moving Woakes up to 6?? 

Must admit I'm a bit surprised by the XI they've selected:

Willey
Topley
Roland-Jones
Finn
Overton C
Overton J
Woakes
Robinson
Archer
Broad
Anderson

I mean, Chris Woakes should surely be batting a bit higher than that??

Curran and Wood are a bit unlucky to miss out as well.

12th and 13th man

So likely Pom XI?

Dom Sibley, Rory Burns, Joe Root (c), Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Jos Buttler (wk), Chris Woakes, Sam Curran, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Jofra Archer. Or will Jimmeh be retained?

Wackies win the toss and bat.

Testing time for the Wackies, with the ball doing a bit. 1-27.

Let's take this match back to Manchester ...

So England on top after a stop-start day.

Forecast doesn't look great.

Fawad Alam crabs his way to a 10 year duck.

Frustrating half-session for England there, one wicket away from the tail and in perfect bowling conditions, though not too many runs added.

Par score on this wicket 250?

Rizwan 50 - a very good knock in these conditions.

lardbucket wrote:Rizwan 50 - a very good knock in these conditions.

Yep. England have faded around for an hour or so.