England's Winter of Cricket 2022/23

First topic message reminder :

Of course we have the World T20 covered in a separate thread, but I thought we should have a new one for England's upcoming games this winter, which feature:

Three ODIs in Australia (17th-22nd November)
Three tests in Pakistan (1st-21st December)
Three ODIs in South Africa (27th January-1st February)
Two tests in New Zealand (16th-28th February)
Three ODIs in Bangladesh (March)

Looking forward to the tests, but I think the ODIs will be instantly forgettable!

You do have to wonder about the first Test if Pakistan had picked Abrar over Mahmood like they should have done!

JDizzle wrote:You do have to wonder about the first Test if Pakistan had picked Abrar over Mahmood like they should have done!  

He looks pretty handy , doesn't he ? Very different conditions today though.

Certainly picking three spinners looks a good move by Pakistan here. England will probably be glad they didn't do as some urged and leave out Jacks - though Pope might be challenged more in keeping to the spinners on this one.

Should be an intriguing few days...

Have England picked the wrong team here, or by extension I suppose the wrong squad? Seems another specialist spinner would be handy on this. Saying that, Root has been more than useful on this type of pitch before

VTR wrote:Have England picked the wrong team here, or by extension I suppose the wrong squad? Seems another specialist spinner would be handy on this. Saying that, Root has been more than useful on this type of pitch before

Rehan Ahmed is the only one left in the squad I think? If he is in the squad, you have to trust him to play I guess but would be a big call! Whether or not they should have taken another spinner anyway is probably a fair question.

He's going to take all ten , isn't he ?

Totally bamboozled Ben Stokes with that one. Six now and England at 229/6 are unlikely to get to 600 this time

Not sure how Robinson and the other bowlers are going to cope here. (batting , I mean ). The specialist bats have certainly found things...interesting.

JDizzle wrote:

VTR wrote:Have England picked the wrong team here, or by extension I suppose the wrong squad? Seems another specialist spinner would be handy on this. Saying that, Root has been more than useful on this type of pitch before

Rehan Ahmed is the only one left in the squad I think? If he is in the squad, you have to trust him to play I guess but would be a big call! Whether or not they should have taken another spinner anyway is probably a fair question.

Who though ? Rashid ain't an option and apart from him I guess you are looking at Dawson , Bess or Parkinson. The last of those probably the most likely to produce something different...

I get the feeling they don't quite think he's up to it. Rehan really might have been a decent option on this , I think. Not sure they expected this to do as much as it has.

Seven now for Abrar

Pakistan will be batting before tea.

I watched the first session and a bit now...pitch is absolute Patta...spin is gentle and ball sits up to be whacked.

Eng has taken a hit out approach to spin and Pak have one real mystery spinner who has tilted the game on Pak's favor
He has shades of Ajanta Mendis

The par is about 400-450 for first inning for this bald, barren pitch IMO

The other most noticeable thing was the Incompetence of the 3rd Umpire.
That guy is in a hurry to give a decision and has a small mind that perceives only 2 dimensions when there can be half a dozen such as bat hitting ground or bat hitting pads or ball brushing some part of the body

And their DRS system operators is super slow

Eng RRR is good...but look like falling 150 run short of par

We will see about that 400 par when Pakistan bat. (Which might be quite soon !)

Certainly the very aggressive batting approach against the mystery spinner has been a factor : but I think there is more in this deck for the bowlers than you're allowing , KP_fan. And I reckon it will do more as the game advances.

Will be interesting to see : and certainly the chances of a result in this match have taken a huge lift already.

Oh rats ! No ten for Abrar

Mahmood gets Robinson . 245/8. What is worse ...the run rate is down to about five

Oh that's a bit daft , Jack Leach ! First ball reverse sweep ? Who does he think he is - Jimmy Anderson ?


...who might not thank him for sending him in on a hat trick !

Pretty sure Bazball didn't help Leach or England there! He had one old fashioned job - stay with Woody - and didn't do it.

Wood doing his best to spoil Abrar's figures

Useful runs anyway.

Done now after 36 off 24 balls... 281 all out and Abrar has to settle for just 7/114.

Reckon he'll take that

guildfordbat wrote:Pretty sure Bazball didn't help Leach or England there! He had one old fashioned job - stay with Woody - and didn't do it.

Maybe he's in a hurry to start bowling ?

alfie wrote:

JDizzle wrote:

VTR wrote:Have England picked the wrong team here, or by extension I suppose the wrong squad? Seems another specialist spinner would be handy on this. Saying that, Root has been more than useful on this type of pitch before

Rehan Ahmed is the only one left in the squad I think? If he is in the squad, you have to trust him to play I guess but would be a big call! Whether or not they should have taken another spinner anyway is probably a fair question.

Who though ? Rashid ain't an option and apart from him I guess you are looking at Dawson , Bess or Parkinson. The last of those probably the most likely to produce something different...

I get the feeling they don't quite think he's up to it.  Rehan really might have been a decent option on this , I think. Not sure they expected this to do as much as it has.

Seven now for Abrar

Pakistan will be batting before tea.

Cupboards are a bit bare for sure. I’d have picked Parky. I know they think he bowls to slow, but he (unlike a Crane or Borthwick) has a good FC record. But yeah, I don’t think they pick another seamer if they knew the pitch would spin this early.

Guess most of us think that represents a bit of a sub-par total. Fair case that England rather over-cooked the "attack" today...and interesting that they really didn't back away from it even in the face of rapidly falling wickets. Foolhardy ? Just over confident ? Or do they reckon one has your name on it and best get a few first ?

I wouldn't have thought the pitch was quite the nest of vipers the last of those implies - though Abrar certainly fooled more than one good player who was not trying anything outlandish. But the old adage may apply : judge it after both sides have batted.

Not boring , is it ?

The question is could they have played conventional build the innings instead of slog & reverse sweeps and hacks...and gotten to 400+
OR
would they have tamely ended up with 240 at the end of day in 85 overs

We won't know because, that's not how Stokes will let his side play.
Game moves very fast with this English side...and it would be interesting to see what Eng bowlers get out of this pitch

Well Jimmy has something out of it already...the wicket of Imam !

Just the start they wanted...

England haven't exactly had much success with "conventional" batting in recent years. Haven't exactly been skittled either in the manner of some of those sides

That's now 98 wickets at a shade over 20 since I proclaimed Anderson test career over during the 2019 ashes.

That includes 11 matches overseas.

Leach mixing it up a bit ...several rank short pitched "hit me" balls , and one real peach that so nearly took an edge.

There should be a bit in this track for him if he gets it in the right spot.

Wood going to try and work Babar over early ?

Think I'd have liked to see Robinson/Anderson a bit more than Wood this early in the innings.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Think I'd have liked to see Robinson/Anderson a bit more than Wood this early in the innings.

They both worked pretty hard in Rawalpindi : might be they are going to be saved more for the "reverse" window in this innings ?

Looks as if Root fancies a bowl soon.

Good review ! Nice work all round by Ollie Pope

Who needs Foakes ?

Leach will feel good about that too. Shafiique had battled away without ever looking too settled...but Babar looks good today.

This is what foreign nations should soon realise, and what Pakistan should have realised in the first test.

Bazball batting is all well and good on flat pancakes, but it'll run into trouble on pitches that have some life about them. England can load the dice at home, and even then they've required some astonishing and unlikely comebacks, but abroad will be a different matter.

England are about 100 short here, maybe 150, and it doesn't look as though Babar will let them off this time.

Shakeel has shades of Pant....
Pak gets to 100 with more orthodoxy and at a much higher RR than you'd normally see from them in tests
Eng spinners......Leach is steady at best and the other two, really looking parttimers
Eng need to bowl more of the 3 under used seamers

Babar and Shakeel playing well here and batting Pakistan into a handy position after those early wickets. England spinners don't have the weapons that Abrar displayed so effectively earlier in the day. Still the odd ball has beaten the bat so it is entirely possible a wicket might fall at some point and we may then see a different game.

Three seamers - four if you take Stokes into account - seems a bit excessive at the moment. Maybe fair to say Pakistan judged the conditions better today ?

Light has closed in and off we go at 107/2. Pakistan's day . But a lot of cricket left in this match.

Build up of internal combustion engine exhaust stops play.

Fascinating day. Fast moving match this.

80 overs bowled with innings change and multiple DRS delays that took unusually long time....not bad....on a good day they can get 85 overs in

KP_fan wrote:80 overs bowled with innings change and multiple DRS delays that took unusually long time....not bad....on a good day they can get 85 overs in

Nearly all the overs bowled by spinners ...just as well with drs stuff taking up about forty minutes with all the umpiring errors

2 quick wickets for Leach and right back in it.

Make that 3! Pakistan still with a decent deficit

Root now running through them, 8 down

Yes, this is a huge collapse, its 6-27 as I type. What looked like Pakistan gaining a lead with Babar getting a big score is now looking like a hundred run lead for England

What a review from Zahid - may as well have a go 9 down but that was plumber than plumb. Great move to get Wood on before lunch.

PAK look like finishing 200 below par :
This game is effectively over in Day and a session

Lead of 79 I suspect was beyond most people's best case scenario at lunch. Bazball to try and put the game away today?

GSC wrote:2 quick wickets for Leach and right back in it.

Good early coverage, GSC. The new Alfie? 

The head says, still over 3 days left. Keep them out there for 2 days and grind them into the dust. Stokes/McCullum say, let's try and score 300 in 50 overs and have a bowl tonight

Jacks at 3 is a bit of an indicator of intent

Well Jacks' innings certainly accelerated the game! Think that wasn't a great move tbh, Root at 3 would have been a better option, or even Stokes himself

Bit more sedate start after those wickets but ticking along nicely. Pakistan are probably going to have to make something happen relatively soon

guildfordbat wrote:

GSC wrote:2 quick wickets for Leach and right back in it.

Good early coverage, GSC. The new Alfie? 

Well I have actually been off at my own game this afternoon...(see other thread for report ) : sorry to have missed the lively early session !

Not exactly shocked at the scoreline. Reckon there is plenty in this pitch for any competent spinner . Get Babar and you'd always think Pakistan is collapsible. Haven't yet seen highlights ...looking forward to it.

How did Crawley manage to throw his innings away to a run out ? I note England are a little less "Bazball " and a little more pragmatic in this innings , while still positive , at 73/2 off 18.

Pleased to see the sensible decision to move Pope down the order after keeping duties

That's not so good though...Root gone cheaply again. Abrar still ticking...

Game very much alive still.

Still no Pope. Not injured , is he ? Brook in and could do with showing the game sense to play a "sensible" innings now.

That was a hell of a catch at short leg to get rid of Root !

alfie wrote:

guildfordbat wrote:

GSC wrote:2 quick wickets for Leach and right back in it.

Good early coverage, GSC. The new Alfie? 

Well I have actually been off at my own game this afternoon...(see other thread for report ) : sorry to have missed the lively early session !

Not exactly shocked at the scoreline. Reckon there is plenty in this pitch for any competent spinner . Get Babar and you'd always think Pakistan is collapsible. Haven't yet seen highlights ...looking forward to it.

How did Crawley manage to throw his innings away to a run out ?  I note England are a little less "Bazball " and a little more pragmatic in this innings , while still positive  , at 73/2 off 18.

Pleased to see the sensible decision to move Pope down the order after keeping duties

Hi Alfie - when you do watch the highlights, savour the dismissal of Rizwan. Absolute beauty from Leach.

Also for your definite viewing - earlier Jimmy somehow held onto a running and diving steepler from Shakeel also off Leach. Looked at first like it could be a kamikaze moment as Jacks also advanced on the ball, actually thought it was the Surrey man's but turned out happily.

Hide behind the sofa for how Crawley and Jacks got out.

alfie wrote:Still no Pope. Not injured , is he ?  Brook in and could do with showing the game sense to play a "sensible" innings now.

That was a hell of a catch at short leg to get rid of Root  !

He seemed ok earlier. My guess is some old school thinking that a keeper is better suited to batting at 6 or 7, particularly just after having done another 60 odd overs behind the stumps.

Thanks Guildford. Look forward to the highlights - sounds worth watching.

Interesting match. England well on top but need to not throw away wickets unnecessarily now ...plenty of time , make sure you are uncatchable , eh ? Can be entertaining and still prudent , surely.

Pleased to see Leach has done well . Did think this pitch would suit him , and should be more so in the second innings. He might be a bit weary before he's done though !

I see Jimmy and Robinson have been allowed a bit of a soft day's work out...although they each took key wickets.

160 ahead , seven in hand. Make sure of it , eh...then you can make Olly's day by giving Rehan Ahmed a game next week

Big let off for Duckett ! Should have been Abrar's tenth. Reckon he'll get that and more sooner or later anyway...but Pakistan could have done with that.

Can Duckett make the most of that ?

Lead closing on 200...

Already a tricky chase, can't see Pakistan wanting to chase too many more. Won't be a day 5 pitch granted but 300 on this batting last seems a tough ask

Duckett rather threw that away...not Abrar's best ball ; but he got a bit too excited. Might reckon a century gone begging there ?

Kept a bit low. Maybe not a great sign for Pakistan in second innings.

Here's the Pope...

alfie wrote:Duckett rather threw that away...not Abrar's best ball ; but he got a bit too excited. Might reckon a century gone begging there ?

Kept a bit low. Maybe not a great sign for Pakistan in second innings.

Here's the Pope...

To be fair if you’re not excited seeing a half tracker on 79* I’d suggest you’re not a bat - one of those “only a leggie would get that wicket” wickets that one