Bairstow/5 bolwers

Ok, going into the final test needing a win, what would you do if you were Flower/Strauss. Throw Bairstow into the deep end after his pretty ordniary debut vs the Winides yet coming off some decent form, or go with 5 bowlers with Bresnan at 7 and Prior up to 5.

Is that the only 2 options we have?

All i know is that we need to play swann!

and stick with talyor- so I suppose this is all abnout not having KP.. No other batters we could have brought in?

Considering Bairstow isn't good enough 5 bowlers

Cook
Strauss
Trott
Bell
Taylor
Prior
Broad
Swann
Anderson
Onions
Finn

This team imo is the most likely to take 20 wickets. Our batting line up does look weaker but we have to take a risk.

I think Bresnan needs to be dropped. He is a fine cricketer, but ultimately not penetrating enough to have any real success against the Saffers.

Onions has caused them problems before, and he bowls well at left handers, so I'd love to see him in. Agree with Stella's team.

The England batting lineup has been the cause for concern throughout the dificult time that started from last winter. Only ones did the bowling unit had an off match. Without their best batsman, that fragile batting lineup led by a captain who is out of touch, and preoccupied with thoughts of putting down a teammate who send some unflattering text messages might just continue to struggle, and as there is NO KP to turn around a hopeless situation 5 batters will be a very risky strategy.
The regimental coach, who happened to be a Former friend of democracy is unlikely to move away from the tried and tested, unless of course for doing something ludicrous like dropping your best spinner or dropping your best batsman.
So young Bairstow should get another test to prove himself. Away from the context of his return, I hope he would come through though.

I think I've decided five bowlers is a bit too risky against SA and with a newby at 5.

So I think Bresnan should miss out, with Onions (fresh and well suited to Lord's conditions) coming in, and Swann should return in place of Finn (terrible error to leave him out at Headingley).

1 Andrew Strauss 2 Alastair Cook 3 Jonathan Trott 4 Ian Bell 5 James Taylor 6 Jonny Bairstow 7 Matt Prior 8 Stuart Broad 9 Graeme Swann 10 James Anderson 11 Graham Onions

Shelsey93 wrote:I think I've decided five bowlers is a bit too risky against SA and with a newby at 5.

So I think Bresnan should miss out, with Onions (fresh and well suited to Lord's conditions) coming in, and Swann should return in place of Finn (terrible error to leave him out at Headingley).

1 Andrew Strauss 2 Alastair Cook 3 Jonathan Trott 4 Ian Bell 5 James Taylor 6 Jonny Bairstow 7 Matt Prior 8 Stuart Broad 9 Graeme Swann 10 James Anderson 11 Graham Onions

The four bowlers as been Englands way, stick with it.

Still i would prefer Bressy over Onions though Shelsey, got a feeling that those four would all be super pumped.

5 are more likely to take wickets, so pick 5.

So what if it's outs pressure on our batsmen. We need 20 wickets.

Too risky for me with five bowlers, if you are 3 down early, normally game over.

Four can still do it.

skyeman wrote:Too risky for me with five bowlers, if you are 3 down early, normally game over.

Four can still do it.

Yep but we are 1 down. Time to be risky.

KP and Bresnan out, Onions and Bairstow in.

Oh yes, and Swann in for Finn!

I'd never say 5 bowlers usually, but based on the personnel available, or to be more to the point how bad Bairstow was vs. the awful Windies I'm backing it this time.

Let's face it, whoever plays we are looking to Cook, Trott, Bell and Prior to deliver the runs and set the game up. Any other decent contributions I would consider to be a bonus.

All eyes on Taylor for me..

Cant wait- What a rubbish two days- no sport an all that!!!

It is a big chance for Taylor, and Bairstow if he plays. If one of them can play a big innings and get a game winning hundred then they can cement their place in the side similar to how Trott did it against Australia. Personally I'd go with 5 bowlers but I wouldn't mind if Flower went the other way and picked Bairstow. I just want to see a positive and energised England performance to show that they are strong enough to put this KP saga behind them whilst on the field.

mystiroakey wrote:All eyes on Taylor for me..

Cant wait- What a rubbish two days- no sport an all that!!!

Aye NO Olympics, Golf, Tennis, Cricket, Football and people say it is only a game.

More than that.

It should be law that good sport is on every day!

mystiroakey wrote:It should be law that good sport is on every day!

What would life be like without it.


The wife say's better


Each to their own.

yeah..... I get that...

Stella wrote:Cook
Strauss
Trott
Bell
Taylor
Prior
Broad
Swann
Anderson
Onions
Finn

This team imo is the most likely to take 20 wickets. Our batting line up does look weaker but we have to take a risk.

I do like that team

think stella's team is spot on if you ask me. onions at lord's will nip it off the seam and has had previous success against the saffer's. not convinced by bairstow and if he struggled against roaches pace, then morkel's pace and natural bounce will knock him over in a jiffy.

I think people are getting a little carried away with the Bairstow/short ball thing. The international pundits jumped on it as soon as he played a few short ones poorly but that is in no way evidence of a technical deficiency. People that have actually watched him in the county circuit and from he was no age like Geoff Boycott know that he has no problems with the short ball. It was his first Tests and he was probably a little nervous but he's a very good player and if he gets in he'll score pretty quickly.

tbh i'm in two minds at the moment. I'm not a fan of 5 bowlers, trouble for england is that we just don't have that quality all rounder to rely on. a watson, kallis etc..

If we have a bad morning, ball swinging all over the place and are 3/4 down, which can happen to any side, with 6 batsmen it's such a life saver to know at 4 down you have taylor coming in, 5 down prior. with 5 bowlers however, 4 down we're at our last recognised batsmen, whilst south africa at that stage have rudolph and duminy to come. so in some respect i wouldn't mind seeing bairstow in the side. we all know england have struggled to mount serious 1st innings scores which puts the bowlers under even more pressure. bowlers bowl better with 400-500 on the board, not 250.

however, i'm not confident bairstow is quite ready yet, despite his obvious talent. maybe another season in county cricket, lions games and then perhaps the home series vs new zealand will be the right time to introduce him properly into the set up. broad, bresnan and swann are all capable of 50's, so its not all bad and at the end of the day, its time for the top 5 to stand up this series and score big, with the exception of cook who has looked very good so far. trott knows he needs to rekindle that edge to his game of when getting in, going on to score big runs. he's played a few loose shots, compeltely out of character and he will be chomping at the bit to score big runs, he's clearly in good form.

tough call for the selectors, i would bring onions in for a start, he will cause problems with his seam movement at lord's, season form and his history of causing the south african batting line up problems. i'd drop finn for swann, simply because for me bairstow will play, so we need bresnan there just in case it all goes pete tong.

I dont think we need to blood to many players. We blooded flintoff, we blooded broad, hopefully we will blood Taylor, should we blood Bairstow is the question.

I would rather pick youngens over the ravis of thsi world mind. But i am gonna be honest morgs isnt that bad either, and i would probally rather him play a part as an older wiser head

Stoakes, wokes, taylor , and bairstow are the future. But we cant bring them all in today, we need to try and win games, blooding one player at a time is a good shout, but that needs to be taylor only at the moment- bairstow had his chance and he didnt take it. Taylor was impressive in his first outing

I dislike the idea of having 5 bowlers when its not giving variety. England problem is they have 6 or 7 very good right arm seamers, and an off form spinner (plus Monty as backup).


When playing 3 (and then 4) of those guys has proven largely ineffective (KP took wickets more easily) I dont really get the argument that having 5 bowlers is the best split of resources in the team.
Bit without even a collingwood and as things stand not even a KP as backup bowling, and having to revert to batsmen who were dropped for not being good enough I see a stronger argument for it.
To me though a side with Prior at 6, Broad 7, 3 other right arm seamers and an angry swann doesnt really look well balanced.