England v New Zealand, 2nd Test, Trent Bridge, 10-14 June, 2022

Will Leach be fit for T2?

Otherwise same squad for England?

Will Nicholls be fit for NZ?? If so, shirley they can't drop ton-maker Mitchell (who was Nicholls' stand-in for T1)??

Presumably no changes for England other than the spin question mark, barring injuries. Those in position will get this series and the stray India match that we generously allowed them to replay after they failed to turn up last year, in order to prove themselves or otherwise. If the top order in particular continues to misfire then the Yarp series is the most likely point for us to see some new names.

isn't De Gronhomme injured?

Leach fitness still in doubt, but Stokes also may not be fit to bowl, in which case it’s expected England won’t play a spinner anyway. I guess you can’t go in with only three seamers if two of them are 39 and 35.

Leach fit so England unchaged, presumably Stokes is OK to bowl.

I don’t like this tail but I suppose the primary consideration is to pick your best bowlers, and it potentially makes the top/middle order take more responsibility I guess.

If Lord’s proves to be Parkinson’s only Test appearance, at least he got a wicket!

Williamson ruled out with Covid… Minnowbasher to skipper the Snoozers with Rutherford jr. coming in.

Lucky I got on England this morning!

beamer wrote:Williamson ruled out with Covid… Minnowbasher to skipper the Snoozers with Rutherford jr. coming in.

A nice plus for England on the morning of the Test.

I can't believe players aren't wearing masks. This plague is very much still around.

I don't go anywhere without a mask.

I think over here at least it’s got to the stage where everyone has at least some degree of immunity through vaccination and/or previous infection. So super-spreader events are probably a thing of the past (a year ago, half the team would have come down with it and the match would be off) but it’s accepted everyone will probably get it on a semi-regular basis now, barring a magic bullet they seem to have given up on finding. Still not too keen on the idea of big crowds though, as you’re pretty much asking to spend the next week in bed or worse, unless you’ve just had it!

Anyway, Stokes puts the Snoozers into bat, they opt for Nicholls and Bracewell in their final XI.

Nothing doing for the England bowlers so far. Good toss to lose for the Snooze, it appears… strange game, this, sometimes!

…and just as I say that, the golden-armed captain gets Gareth.

Then Jimmeh gets another.

2-fer at Lunch looks much better for the home side.

The ‘basher did for himself, it appears… Jimmy’s no Zimbanglastan trundler, even at 39 and when it doesn’t swing.

4 starts, no 50s… finely balanced at this point.

Looks a fair total coming up for the Snoozers.

Dropping Mitchell on 1 looks like the turning point maybe in this match, but when the ball aint doing nuffin, england bowlers cant stop the runs flowing.
I expected england to bat first but apparently it was windy with cloud cover; i spose england were hoping it would be like Lords especially with
kane missing, but most of the day was fine and sunny, and instead of wkts we had the mitchell and blundell show again.

I don’t think we have the confidence to bat first at home at the moment, the top three’s too fragile. Hope the weather holds tomorrow and we can make a decent go at a reply.

I was thinking this was only a two-match series with four against the Yarps later, but it is actually 3 and 3 (plus what should be an unofficial re-run of the defaulted India Test). So only an England win here settles it.

Geez, 4 or 5 dropped catches??

At 4-169 England could've restricted the Snoozers to 250 with a few catches taken.

Yeah, back to the previous era with the drops. The Root one I saw live was probably 95% impossible (not sure if it was counted among them), but another one saw two slips leave it to each other. Pissed away a couple of reviews as well.

Looks like a Edgbaston 2005 "Yeah, you can have a bat" decision from Stokes now.

Until we find a reliable top three, I think batting first will always be a questionable decision. If we’d had Hayden, Langer and Ponting first up, fair enough, especially if our best seam bowler had just trodden on a ball in the warm-up!

Incidentally, I was frantically driving around Birmingham looking for a parking space when all that was unfolding back then…

The ball seemingly wasn’t changed yesterday after a six was hit directly into a spectator’s pint of cider. After that it did nothing.

Soft ball, umpires not interested, nothing happening. Heading for an afternoon declaration, at this rate.

Whatever changes we’ve made at the top, whatever they say about positivity and a fresh attitude… this team still has only one way to win, and that’s with a swinging Dukes ball in a game where no team makes 300.

beamer wrote:The ball seemingly wasn’t changed yesterday after a six was hit directly into a spectator’s pint of cider. After that it did nothing.

Fortunately it wasn't Newcastle (Puke-astle?) Brown Ale or the bloody ball would have turned to soggy cornflakes consistency.....Malcolm Marshall might have struggled to get any bounce then

Meanwhile young Michael Bracewell has set a new family record by playing Test cricket for about 45 minutes without annoying anybody