England's Summer of Cricket 2022 as Joe Root Steps Down

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Must be assuming Southee can't be as ineffective again.

Stuart Broad has well documented issues against the short ball. But he still is an effective slogger. And India shouldn't be predictable to him, if he's to expect the short ball every time, he should be ready, and even now, when he hits, it usually stays hit. Time for India not to lose focus and ensure they don't make the same mistake that England did.

Jadeja off after a 2 over spell and Siraj back on. I understand where Jasprit comes from, but I'd have kept Jadeja on, just to see how Broad would go about facing him...

Ah well, doesn't matter. Siraj does for Broad. So yes Captain, you got it right!

On sober reflection I suspect Jonny will be a little disappointed in getting out at that point. He was probably looking forward to going after Jadeja once he'd had a bit more of a look at him. Another half hour of him might have seen the score advanced quite rapidly.

The ball from Shami was there to hit ; just didn't quite get enough bat on it , so can't really blame him for going after it.

Broad not lasting long...can see this getting wound up fairly quickly now. Billings might need to do some advanced strike farming...

msp83 wrote:

alfie wrote:

Soul Requiem wrote:Not much you can say really. I don't think any of us thought Bairstow deserved another chance but he got it and has excelled to an extent no one could have imagined.

Bravo YJB

Well I for one have always believed Bairstow belonged in the team. Had lean patches , sure : but I reckon a lot of that was down to being royally messed about by the management. Not too surprised he's been thriving since being given a clear role : though even I didn't expect this level of performance !

Bairstow, even before this wonderful patch, was a cut above the 20 Something lot for whom he often got dropped. He has issues with his technique even now, but surely wasn't ever a candidate for 21st century Ramprakash or Hick!

2018-2021 he was pretty terrible it has to be said, his place was up for debate quite rightfully, he averaged low 20's throughout that period.

Prior to this purple patch he'd scored two centuries in England in 44 matches.

Soul Requiem wrote:

msp83 wrote:

alfie wrote:

Soul Requiem wrote:Not much you can say really. I don't think any of us thought Bairstow deserved another chance but he got it and has excelled to an extent no one could have imagined.

Bravo YJB

Well I for one have always believed Bairstow belonged in the team. Had lean patches , sure : but I reckon a lot of that was down to being royally messed about by the management. Not too surprised he's been thriving since being given a clear role : though even I didn't expect this level of performance !

Bairstow, even before this wonderful patch, was a cut above the 20 Something lot for whom he often got dropped. He has issues with his technique even now, but surely wasn't ever a candidate for 21st century Ramprakash or Hick!

2018-2021 he was pretty terrible it has to be said, his place was up for debate quite rightfully, he averaged low 20's throughout that period.

Prior to that, he was among England's top test batters. Then the gloves got taken off him, he was moved up and down the batting order, as low as 7 and as high as 3. He made runs against spin, he made runs in South Africa and he made runs at home before that. Not the most consistent, and he kept getting bowled. But the signs of class was very much there.

Before Bumrah and after Zaheer, Shami was the best exponent of the yorker in India. Think he should try a couple here. Remember how he saved that World Cup game against Afghanistan...

Billings not looking to farm strike, trusting Potts to be more sensible than Broad. In trying to set up a big first innings say at 450-7 or when going for quick runs in search of a declaration, Broad at 9 makes sense, otherwise it just doesn't. I remember Potts had started a head of Broad at the beginning of the summer...

msp83 wrote:

Soul Requiem wrote:

msp83 wrote:

alfie wrote:

Soul Requiem wrote:Not much you can say really. I don't think any of us thought Bairstow deserved another chance but he got it and has excelled to an extent no one could have imagined.

Bravo YJB

Well I for one have always believed Bairstow belonged in the team. Had lean patches , sure : but I reckon a lot of that was down to being royally messed about by the management. Not too surprised he's been thriving since being given a clear role : though even I didn't expect this level of performance !

Bairstow, even before this wonderful patch, was a cut above the 20 Something lot for whom he often got dropped. He has issues with his technique even now, but surely wasn't ever a candidate for 21st century Ramprakash or Hick!

2018-2021 he was pretty terrible it has to be said, his place was up for debate quite rightfully, he averaged low 20's throughout that period.

Prior to that, he was among England's top test batters. Then the gloves got taken off him, he was moved up and down the batting order, as low as 7 and as high as 3. He made runs against spin, he made runs in South Africa and he made runs at home before that. Not the most consistent, and he kept getting bowled. But the signs of class was very much there.

That's again not even vaguely true, he had a very good 2016 but outside of that year and this year his form hasn't been great. If we discount his two productive years his numbers are not good. He fully deserves an extended run in the team now but this suggestion he always showed this level of capablility is just plain wrong.

Discounting 2022 and 2016 he's scored 2951 runs @ 27 that's over an eight year period.

msp83 wrote:

Soul Requiem wrote:

msp83 wrote:

alfie wrote:

Soul Requiem wrote:Not much you can say really. I don't think any of us thought Bairstow deserved another chance but he got it and has excelled to an extent no one could have imagined.

Bravo YJB

Well I for one have always believed Bairstow belonged in the team. Had lean patches , sure : but I reckon a lot of that was down to being royally messed about by the management. Not too surprised he's been thriving since being given a clear role : though even I didn't expect this level of performance !

Bairstow, even before this wonderful patch, was a cut above the 20 Something lot for whom he often got dropped. He has issues with his technique even now, but surely wasn't ever a candidate for 21st century Ramprakash or Hick!

2018-2021 he was pretty terrible it has to be said, his place was up for debate quite rightfully, he averaged low 20's throughout that period.

Prior to that, he was among England's top test batters. Then the gloves got taken off him, he was moved up and down the batting order, as low as 7 and as high as 3. He made runs against spin, he made runs in South Africa and he made runs at home before that. Not the most consistent, and he kept getting bowled. But the signs of class was very much there.

Except he wasn't. Prior to 2022, Bairstow had one good year (2016) where he averaged nearly 60. Apart from that one year, in his early career (2012-2018) he was averaging high 20s-low 30s, then he fell off completely in 2019, before this incredible renaissance.

Bairstow is always going to be a tough batsman to evaluate. He's been in international cricket for a decade, and he only has two years where he's a averaged over 35 in Tests. The problem is, on one of those years he scored 1500 Test runs and made the ICC world XI, and he'll probably make it this year, too. In other words, when he's clicking he's one of the top 7 batsmen in the world, at a damn near historic rate, but when he isn't clicking he's at best a Test average batsman. Between 2016 and this year, he scored 8 tons in 25 Tests. Which means he's scored 3 in 62 either side of his two signature years. I'm not sure that's a positive return on investment tbh. And, yes I know if you take away anyone's nest performances they look worse, but the problem here is his best performances happened over a very condensed period of time. He's basically a passenger outside of that. I don't know if that's worth it. And by that I mean I literally don't know. Two miracle years for 8 straight trash ones.

Soul Requiem wrote:

msp83 wrote:

Soul Requiem wrote:

msp83 wrote:

alfie wrote:

Soul Requiem wrote:Not much you can say really. I don't think any of us thought Bairstow deserved another chance but he got it and has excelled to an extent no one could have imagined.

Bravo YJB

Well I for one have always believed Bairstow belonged in the team. Had lean patches , sure : but I reckon a lot of that was down to being royally messed about by the management. Not too surprised he's been thriving since being given a clear role : though even I didn't expect this level of performance !

Bairstow, even before this wonderful patch, was a cut above the 20 Something lot for whom he often got dropped. He has issues with his technique even now, but surely wasn't ever a candidate for 21st century Ramprakash or Hick!

2018-2021 he was pretty terrible it has to be said, his place was up for debate quite rightfully, he averaged low 20's throughout that period.

Prior to that, he was among England's top test batters. Then the gloves got taken off him, he was moved up and down the batting order, as low as 7 and as high as 3. He made runs against spin, he made runs in South Africa and he made runs at home before that. Not the most consistent, and he kept getting bowled. But the signs of class was very much there.

That's again not even vaguely true, he had a very good 2016 but outside of that year and this year his form hasn't been great. If we discount his two productive years his numbers are not good. He fully deserves an extended run in the team now but this suggestion he always showed this level of capablility is just plain wrong.

Discounting 2022 and 2016 he's scored 2951 runs @ 27 that's over an eight year period.

If we add up the first 10 months of 2011, the first 10 months of 2014, and the period since November 2019, that is 5 of Virat Kohli's 11 year test career, you just won't be able to understand what all the fuss has been about!. Wouldn't even make it to a division 2 County side!

Reckon there are some selective stats being quoted by posters re Bairstow's career. Suggesting he had one good year is nonsense :

2016 was Gilchristian. 2017 was fine for a keeper. 2018 started fine then got messed up by injuries and being flipped around the order. 2019 was a shocker...but really the only bad one...and it cost him his spot.

He didn't play at all in 2020 . And 2021 was the year in which he tried to reinvent himself as a pure bat rather than keeper/bat. No special scores ; but if you look closely , involved in several valuable partnerships .

You sometimes need to look at more than just raw figures to judge a player. Glad the selectors had the good sense to see that YJB was worth persevering with...

Meanwhile , Billings gone so up to Jimmy and Potts to rustle up a few more . 143 behind...

Potts with a couple of fine thumps! Think the skipper should bring himself back on. Would be fun to have a bit of that theater if we can have a bit of Bumrah v Anderson, mixed with a bouncer or 2!

Handy little cameo from Potts ended now ...or is it ? Might be some grass there ? No , it's going to be given out. Boos from the crowd...soft signal the key.

India have had the good side of two of those decisions in this match

But I don't think we can complain about that. Those are tough to be certain ; and I reckon fair enough decisions were made.

284 good recovery from 84/5. But at 132 in arrears England are facing a bit of a cliff...

Trail by 132. Into the stage of the game now where England have to knock India over quickly, probably by stumps tonight, if they are to have a realistic chase, while India will be looking to push the lead beyond 400 and declare midway through tomorrow.

Looks like the afternoon rain has missed Edgbaston, so it *should* be a dry day from here.

The Root catch on Friday was more out than that.

alfie wrote:Reckon there are some selective stats being quoted by posters re Bairstow's career. Suggesting he had one good year is nonsense :

2016 was Gilchristian. 2017 was fine for a keeper. 2018 started fine then got messed up by injuries and being flipped around the order. 2019 was a shocker...but really the only bad one...and it cost him his spot.

He didn't play at all in 2020 . And 2021 was the year in which he tried to reinvent himself as a pure bat rather than keeper/bat. No special scores ; but if you look closely , involved in several valuable partnerships .

You sometimes need to look at more than just raw figures to judge a player. Glad the selectors had the good sense to see that YJB was worth persevering with...

Meanwhile , Billings gone so up to Jimmy and Potts to rustle up a few more . 143 behind...

2951 runs with 3 tons in 62 Tests at an average of 25 outside of 2016 and this year. But sure, he's been quietly had a bunch of good years off the books

Blimey, ole Jimbo's got a wicket in the third innings.

Doesn't take Jimmy long to strike... Not bad for a nearly 40 man

Gill hasn't had a good match. Wonder if we might see some fun this afternoon yet ?

India have a nice cushion. But a couple more early wickets might set the nerves off in the dressing room...

Stuart Broad has had a pretty mouldy game so far. Would be a good time for one of his miracle spells now...

Will these people behind the sight screen ever get the message to stop walking around ! Really annoying !

Why don't they do away with this soft signal thing? Its a worse version of the Umpire's Call, relying more on the fielder than what the umpire has actually seen.
Anyways England done for 284 India with a handy lead of 132.
Hope Pujara and Gill can put their head down and negate that new ball. Pujara can't afford to go into a shell completely though, if he keeps letting the bowler bowl whereever they want, eventually a good one would arrive with his name. He at his peak, used to really keep those out, really sap every last bit out of the bowler and then build a score. But the reflexes have slowed, and bowlers have become smarter operating against him. And he hasn't been able to find a way for the old templet to work. So while staying focused on risk-free cricket, he should sometimes try to take the attack to the bowler, just to ensure they aren't allowed to keep bowling at him with a nothing to lose approach.

Gill must be disappointed with his twin failures here. With both Rohit and Rahul out it was a good opportunity for the young man. They don't seem to view him as a long-term opener material, rather see him as a middle order bat. If he had a performance here, could have put some pressure on the likes of Kohli and Pujara, and even Vihari and Iyer.

Pujara does look to be setting out with intent here... 12 off 15 balls so he's not exactly sitting on the splice !

England with the packed catching cordon so plenty of gaps. Runs there if the batsmen are game to look for them...

Why does it seem, that despite no major obvious weakness in his technique, every test run that Hanuma Vihari makes is a matter of serious laboriousness? I know KPF kind of rates him, and the selectors and management obviously do that's why he's here, but I have never really taken to the lad, just doesn't seem proper test class despite a mighty fine FC record.

So that was a mediocre opening spell from Stuart Broad. Has had a terrible game so far.

Good sensible batting from these two...weathered the first ten overs without alarms . Just what India need : with that big first innings lead they don't need anything spectacular in this third innings - just have to make sure they don't suffer a catastrophic collapse.

Once they can see off the main three seamers and get to a slightly older ball it should be fairly plain sailing. England need something rather remarkable to happen - and fairly soon - if they are to have any serious chance of getting back into this match.

Well, who do we have here? Jack Leach on, possibly for an exploratory over before Tea.

msp83 wrote:So that was a mediocre opening spell from Stuart Broad. Has had a terrible game so far.

In fairness , he bowled reasonably well in the first innings , without much luck - until that horrible last over - well last spell really. But to be honest , I reckon it might have been a good match to rest him after three Tests in close proximity , and give Overton a second match.

He is no longer a spring chicken ; and had to be feeling some effects from his workload. Can see why they went with him ; but not astonished it hasn't really worked out for them.

Leach on now. Hmm. At least he's not bowling to Pant

Yep, very intelligent cricket. Blunt the new ball and allow the middle order to put it out of reach against the fairly useless soft ball.

Anderson bowled an excellent opening spell. Unfortunate not to get more than one.

Leach on now and the scoring may begin in earnest.

So 37-1 at Tea for India. They should be rather satisfied with that effort, they haven't let the new ball do too much damage so far...

alfie wrote:

msp83 wrote:So that was a mediocre opening spell from Stuart Broad. Has had a terrible game so far.

In fairness , he bowled reasonably well in the first innings , without much luck - until that horrible last over - well last spell really. But to be honest , I reckon it might have been a good match to rest him after three Tests in close proximity , and give Overton a second match.

He is no longer a spring chicken ; and had to be feeling some effects from his workload. Can see why they went with him ; but not astonished it hasn't really worked out for them.

Leach on now. Hmm.  At least he's not bowling to Pant

Yes, Broad wasn't too shabby to start with in the firstinnings. But then he couldn't stand up to the collective loss of head with that short ball stuff, and executed the plan so badly too. Batted quite irresponsibly coming in at 9 though Billings was there at the other end. So progressively getting worse... India would hope for more of the same. Because he's someone who can suddenly produce a spell from hell out of nowhere!

Thought Anderson would have bowled a couple more after Tea. They have to make this new ball count, and he surely has been the pick of their bowlers so far.

Potts still getting some movement...not so much Broad. But Pujara in particular looks very serene at present.

Hard to see England creating chaos this evening. And I don't think these batsmen are going to do anything silly...

But what do I know ?!

Vihari chases one from Broad and YJB does the rest ... 43/2

Poor shot from Vihari, and Broad strikes! Kohli has been very out of sorts for a while, Shreyas Iyer is inexperienced in these parts of the world and has a short ball problem. An opening for England here. I would bring Anderson back on for Potts straight away, though Potts has been bowling well after Tea. He has the psychological edge on Kohli...

That's got Broad charged up...reckon he's cranked it up by a few kph after the wicket

Kohli not bothered though...lovely cover drive for four to get off the mark.

No Kohli v Anderson yet as Potts continues. One thing I expected Ben Stokes to be unlike Joe Root is to be non-formulaic with his bowling changes. it is not at all unreasonable to continue with Potts at this stage, but to bring Anderson on at this stage would be a different level of a move. Come on Ben!

Happy for Bairstow to continue his purple patch. His CC record is fantastic, he's always had so much talent but losing the gloves and going up/down the order clearly had a negative effect.

As cricket stats such as weighted averages taking into account runs above average for the era played in,, the position in the order players bat in, etc become more common I wouldn't be at all surprised if Bairstow's record suddenly looks a lot more favourable as well.

I expect as stats beyond average get looked at the largely arbitrary landmarks of over 40 for a good player, around 50 for a great might get some more perspective too.

Matt Prior was a fantastic player for instance but it would be interesting to see that average of 40.2 put in the perspective of batting predominantly at 7, behind an incredible 1-6, in a batting dominated era, with England playing on good pitches.

For a sport with such a rich and historic data set the amount that we've done with that data has been very limited in scope until fairly recently. As someone who's been fascinated by that numbers side of cricket from a young age (my usually very supportive mum was once concerned that I might be developing problems socialising as I reread Billy Frindall's book multiple times in a week during my summer holiday's instead of playing with kids my age) I find these types of stats fascinating. None will offer a fully objective view of course, all stats can be used to support misleading stories if poorly utilised, but some more variety of how we break down that gigantic data set will be brilliant for nerds such as myself.

msp83 wrote:Poor shot from Vihari, and Broad strikes! Kohli has been very out of sorts for a while, Shreyas Iyer is inexperienced in these parts of the world and has a short ball problem. An opening for England here. I would bring Anderson back on for Potts straight away, though Potts has been bowling well after Tea. He has the psychological edge on Kohli...

I get your idea , msp. But I reckon Potts is bowling rather well here - and he did get Kohli on Friday. Think Stokes should trust the young man. Jimmy will be back at the other end soon enough anyway , no ?

Vihari will be disappointed with that effort. Trying to stake a serious claim among a few candidates and this match won't have helped his prospects...

Kohli looking jittery...
And the ball is starting to do more... Makes it all the more inexplicable that poor shot from Vihari.

Potts very good in this spell. So nearly had a wicket then...has beaten the bat a lot : bit like Shami early in the England innings.

Anderson back on now so battle very much joined ; but with only two down India still sitting relatively comfortably.

Not the thrills of watching Pant or Bairstow : but still good cricket to watch...

Captain Ben takes over from Potts. This is where the wheels tend to fall off the England wagon lately : after the top three seamers are done the backup isn't quite there.

Lead is 201 so if Stokes has any magic tricks up his sleeve now would be an excellent time to display them...

kingraf wrote:

alfie wrote:Reckon there are some selective stats being quoted by posters re Bairstow's career. Suggesting he had one good year is nonsense :

2016 was Gilchristian. 2017 was fine for a keeper. 2018 started fine then got messed up by injuries and being flipped around the order. 2019 was a shocker...but really the only bad one...and it cost him his spot.

He didn't play at all in 2020 . And 2021 was the year in which he tried to reinvent himself as a pure bat rather than keeper/bat. No special scores ; but if you look closely , involved in several valuable partnerships .

You sometimes need to look at more than just raw figures to judge a player. Glad the selectors had the good sense to see that YJB was worth persevering with...

Meanwhile , Billings gone so up to Jimmy and Potts to rustle up a few more . 143 behind...

2951 runs with 3 tons in 62 Tests at an average of 25 outside of 2016 and this year. But sure, he's been quietly had a bunch of good years off the books

Yeah I'm not sure why we're trying to rewrite history to pretend he wasn't really quite bad for a while.

But, he's really taken advantage of this last chance - and is surely benefitting from McCullum's ethos most of all the bats in the side! Looks a reformed player now.

India well in control here...but from a them winning the game standpoint, might not be the worst thing if Pujara falls before close tonight...

Washedli goes for 20 - a good score for him these days

Also - it is very evident that Sam Billings is very not good with the gloves

Was a pretty unplayable delivery for Kohli that reared up, the sort you tend to get when out of form. England seemed especially glad of that dismissal, perhaps because Kohli had been shooting his mouth off earlier.

This was around the time NZ would collapse and leave England chasing something below 300. I think India are less flimsy and will push it beyond 350. Pujara's played an excellent role here and in the first innings. Don't think India are anywhere near concerned about the time remaining yet.

Another failure for Kohli. With his wings clipped in the power structure of Indian cricket, the noise is now going to get louder for the former Indian captain. He should have taken that break after the South Africa series and perhaps come back for this...

Is this the best that Stokes has bowled in a very long time? There was that long spell against New Zealand where he seemed intent on bowling himself to the ground. But this has been better than that. For the rest of the summer, he has been struggling with the ball...

Is this the best that Stokes has bowled in a very long time? There was that long spell against New Zealand where he seemed intent on bowling himself to the ground. But this has been better than that. For the rest of the summer, he has been struggling with the ball...

msp83 wrote:Is this the best that Stokes has bowled in a very long time? There was that long spell against New Zealand where he seemed intent on bowling himself to the ground. But this has been better than that. For the rest of the summer, he has been struggling with the ball...

He's always better when pitching the ball up, especially when it's swinging. So much better than when they use him in that "enforcer" role