I think everyone would get on well with Stuart Broad. I think he’s a bit like Warney. A massive competitor, a rule breaker (Broad won’t win a McCullum ‘Spirit of the Game’ award), but I think off the field he would be great to hang around with because he seems like a good bloke.
I think he might be one to get really fired up for the rest of the series. The Ashes has finally started! No more mister nice guy from either side. It felt pretty fake before, with each team trying to outdo the other with politeness. Its the fucking Ashes guys!
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Looking forward, there are some questions for England to answer.
The bowling: Broad and Tongue should play if fit. Haven’t really seen Robinson do anything Woakes couldn’t do better (and he can bat a bit). Can Wood play? Will we pick a spinner? If so, who? And finally, the thorniest issue of all, what to do about Jimmy? He hasn’t been anything like his usual self, but the next two tests are at Headingley and Old Trafford where he is likely to be at his most dangerous. Nothing on earth will stop him playing his last Ashes match at OT. I’d have rested him at Lord’s, but that didn’t happen, so here we are.
The batting: Nothing wrong with the personnel, although everyone knows my opinion of Crawley, he’s done enough to keep his place for now. I hope the approach will be a touch more pragmatic, and that some preparation for the short stuff will be made. There were signs in the second innings of some adjustment. The Lord’s test was lost in the spell where we went from 188-1 to 222-4 in the first innings. That was avoidable and intensely frustrating as a fan. Hoping for some introspection and flexibility from the leadership.
There will be time lost for rain in the North and it’s probable that one of those games will be drawn, so the Ashes are 95% in Australia’s grip, which is disappointing because this England team have shown that they can challenge in home conditions. However, relying on miracles from Stokes is not a viable tactic.
Desperate for one win to shut them up for five minutes 
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It seems Moeen is back in isn’t he? I think he’s an important inclusion for balance between bat and ball. With Stokes virtually unable to bowl he’s your all rounder.
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Theoretically, but he can’t do much of either these days. He’s not likely to get a 5 for even on a turning wicket, and his bowling average is 36, his batting average 28, so he’s a net loss!
I’d rather see Rehan Ahmed given a go. He’s very young, but will, at least, have a surprise factor. He’ll bowl 8 ok balls, 3 long hops and one unplayable delivery, but at least it’d be something different.
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You guys are desperate to blood some more youngsters in the bowling department. I agree you should be doing this now, even if it’s a difficult situation coming into an Ashes, but look at Tongue and what can happen if you give them an opportunity.
I suspect though that they’ll keep going to the old heads and only turn to the youngsters when the series has been wrapped up by us.
We should have been doing it 2 years ago.
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Copies and saves to phone for future reference
Mate if that happens, I will be gutted, and absolutely fuming at Australia, but I’ll also have to give you guys a clap because it will have been an extraordinary effort.
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I dont watch cricket but whats the big deal with the Aussies getting that bloke out cos he left the crease?
He left it therefore if you get out youre out.
People say its not in the spirit…thats english loser mentality.
Remember when Keane hid behind the post for spurs and when the keeper put ball on the floor keane ran back and put it in the goal? Whats the difference? Did we all say it should be disallowed as not fair or whwn a keeper scores from a goal kick do we chalk it off as its not fair on the other keeper?
Aussies want to win at all costs and england are all sandwich eating, time for tea charlie hoighty toity la de das losers.
Just another excuse to hide behind another defeat
I don’t agree with the win at all costs mentality. There is a spirit of sportsmanship and fair play which is not to be scorned. I want my teams to win with grace and class, otherwise it’s all just a street fight and no pleasure at all. Respect for your opponent and winning and losing with honour are the great aspects of sport. Of course you have to compete with determination and grit, but not at the expense of your personality.
I’d rather lose with honour than win without. After all, it’s a game, not war.
Ps losing by 40 runs isn’t a shambolic display.
Clearly. Just seems a lot of fuss over nothing.
Guy left the crease. Youre out. Move on.
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As i said i dont know much about cricket. I just hear what i hear on radio.
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My two cents:
Starc should have been ripped a new one for grounding the ball like that and Bairstow should be ripped a new one for wandering off like that. Smacks of complacency and there should be no cry arsery about it. You don’t see under 11 kids doing it so no ways should such lack of common sense be forgiven amongst Test level players.
Everyone bemoaning the spirit of the game should rather look at the lackadaisical attitude of the player caught out. It’s tough, but fair imho. Weird how when some teams/players do it then it’s smart and inventive but when others do it then it’s underhanded and shady.
I still remember Kapil Dev Mankadding Peter Kirsten in the 90’s and the furore about it. Waste of time for me, just like this; stay in your crease, watch the bowler while backing up and don’t ground the ball while making a catch ffs. Lazy excuses for laziness between the ears. Can’t hide behind the spirit of the game when you can’t be arsed to stay switched on.
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And also, let us not forget that Bairstow tried the exact same thing to Labuschagne earlier in the same test.
Only difference is Bairstow missed and Carey hit the stumps. Spirit of the game my arse!
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I think @bekloppt is a bit naive thinking ‘spirit of the game’ ever really existed. Humans like to look on the past fondly, and cricket is no different. The past really wasn’t sunshine and rainbows.
Since the beginnings of cricket, there have been plenty who went about subverting the rules, and in fact, with their cheating, helped to shape the rulebook. Plenty of players refused to walk in 19th century cricket for instance.
W.G Grace was a brazen cheat, being bowled then refusing the leave and intimidating umpires until they agreed to allow him to continue batting, also hiding the ball under his beard so he could run a player out when he went gardening down the pitch (apt after the weekend), setting a bowlers shoes on fire to get him off the field etc etc. You could write a book about Grace’s cheating as I’ve only touched on a few of his incidents.
So by 19th century cricket standards, which really sounded like the wild west with Grace around, the game is seriously tame today.
People need to drop this stupid notion of ‘spirit of the game’ and see that Stokes and McCullum are simply trying to hoodwink you because you are 2-0 down. At home.
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Yes, have to agree. It’s okay to get mad at the way things turned out because nobody likes to lose but the sheer hypocrisy around it is pretty silly. The game has rules, they’re the same for both teams and Bairstow himself tried to benefit from it so shut it and forget the moral high ground piss take England have been indulging themselves in. They lost because they fell into the short ball trap in the first innings and couldn’t make up that ground, not because Carey threw the stumps down. They’d do well to address the way they approach certain passages of the game instead of feeling hard done by and forgetting about it.
It’s very simple. The Ausies played to the law of the game and got Bairstow out. I have no problem with it. Like mankadding, no problem there either. There’s a reason why the ump says over. A load of stuff and nonsense over nothing. I’d have done the same and celebrated. We didn’t lose because the Ausies took the rule book literally.
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And I agree. But calling it a shambolic display is to conveniently forget English cricket through the 90s and early 00s We played badly, not poorly. There’s a difference.
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