The Ashes

Jason H said:

The silly thing is no, it hasn't been "a disaster". There HAVE been positives to take out of it, unlike the last Ashes tour where there were none whatsoever. The key differences have been: The Aussie bowling attack staying fit and firing, Steve Smith, no Stokes (who adds "x factor" way over and above his own performances), a couple of key English personnel (esp. Moeen) going missing.

A massive case in point was the end of the first day of this match. We'd competed well and were ahead of the ledger, only to be undone by two wickets with the new ball at the death. Fine margins, as they have been almost throughout.

While I don't see the point in retaining Bayliss, under whom we seem to have trodden water, and would promote Farbrace, I think any other changes will only need to be cosmetic. Vince should watch the tapes of Malan and realise that if he fights for dirty runs as well as making pretty ones he'll progress. He clearly has the talent, now he needs the brain to match.

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Losing 3 (maybe 4) games to the Strines is IMHO a feckin' disaster. The few positives don't come into it.

What makes it worse is this isn't a good Aus side.

The Proper Chap said:

What makes it worse is this isn't a good Aus side.

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Agreed but with some individual exceptions.

The Proper Chap said:

What makes it worse is this isn't a good Aus side.

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I appreciate you keep banging this drum, but actually it is.

Bancroft: Fair enough. Superb fielder, though.
Warner: Averages 49. Brilliant in the field.
Khawaja: Averages 43, struggles against England generally, though.
Smith: Averages 64. 'Nuff said.
Shaun Marsh: Meh, fair enough.
Mitchell Marsh: Ditto.
Paine: Excellent keeper, decent bat.
Cummins: Averages 27 with the ball (very decent), 25 with the bat (decent for an 8), would have a better record but for injuries.
Starc: Averages 27 with the ball (very decent), 23 with the bat (decent for a 9), proper wicket taker.
Hazelwood: Averages 25 with the ball, very decent indeed, and seems to be getting better.
Lyon: Nearly 300 Test wickets at 31. 63 @23 in 2017, though. In the side to hold an end up, yet takes shedloads of wickets too, and is a superb fielder.

If you were to have assessed the strongest England (minus Stokes) and Australian XIs going into Brisbane to name a combined XI, you'd probably go Australia 7, England 4:

Cook vs Bancroft: Cook
Stoneman vs Warner: Warner
Vince vs Khawaja: Khawaja
Root vs Smith: Smith
Malan vs S Marsh: S Marsh
Ali vs Handscomb: Ali
Bairstow vs Paine: Bairstow
Woakes vs Cummins: Cummins
Broad vs Starc: Starc
Anderson vs Hazelwood: Anderson
Ball vs Lyon: Lyon

Now my composite XI, changing the order slightly, would read:

Cook
Warner
Root
Smith (c)
Malan
S Marsh
Paine
Cummins
Starc
Hazelwood
Lyon

Alistair20000 said:

Losing 3 (maybe 4) games to the Strines is IMHO a feckin' disaster. The few positives don't come into it.

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I must admit I had you down as a bit more nuanced than "look at the scoreline only and make an assessment from that".

In 13/14 I HATED the England side and the "performances" that we were subjected to, against IMO a very similar strength Australia side (I'd argue a bit weaker than the 17/18 side), we were utterly humiliated in every match.

This time round I've "groaned" at a lot of what has gone on but been encouraged at other times. Most pundits were predicting it to be 3-4-5/0 even before Stokes was ruled out.

I think Al's comments were spot on actually Jason. Like him I hate giving the Aussies ANYTHING in cricket terms. Nuance really doesn't come into it when those bar-stards breeze the ashes in double quick time. If that doesn't constitute a cricket disaster heaven knows what might.
We have little option other than to keep going with Stoneman and Vince. IMO both have shown some good flashes but have a long way to go yet to be a reliable England international. Maybe time will help. For me the one thing that has only papered more cracks was Cooke's double century. That led to a total where you might look and think the team are improving, if you looked at from a scoreline base that is. Might as well have air mailed the fekkin vase to them before we left!!

So what do you lads think about night watchman gate ?

Should the padded up Crane have gone in rather than Bairstow ? Have seen conflicting views from ex players and the pundits but nothing from Exeweb’s knowledgable cricket watchers.

Yay or nay ?

It's a yay from me. If he lasts it out then job done. If he doesn't then nothing lost really. A no brainer IMO.

I have a sinking feeling it's going to be a very long and tiring day in the field for England today but hope I'm wrong.

geoffwp said:

I have a sinking feeling it's going to be a very long and tiring day in the field for England today but hope I'm wrong.

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Early wickets are needed, otherwise you may well be right Geoffrey.