England's Summer of Cricket 2023, Featuring The Ashes

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If Pope can't play I'd probably prefer Foakes coming in, taking the gloves, myself. Maybe:

1.Crawley 2.Duckett 3.Brook 4.Root 5.Bairstow 6.Stokes (c) 7.Foakes (wk)

It means a rejigging of the order but gets better players in the XI than Lawrence at 3 IMO. Particularly when I'm not that convinced by Lawrence against higher pace. Given the 15 man squad that isn't on the cards though.

If Wood is genuinely fit I'd like his pace in the attack but would probably ere towards the seam heavy attack again if the 4  below are good to go:

8.Woakes 9.Broad 10.Wood 11.Tongue

If Wood isn't fit then:

8.Moeen 9.Woakes 10.Broad 11.Tongue

Which does have a lot of batting depth on the upside.

I had a look at that Broad's 600 victims quiz earlier today , Olly. Was up to ninety in about 15 minutes but got called out so had to abandon for now. A lot to recall ! Will try again when I get time.

Woakes finishes it off but no ball.

Been a much cleaner effort from England in this game but another needless error

Ah rats ! Nearly five for Woakes ...but that Crawley catch turned over by a no ball ! First one he's bowled too .

Wonder how much that will cost in time and runs ?

No balls have hit both teams with lost wickets this series. Hurt England more though I think. Actually surprised at just how often these fellows are overstepping: and seem to be rather a lot of these retrospective calls have been sawing off wickets.

Now the annoying thing about that wicket not counting is we are into more of this cat and mouse rubbish with fielders on the boundary and the better batsman trying to shield his partner. Always a bit boring...

Seemed a harsh no ball on Woakes.

Watch Australia add 25-30 runs now

It's a very tight no ball call that.

England's proclivity for overstepping in Tests is so much more annoying given the white ball side basically eradicated them under Morgan. So it's definitely possible to not bowl them...

Time is of the essence with the forecast. England should be batting now.

Be half tempted to rev up Wood with the new ball.

Harsh ? I can't honestly say I detected anything behind the line . Tight ; but a no ball for mine.

Cost 11 already. You just know this pair are going to add thirty ,, don't you ?

Still don't like these tactics. At least they are keeping slips in , but a bit of air has come out of England's tyres with that cancelled wicket. I'd have Wood on , pronto.

alfie wrote:No balls have hit both teams with lost wickets this series. Hurt England more though I think.  Actually surprised at just how often these fellows are overstepping: and seem to be rather a lot of these retrospective calls have been sawing off wickets.

Now the annoying thing about that wicket not counting is we are into more of this cat and mouse rubbish with fielders on the boundary and the better batsman trying to shield his partner. Always a bit boring...

There's been some murmurs from analysts about whether tight no balls are actually being called when checked by the TV umpire given how many get spotted after wickets fall.

Tight ones, and even big ones, were often overlooked by on field umpires for the history of the game to keep things flowing. So it wouldn't astonish me if when the responsibility was handed to the TV umpire they realised that bowlers were narrowly overstepping in a lot of overs.

A bit like when they decided to actually check whether bowlers naturally flexed their elbow whilst bowling and realised that by the old laws seamers such as McGrath were technically chucking.

If that's the case I'd rather they just no balled seamers multiple times in an over until they got their foot behind the line though. It'd be ugly briefly whilst the bowlers adjusted but would be better than not enforcing the laws.

As for this one. Having now got a replay on the Beeb feed that I can slow down, magnify myself I think it's fair. Incredibly tight. But I don't think there's anything behind the line there. If Root were out and I saw that as he walked up the steps I'd be spitting feathers put it that way!

Six on the boundary to Mitchell Starc.

Will be amazed if this test is anything other than a draw. England needed to bowl Australia out yesterday, now a lot of time is being wasted.

Woakes does it again. 317ao. Five for Woakes. 11 in the series @ 18.45 - should have been involved much earlier.

Waste of 30 minutes from an England perspective

Hope this isn't a no ball...

OK , Woakes gets a michelle after all

So just cost 17 runs , twenty minutes ... and a Crawley catch for my PJ competition as Duckett ended up taking it this time

Aus did well to take 45 min out of the game and get to a healthy 317
Woakes is quite good

Cracking five-fer from Woakes. He's had quite the return.

A frustratingly wasted half an hour though.

My general feeling is that this looks a decent batting wicket. Without the forecast I'd be really happy from an England perspective when you add the pitch turning, the Aussies not picking a spinner. There's carry and I suspect the bounce might get variable as the Test goes on but there's runs in the wicket too. England were bowling with a new ball there and it hardly looked horrible for Starc and Hazlewood.

Given the carry there will definitely be the opportunity for Cummins and Starc to run through England's top order. But the same is always true with England's top order!

Australia's attack does look unbalanced to me. Hazlewood wasn't at his best previously and we don't know what sort of workload Green will be taking with the ball.

We also need to factor in multiple set England batters getting out to Mitch Marsh and Travis Head though.

No wickets for Starc in the first over. That's always a win given his remarkable stats around doing so!

I've only just seen the Woakes 'no-ball' and I think that's a very harsh decision, looks like a small part of his heel is behind the line.

Hazlewood takes the new ball.

At this attacks best having Cummins as a change bowler was its gigantic strength. Statistically, he's the second best first change bowler in Tests after Joel Garner. In most attacks Cummins would be too good compared to the other opening options for him not to take the new ball. Due to Starc and Hazlewood they had the luxury of using Cummins as a change bowler.

With Hazlewood having looked below his best since injury I'd be giving Cummins the new ball though. I think he's enough of a step up with the new ball at the moment that he needs to open.

He'll still get the ball while fairly new no doubt. But as an England fan I'd prefer current Hazlewood opening to Cummins.

king_carlos wrote:No wickets for Starc in the first over. That's always a win given his remarkable stats around doing so!

In fairness, it only took him 7 balls. Bad dismissal for Duckett.

And Duckett goes.

Australia should be able to get a go at Root very early from here.

11 overs, still no Cummins. He is alright, isn't he?

These umpires are poor

I have to say the umpiring has not been of a high standard...

Hilarious umpiring that decision. Good thing about the review system is we can all laugh about it.

Good morning for England, albeit it could've been better. Day Watchman has done a job.

Ali looked the most accomplished English batsmen at No.3 in this series.
69 short of a hundred and going strong
His averages at the top looked better from the graphic shown on TV than when he is at Nos 7 and 8

Crawley looks stiff like a man on wooden stilts plays the ball so far away from the body and so much across the line. They should plug leg side and ball...full and straight on his middle stump.

His average of 28 is a reflection of his skills....but openers in English conditions with 30ish average can be acceptable

Eng's session

king_carlos wrote:And Duckett goes.

Australia should be able to get a go at Root very early from here.

Moeen at 3 has worked, in as much as he's been able to protect Root from the new ball

Decent session for England - despite the annoyance of that no ball. Took the last two wickets in 7 overs for just 18 runs ; and negotiated 16 over for the loss of Duckett and sixty-one runs. Lot to do after lunch of course ; but it's a fair sort of start.

Duckett's inability to leave a ball is a bit of a concern. He got a good one today , to be fair. But apart from Lord's he's not been able to get really "in". Will hope he can adjust second knock here.

Duty281 wrote:11 overs, still no Cummins. He is alright, isn't he?

He finally started to tire at the end of T3. It's basically 6 back to back Tests for Cummins. Yes, there was a bigger gap here but in the scheme things it's 6 Tests in no time at all when adding in the WTC final.

He's been Australia's best bowler by a distance across the series so they'll need him firing.

The ever excellent John Holder on TMS this lunchtime, always amusing to hear of the ridiculous situations that have come up in club games and what the correct decision should have been. He confirmed that the Starc catch was definitely grounded and therefore not out.

Ian Botham, Fredye Flintoff, Stuart Broad and? Yes, Moeen Ali! The double of 200 test wickets and 3000 test runs! And he shouldn't even have been selected after 2016!! And only 3 men have achieved the double in fewer test matches, Botham, Shakib Al Hasan and Chris Cairns.
Anyways England's session though that no-ball took out valuable time and added a few more runs. An underappreciated aspect of Australia's current UK tour is Starc's contributions with the bat. Starting from the WTC final, he has been chipping in nicely. For a bit, Cummins was promoted above Starc and I always thought the latter was the better bat. The skipper corrected the situation and Starc has been doing a silant but nice job since. And of course, nothing not obvious about that early strike with the new ball...
Thought England missed a trick by not introducing Wood earlier into the attack. Old man Anderson picked up a wicket early on, and that should have been the sign for Wood to be on perhaps after 1 more over from Anderson. Though he didn't pick up the wicket, Woakes did the job a 2nd time, after Wood was brought on.

msp83 wrote:Ian Botham, Fredye Flintoff, Stuart Broad and? Yes, Moeen Ali! The double of 200 test wickets and 3000 test runs! And he shouldn't even have been selected after 2016!! And only 3 men have achieved the double in fewer test matches, Botham, Shakib Al Hasan and Chris Cairns.
Anyways England's session though that no-ball took out valuable time and added a few more runs. An underappreciated aspect of Australia's current UK tour is Starc's contributions with the bat. Starting from the WTC final, he has been chipping in nicely. For a bit, Cummins was promoted above Starc and I always thought the latter was the better bat. The skipper corrected the situation and Starc has been doing a silant but nice job since. And of course, nothing not obvious about that early strike with the new ball...
Thought England missed a trick by not introducing Wood earlier into the attack. Old man Anderson picked up a wicket early on, and that should have been the sign for Wood to be on perhaps after 1 more over from Anderson. Though he didn't pick up the wicket, Woakes did the job a 2nd time, after Wood was brought on.

Yup only 1 or 2 spinners in Eng have ever taken 200 wickets...leave aside doubling it with runs

KP_fan wrote:

msp83 wrote:Ian Botham, Fredye Flintoff, Stuart Broad and? Yes, Moeen Ali! The double of 200 test wickets and 3000 test runs! And he shouldn't even have been selected after 2016!! And only 3 men have achieved the double in fewer test matches, Botham, Shakib Al Hasan and Chris Cairns.
Anyways England's session though that no-ball took out valuable time and added a few more runs. An underappreciated aspect of Australia's current UK tour is Starc's contributions with the bat. Starting from the WTC final, he has been chipping in nicely. For a bit, Cummins was promoted above Starc and I always thought the latter was the better bat. The skipper corrected the situation and Starc has been doing a silant but nice job since. And of course, nothing not obvious about that early strike with the new ball...
Thought England missed a trick by not introducing Wood earlier into the attack. Old man Anderson picked up a wicket early on, and that should have been the sign for Wood to be on perhaps after 1 more over from Anderson. Though he didn't pick up the wicket, Woakes did the job a 2nd time, after Wood was brought on.

Yup only 1 or 2 spinners in Eng have ever taken 200 wickets...leave aside doubling it with runs

England has had only 2 top class test spinners in the modern era. Derek Underwood and Graham Swann. Though the way the contributions like that of Moeen's is at time denegrated might suggest that top class test spinners are walking around the islands not knowing what to do, the well has well and truly been dry.

They are just going short all too regularly at Mo. So the plan is broadcasted loud and clear if ever there were any doubts to start with. can Moeen continue to apply his mind and show good temperament?

Mo on to 43. Isn't this the highest score for a number 3 for England in the series? Didn't Pope had a 42 or something before starting a match-losing collapse with a stupid shot?

Is it just me, or has Pat C been a bit slower than usual on average here? Still quick, but not the usual Cummins...

msp83 wrote:Is it just me, or has Pat C been a bit slower than usual on average here? Still quick, but not the usual Cummins...

Notably, yes. It's an insane schedule for Cummins as said in the post with Duty above. He seems down on pace and less action on the ball as a result. He's comfortably into the fast-medium range of speed here rather than being a genuine quick. That's not slow. England would've begged for that pace at Edgbaston with their medium-fast battalion. It is slow for Cummins though.

The Australian seamers have noticeably tired over long series during the Border-Gavaskar trophy in the past.

It's 6 Tests in less than 8 weeks for Cummins when you add in the WTC final.

The last time England were in a commanding position was T2 D2 when I considered giving up on cricket watching the dismissals just after Lyon had hobbled off.

They're rightly targeting Head here. Mo hits spin very well and a part time offie to a set right-hander isn't a good matchup at the other end.

50 up for Moeen, well played

Must admit that I never saw that coming.

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