International cricket thread

England's fixtures are now a 3 match series at home to New Zealand. A tough series and we will assume that Broad and Anderson will be permanently frozen out.

1 game against India after the insurance scam of last year.

3 tests against South Africa. Theres a bit of turmoil brewing with South Africa over players choosing to play IPL over Tests. So England may have a shot here.

Then a 3 match series in Pakistan (if they bother to go). This will be a very very tough series. Dead wickets with nothing happening and batsmen needing to have to bat long periods of time on slow wickets. Pretty much everything England cant do.

They may weasel a win or 2 during the summer but the winter will be bleak. If Root is hanging onto his captaincy now, he most certainly won't be captaining the team after the Pakistan tour. They look dead certs to finish last in the test championship (of which they are bottom now). And I wouldn't be surprised if the ended up with minus points with their notoriously slow over rates.

Ben Stokes is 31 in a few weeks… played a huge amount of cricket in all 3 formats over his career thus far.. as well as bowling way to many overs in tests…22 in the first innings here…Overton bowled 23, Mahmood 24…. He’s bowling the same volume of overs as a frontline seamer, but then expected to go out, score big runs… BRAIN DEAD CAPTAINCY !!! he should despite his massive pedigree be told… T20 just sit those out going forward..absolutely fûck all point in him being selected barring a World Cup…use him sensibly in tests, about 15 overs bowling per innings max and then give him the captaincy.

the Guardian, The Times & The Mail all lambasting Roots captaincy this morning. The Guardian, a very much rated authority on the sport.

“England’s big reset is undermined by Joe Root’s third-class captaincy”

very much worth a read..

Brilliant catch..

leach gone, review showed a clear spike and noise as the ball passes the bat.

however, there was also a clear gap and daylight between ball and bat… a weird dismissal…

Can't see why he would stay on as the side is going nowhere with him and look tired and lacking spark. It's run it's course now and when it's time, it's time and sadly for Root, that should have been at the Ashes. 1 win in their last 17 test matches. It's over.

For me I would select Broad as captain. He is committed to Test Cricket and has at least another couple of years left in him. It's the only clear choice with Ben Stokes simply having too much on his plate already. I don't get any leadership vibes from the rest of the England side.

It looks like Broad is being pushed aside by Strauss and the ECB but that hasn't done them much good so far. I think he could be a decent leader if given the chance. He has pretty strong views on the game and I reckon this England team needs a vocal leader without the cliches.

Think of the England ODI side before Eoin Morgan became captain, where they were ambling to nowhere. That's how much a leader can change things. Obviously England are currently going through a very poor generation of cricketers at Test Match level, but keeping things as they are will just produce the same results and big changes are needed.

The entire cricket schedule is a bit underwhelming this summer. That might be a bit harsh of an observation considering what’s been going on in the world.. but there is a far too great a prevalence of one day cricket…

the English only playing three tests vs New Zealand but in the middle of the International summer starting Jun 17th they’ve a three match ODI series against the Netherlands… surely a fourth NZ test could have been worked out.

I know we benefit as we get to play them in 5 or 6 limited overs games which I’ll look forward to but…

tests don’t seem to be considered the must have fixtures on the calendar any more. Which is depressing.

England girls gave it a good go, just wickets kept falling too regularly…. Huge total to chase.

watching New Zealand vs Netherlands..

Netherlands bowlers all over New Zealand who are only 14-1 after 5 overs…. Impressive by the Dutch.

The IPL is ongoing, like it or loathe it that counts as top level competitive cricket. The County Championship starts today too, only first class but with them all being streamed with commentary can be a good watch. Less than ideal conditions to say the least for the first round of games in that.

It will be interesting now to see if Broad and Anderson are allowed back. It will also be awkward as f**k for Root considering he got Strauss to do his dirty work.

They will lump it on Stokes and put pressure on him to take it. There will be media "leaks" from Harrison to say he is the choice, to make it obvious that it was Stokes that turned it down.

They may even go with Broad. Fan favourite, fans will get behind him for what could be a rough summer.

The decision and process will be designed purely to keep the heat off Tom Harrison in the short term.

For me its a no brainer. They should make Morgan captain. Hes clearly the best they have for that role even if his batting at test level is weak.

Key will want Crawley captain. Bit mad he's in consideration for that job. Never struck me as an administrator type.

The Morgan ship has sailed. After Cook was the time if that was to ever happen. A complete outsider might be an option. Name I see a lot is the Somerset captain Tom Abell.

Ed Smith was on TMS before too remember.

Mark Nicholas wants the job as well.

Specialists are needed not famous faces off the telly.

i recall reading that Joe Root in his last 17 test matches as England captain, only won a single test. Overall 27 tests won from 64 played as captain.

candidates to replace him…

Broad… he’s 36 in a few weeks, his goose is cooked

Bairstow… these days just not consistent enough with the bat to guarantee a place in the team…last few innings…..

0,22,20,29,140,15,113,41,53,5,15.

he’s not picked for his wicket keeping, Ben Foakes has the gloves…. Bairstow is selected as a specialist batsman… but in his last 11 innings he’s only made 3 scores of any note… about a 27% conversion rate. So his place in the team is under scrutiny…not ideal captaincy material.

in hindsight it probably has to be Stokes… retire him from 20-20… encourage him to bowl less in tests… easier said than done when your frontline seamers are constantly misfiring.

either way there isn’t a solution you’d bet the house on…. Very uncertain and challenging times for English cricket.

Rob Key confirmed. The reaction from Sky (who will be covering all the tests this summer and the hundred) is "Great Appointment", "Great cricketing brain" etc.

Now, I really enjoy Rob Key and like him but this is beyond cynical from the ECB.

I don't have a choice. But if it were up to me and me only, I would pick somebody who hates white ball cricket. That's why I don't get to pick people 😁

I am not saying he is a bad choice. I like Rob Key, he talks a good game. What I a saying is that he was picked cynically and for the wrong reasons.