England's Summer of Cricket 2024

First topic message reminder :

Now the County Championship has begun, it is officially summer once more. Don't let the rain tell you otherwise!

We can talk about promising county performances, the build up to the World T20, and Ollie Robinson's latest injury when it happens. Then, in just under two months, England start playing games:

England v Pakistan, four T20s, 22nd May-30th May
World T20 in June
England v West Indies, three tests, 10th July-30th July
England v Sri Lanka, three tests, 21st August-10th September
England v Australia, three T20s, 11th September-15th September
England v Australia, five ODIs, 19th September-29th September

It's a bit of a pressure summer for England. The ODI side made the most disappointing defence of a World Cup crown since France in the football in 2002, so there's pressure on the T20 side, and Mott in particular, to deliver something decent in the Caribbean.

For the test match side, it's been three series without a series win for England, so the expectation is on for England to get back to winning ways against the West Indies and Sri Lanka. The West Indies often cause England a few troubles, but England have won their last seven home series v the West Indies, dating back to 2000, and you have to go back to 1988 for the last time the West Indies won a series in England.

Sri Lanka are visiting for the first time in eight years for a test series, so it's well overdue. They've certainly managed to upset England in the past, very famously in 1998, but also in 2014, so it's a series that cannot be taken for granted.

And to round off the summer the ECB are making a dash for cash, with eight limited overs games against the Aussies in the fading September light, in games that will probably be forgotten in no time at all.

And Bashir does get his five...well bowled young man Easy win in the end and Stokes & co can go and celebrate...

Shame what was a pretty competitive game rather turned into a bit of a walkover in the final session

Great work by England in that final session - Bashir with another five wicket haul, he now matches Andrew Flintoff's career amount of them...!
He's going to have tough days, but there is definitely something to work with there with him.

Hope to see Pennington or Potts given a go in the final test - would make sense to give Wood a rest, he's had a good game despite his figures not reflecting it.

Also a note, I thought again Jamie Smith kept very very tidily. In particular some good takes up to the spinner. He's made a quietly assured start to his test career.

A shame that the West Indies came apart so easily at the end. Louis and Brathwaite established a good platform, but the last 10 wickets went down for 82 runs! 17 wickets on the day in what was such batting friendly conditions.

Gives England their first test series win since December 2022, and sees them go up to 6th in the WTC. Third test starts on Friday (I like the three tests being back to back) and I agree that I'd like to see Pennington and Potts. Still 10 test matches left for the year for England.

West Indies, hope they don't get too disheartened. Competed very well until that final session. They've got a two test series at home to South Africa shortly after this series concludes, so their players shouldn't be thinking of holidays and the like.

It really wasn't a big surprise that collapse. Windies have been doing this for about 25 years now. One decent performance and everyone says they are on the up. A lot of people want them to do well and they were even praised for their improvement after half a match here. But it saddens me to say, they are still pretty rubbish

Must admit I was a little surprised at the speed of the collapse - though not so much that West Indies were unable to compete over the full Test.  Often happens that the weaker team falls away in the end after staying in touch for a large part of a game. They'll be disappointed that they folded so dramatically , especially after that useful opening stand. Should note to be fair that the ball did start to take increasing uneven bounce on that last day , which certainly contributed to batting problems.

England bowling was pretty good. Woakes got better as the match went on , Wood again excellent and deserving of far better figures - though the indirect effect of his fierce pace obviously created much of the pressure which enabled his bowling partners to thrive - it is a team game. Atkinson less spectacular than at Lord's but did his part ; and of course Bashir who collected the best figures on this last day and continued to show what it is that has caused the selectors to prefer him over more obvious candidates for the lead spinner role.

On Bashir : we shouldn't get too carried away just yet . His first innings performance wasn't great , and he will find harder opponents than this West Indies outfit. But taking five on a final day is what spinners are paid to do - and something not many recent England spinners have been able to manage , certainly at home. No huge assistance from the pitch ; and if his first wicket was rather fortunately donated from a dodgy delivery , the balls to dismiss Hodge and Holder in particular were excellent. Looking forward to seeing how he develops over the rest of the summer.

Team for game three ? Rotation , you'd think. With the series won , chance perhaps for Potts and Pennington both to get a run out : could choose to rest any of Woakes Wood or Atkinson , though I think they'd still want to retain one of the two experienced bowlers in the XI - would not want to get too cocky and disrespect the tourists , who showed they do have a bit of fight in them , if ultimately not enough to make up for a deficit in class.

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Great work by England in that final session - Bashir with another five wicket haul, he now matches Andrew Flintoff's career amount of them...!
He's going to have tough days, but there is definitely something to work with there with him.

Hope to see Pennington or Potts given a go in the final test - would make sense to give Wood a rest, he's had a good game despite his figures not reflecting it.

Also a note, I thought again Jamie Smith kept very very tidily. In particular some good takes up to the spinner. He's made a quietly assured start to his test career.

Absolutely agree on the two bits in bold, Olly.

Bashir looks to have all the tools to be able to bowl in a variety of conditions. Which England have so sorely lacked since Swann retired - or more specifically, his fingers stopped working and he couldn't turn the ball just before he retired! Bash has the height to get some bounce and the accuracy to tie batters down. If he can start getting the ball to dip, then he'll have all the tools you want from a finger spinner in more benign conditions. He already has an action that looks well set to putting overspin on the ball too. So I wouldn't expect it to require big tweaks to get that dip. In India it felt like there's a lot to work with and this Test has reinforced that for me.

Smith has arguably been more than tidy so far. That catch off the under edge standing up to Bashir is the type of take that Foakes would rightly be lauded for making look easy. Anything off the under edge when up to the stumps is a very good take indeed.

So long as Atkinson pulls up well, I'd look at Pennington for Wood in T3.

Shame for the Windies that it all went to pieces because for the main part it was a huge improvement and they looked good...Louis at the top of the order will come good, he clearly has the technique for test match cricket just needs to make smarter decisions..for example his dismissal 2nd innings he should be leaving that ball day long.....the bowling attack looks good, they run in all day with good pace and never shy from the task....Seales is a very very good bowler, Alzarri needs to sort out his consistency but again good pace and never shies away....Motie should come in for the 3rd test is a better bowler than Sincalir.....Sinclair averages 38 in f/c cricket with the bat so there's a case for him playing as a batter?

Will Macpherson
@willis_macp

England unchanged for the third Test. So no game for Dillon Pennington and Matthew Potts

Hmm. I'd have given Pennington a go here with the series won and a good look at Atkinson already in the first two Tests. I really like the look of Pennington from what little I've seen.

Unlike others, I didn't mind Wood and Woakes playing together at Trent Bridge as it seemed a good opportunity to see Atkinson or Wood with the new ball. As said pre T2, I think that's a good thing to do with the quicker options. If one (or god forbid a few...) of them can be genuine new ball options then we can look at playing two quicks when the conditions require. Which is very useful indeed.

It feels that there is a bit of a divide at the moment between medium-fast new ball seamers and fast-medium to genuinely fast change bowlers. That in itself is much more varied than having 3 medium-fast new ball seamers in the same attack. If they can close that skill gap on both sides with the quicks getting comfortable with the new ball and the seamers better with the older ball, then it's an even stronger potential position.

At the very least, I hope that Wood is given the new ball in T3. Atkinson has impressed but I'm not sure that his 'three quarter seam' stock ball is the best use of the new ball. It's a useful delivery that has given him success, but it's approaching a scramble seam more than a wobble ball! Interestingly, it's more akin to the wobble balls that Trent Boult and Mitch Starc developed when it started taking over the game. Which I just find curious as they're left-armers.

When Wood got the ball swinging at genuine pace in T3 of the Ashes it looked unplayable at times. That intrigues me as an new ball option more.

Woakes being the only bowler who should really bat at 8 limits options too. If Stone can stay fit, then it's really useful that his batting seems to have kicked on. It seems that he's used his injury layoffs smartly in that regard. It's what Cummins did during the giant layoffs when he couldn't bowl. He just drilled his batting for hours and hours until he was far better than in the early days.

Jetty wrote:Will Macpherson
@willis_macp

England unchanged for the third Test. So no game for Dillon Pennington and Matthew Potts

If you are going to say you are looking to the future, then I have no problem moving on from Anderson.

If you say you are picking the best team to win the next game only, I also have no problem with this as a plan as the Ashes aren’t the be all and end all and we shouldn’t take our home record for granted. But if this is your MO, and it looks like it is - then Anderson should clearly not have been pensioned off.

A little surprised that neither Pennington nor Potts has had a run out in this series. Chance may be against Sri Lanka later on ?

Guess they want to explore the Wood/Atkinson partnership a little more - and as KC says , only Woakes can really fill that number eight spot (although has not Potts made a few County scores this year ?)

Shouldn't worry about bowlers not getting chances though - someone is bound to get injured soon anyway

alfie wrote:A little surprised that neither Pennington nor Potts has had a run out in this series. Chance may be against Sri Lanka later on ?

Guess they want to explore the Wood/Atkinson partnership a little more - and as KC says , only Woakes can really fill that number eight spot (although has not Potts made a few County scores this year ?)

Shouldn't worry about bowlers not getting chances though - someone is bound to get injured soon anyway

I think it's Woakes/Atkinson partnership they are looking at. How will Atkinson manage as an opening bowler. He doesn't open for Surrey. When Pennington does come in he won't open although he does for Notts., unless Atkinson is not playing. It's strange though, we always had one tall opener and a swinger. Caddick and Gough, Harmison and Hoggard, Broad and Anderson. Pennington is 6'5. He would be ideal to open with Woakes.

Seems an odd selection to me. Jimmy's gone because of looking ahead to the Ashes, but Woakes (definitely won't be there) and Wood (unlikely to be there on present form) are continual selections. What was the point of putting Pennington into the squad if not to play him?

If smartly managed then I don't think Wood is that unlikely to be in Oz. I can't see him playing a big role in white ball cricket now and the ECB obviously gave him a long contract to manage that workload.

Woakes is realistically filling a different role to Anderson given he's the only bowler who really bats. I also think that he remains a better bet to be effective against India next summer if they're picking an experienced home specialist.

It's a done decision and we've discussed it to death already. The debate is starting to feel as cyclical as the endless Moeen discussion!

king_carlos wrote:If smartly managed then I don't think Wood is that unlikely to be in Oz. I can't see him playing a big role in white ball cricket now and the ECB obviously gave him a long contract to manage that workload.

Woakes is realistically filling a different role to Anderson given he's the only bowler who really bats. I also think that he remains a better bet to be effective against India next summer if they're picking an experienced home specialist.

It's a done decision and we've discussed it to death already. The debate is starting to feel as cyclical as the endless Moeen discussion!

It's a decision however that looks odder and odder with every passing week. They've given Atkinson a go which is fair enough but we know that Woakes isn't good enough overseas and that Wood needs his workload managed. I'm not really one for picking teams for the future, the next game is the most important game and overlooking that in preference for future Ashes series is disrespectful to both test cricket and your actual opposition.

If I may (although I agree with KC it has been well aired already !) I think the decision came down to a bit each way :

1 / They wanted to try new bowlers ahead of the next Ashes tour (one can argue about whether they are too obsessed with that or not ; but that is another matter). 2 / This meant really not room for more than one ever-present experienced home conditions maestro unlikely to tour Australia : and Woakes can bat eight - which Jimmy obviously can't. So in fact they are doing both , no ? The best combination to win these games , and a bit of future planning.

Like many I was not exactly happy with having Jimmy pensioned off (and I do tend to agree with Soul about playing the game in front of you) ; but I think it has some reasonable logic behind it.

West Indies win toss and choose to bat. Only one change (! Thought they might have replaced McKenzie with someone ) : Motie back for Sinclair.

West Indies winning the toss and batting first this time. Just the one change with Motie coming in for Sinclair. Technically, an injury enforced change, as Sinclair's forearm was ruined by Wood's bouncer in the previous game, but I think Motie would have returned anyway after missing the second test through illness.

Looks a good batting wicket.

I get the arguments. I just think with this series won, surely England can rest Woakes and look at some different bowlers

The Jimmy stuff I think makes sense on both sides but if there's only room for one home condition specialist then Woakes has more recent credit

Pretty tidy start from the West Indies. 37/0 after 11.

England have beaten the bat a fair few times, but the openers have scored when possible. Not much bounce on this wicket, and the outfield isn't the quickest either.

First hour to West Indies then. Lot of balls passed the bat but not too many close and no alarms.49 from 15 a decent rate - helped I think by England's aggressive field settings. Maybe the early bowling has been a trifle short. Looks a good toss to win.

Smith's done a really good job behind the stumps so far.

Louis very uncomfortable v the short stuff, but has managed a few lucky boundaries. Brathwaite once again scoring at a fair pace. This is his highest test series SR with the bat so far.

68/0 after 20. Another good platform from these openers.

Another 20 and out from Louis. Always gets in, never kicks on. Can not resist just having a nibble at ones outside off.

James Vince tribute act

Took longer than usual but Louis again managed to get out after doing all the hard work...stuck in those twenties... England might fancy more now with McKenzie in no sort of form : though he's away with a brace of boundaries from some loose stuff from Atkinson...make that three !

McKenzie up to his highest score of the series after that garbage from Atkinson!

12 runs in one over nearly eclipsing his 13 runs from his previous four innings.

Oh it didn't last! What a ball from Wood. Swinging in at pace. That's the stump microphone wrecked.

Interesting to see three fifty plus opening stands for West Indies in these games after many years without any. At the risk of rekindling "that argument " , it suggests replacing the Anderson/ Broad new ball pairing remains a work in progress. Anyway the hapless McKenzie hasn't lasted...Wood too good , too fast...nice bowling.

Another drag on. Seen a fair few of those this series.

Like the last West Indies innings, a solid platform is in danger of coming apart very rapidly. 97/3.

And what was looking like a decent session for the tourists fell away further with Athanaze dragging one on on the stroke of lunch ! 97/3 from 26 has undone all that early good concentration. Brathwaite the survivor has a lot to do...

Won't last much longer, I think.

Brathwaite with an ugly scrape down the leg side, just snaffled by Smith. Then Hodge with an ill-judged leave.

115/5.

Some deserved good fortune for Wood for a change as Brathwaite falls to a leg side strangle...bit of a messy take by Smith but it's 115/4 and Trouble for West Indies......oh dear now 115/5 ! Not a good leave by Hodge

These two experienced bats gradually restoring some calm ...141/5 as they proceed carefully. England burnt two reviews but no other drama. Not much batting talent to come though so one might bring five...

Fair play, Holder and Da Silva didn't fold. They knocked Bashir out of the attack too. Think we're seeing just how good a batting wicket it is, especially in those conditions, so a little more work required from England before they get their turn.

194/5 at tea...so 97/2 in 27 overs that session ; and West Indies might feel they edged it considering the loss of two wickets so soon after lunch. Da Silva and Holder have played really well to steady the ship - have taken Bashir for 35 from 5 to remind him life isn't always as easy as it looked a few days ago. Lot to do still though as this looks a very good pitch to bat on. England will hope the tea interval induces a break in concentration as there didn't appear to be a lot happening for the bowlers in that last hour - and a new ball is still 27 overs away.

I'm sensing that Joshua Da Silva double ton that we all thought might happen is incoming. The series has been top quiet so far on that front!

Oh, that was some jinx!

Wicket from nowhere ! Woakes does the trick as Da Silva just loses a bit of concentration and nibbles behind.. 224/6 Your Wicket, VTR

Joseph might feel a bit unlucky there ..Woakes over prolonged by successive no balls and he holes out to the eighth delivery ...

244/7 and Holder is in danger of running out of partners. New ball in 11. Going to be some overtime but they won't get 90 overs done today aha ! Won't need to as Atkinson bowls Holder for a dogged 59 and only rabbits left at 246/8 That was a lovely piece of bowling.

Just the tail left, so presumably time to bowl a load of short pitched rubbish!

And of course seconds later they take a wicket with a bouncer

Holder goes. Things looked very flat for a while there with the old ball. They've chipped away well to get another 3 wickets without needing the second new ball though. It's something England have generally been better at under Stokes I've tended to feel. They've often chipped away in these flat periods and tend to prevent the really big partnerships that can decide a Test.

And Motie as I type!

With how flat this looked at one point, anything under 300 could prevent an opportunity to bat once.

Atkinson needs one more wicket to join Bashir in the "as many five-fers as Andrew Flintoff in his career" gang.

Bright start, but then Crawley and Duckett fell in consecutive balls, another chop on, and then nightwatchman Wood fell not long after!

31/3 and England in a bit of bother.

3 wickets in 13 balls. Hello!

Looking like England will start tomorrow in a challenging position.

WI lost a bad toss in T1 and made a bad decision after wining Toss in T2
Today they got the toss call and decision right and got off to a good start & then had a bad collapse to 5 down.
I think Luis and Mckenzie are not test class batters.

From there getting to 282 is a reasonable recovery but short of par it seemed.
But after I stopped watching with Eng 20 odd for no loss came the Eng collapse throwing awry what's par.
The pitch has no seam and no help for spinners and slow but offered overhead swing.

WI need to take the game into 4th inning leaving 200+ to chase to keep viewers interest.
And working backwards from that not give Eng more than 50 lead and then put together 250+ second time with the bat.

It would a monumental debacle from Eng's POV if they were not to get the lead.

I don't mind England being in this position, it's a test for the middle order. People are raving about Smith but he's had it pretty easy so far, making runs under no real pressure. Even Ravi Bopara managed to smack a few Test hundreds when the going was easy

It's very well set up for the weekend.

West Indies were probably at least a 100 short on a good wicket. Again, the platform laid by the openers, but the middle order initially capitulated. Full credit to the unexpected stand between Holder and Da Silva which got the West Indies well past the 200 which looked unlikely at 115/5. All three of the main England quicks did well and Stokes provided the control!

But then it all faltered. Crawley obviously has no other way than to play shots, but this time he didn't make many before falling. Duckett then followed after trying an expansive shot, which put England on the defensive and definitely on the back foot after Wood's duck.

38/3 and England made to look ridiculous because just before this test Pope was sounding off about how England might get to 500 or 600 in a single day at some point.

Good challenge tomorrow, certainly. West Indies will be sensing blood, but Root and Brook are coming into this one off the back of powerful centuries.

Well set up, Ireland/Zimbabwe is also well set up if you haven't seen the score from that one.

Ha. Switched off for some sleep when the 9th WI wicket fell (didn't want to watch the rest in case they started putting fielders on the ropes and bowling short to Seales ) and apparently England can't be trusted to bat safely to the close without my anxious supervision

38/3 on road isn't the kind of start you want : though obviously the worst bit was Sending in a Night Watchman ! Would not have been allowed if guildford had been on duty Suppose the risks of both Crawley and Duckett falling early are always there , given their style of play : will be interesting to see how Root and Pope approach the rebuilding task on resumption ; but the path to 400 doesn't look as simple as it has been. So it again looks as if we might have a bit of a contest...which will test my channel switching skills with Olympic action under way...