[themaclad]

Stunning performance they have lost the ability to bat, too many dead flat tracks in this country, time for uncovered wickets, only consolation will be Sir Geoffrey's comments looking forward to feeling the heat through the paper

[St Charles Owl]

Wow, 5 ducks including the heart of the order, just 20 overs and thank god for Overton and Anderson for being able to add 30 runs!!!

[jjamez]

Its was so diabolical it became funny. I've long been an advocate of changing the selection process, that has begun now. But what can we do about that shambles? Who is droppable and who is there to replace them. Some would say its only one innings, but its not, its straight off the back of a poor ashes series too.

Cant drop root, bairstow, anderson, broad and really overton as he showed fight. Woakes is there as a bowler who bats so probably gets a benefit of the doubt.

You're then left with cook, ali, malan and stoneman. Out of those england will always pick cook out of loyalty, malan was one of the finds in the ashes after a poor summer, he changed his technique before that and I'd hope he'd be looking at what happened the other day. Stoneman showed grit in the ashes, but grit only gets you so far, he's in need of an innings otherwise we are back at square one again.

Now ali is the interesting one. Good summer, absolute shambles of a winter. Hardly any runs or wickets, yet he looks fine in the white ball arena. Now England won't drop him because it 'weakens' the batting line-up, I mean Livingston could come in but then you dont have a 'main' spinner. Maybe it is time for us to focus on playing an out and out spinner seeing as we have numerous bowling allrounders. Leach has been leading wicket taker for a few years, surely that counts for something?

I've left stokes off and thats because of the cloud over his head, otherwise he'd be in pot one. Going forward who could we possibly even look at that is the major issue, as some of the 'better' talent comes in the form of bowlers, ie the curran brothers, who just cant fit into the team unless one or more get injured. Batting wise we dont seem to have much and what we do have we pick after they reached peak form like we did with stoneman. We hesitated whilst he was scoring hundreds and persisted with Jennings and ultimately ruined him for confidence.

For me if we make a change in the long run to the opening batter I'd be inclined to pick hameed as he did nothing wrong whilst in possession only injuries cost him then lack of form to get back in. The other role is cooks until he calls time, then its square one again, but I would suggest that the new selection process would identify the options better than at the moment. In regards to the middle order, at the moment Livingston should be the next cab off the rank.

After that its whoever starts the season well whilst looking competent enough to play at the top level.

Now will any eyes ever be cast towards the coaching staff or will that always remain as the old school shirt and tie?

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

For me if we make a change in the long run to the opening batter I'd be inclined to pick hameed as he did nothing wrong whilst in possession only injuries cost him then lack of form to get back in. The other role is cooks until he calls time, then its square one again, but I would suggest that the new selection process would identify the options better than at the moment. In regards to the middle order, at the moment Livingston should be the next cab off the rank.

Absolutely 100% agree. I was banging the drum for Hameed all last summer, and still think he's the best bet. Only question mark in the short-term is whether he and Cook are a bit too similar in style, and having two attritional openers would simply invite pressure every innings. But ultimately he seems the natural replacement in the making for whenever Cook calls it a day, and it makes sense to get him on that learning curve now.

After two days of rain, we might just scrape out of this one with a draw. If I was Williamson I'd declare first thing in the morning with the existing lead and just get stuck into England again.

[jjamez]

Yeah hameed and cook are the same but does it invite pressure if both score 100's albeit slowly? I'd suggest it tires the bowlers and the ball for the likes of root, stokes and bairstow to punish them.

The other thing is that whilst they are the same sort of player, at this moment we don't have a trescothick esque player, other than trescothick himself, so if we dont have someone atm who attack from the off then we have to make do with what we have until we can introduce someone else with a different game style.

Other openers to consider at this moment for me would be to continue with stoneman or go back to someone like Robson or duckett (I feel he was harshly treated considering he had hardly ever if at played in the subcontinent at the longer format, hes just not helped himself by his down under actions or probably the fact he's at an unfancied county)

[themaclad]

Glad we lost in the end would have been a total injustice if NZ had not won. Apparently Stokes still cannot ball, there are also doubts over Wood's fitness think we need to buy vast quantities of sand paper

[Lord Snooty]

Close in the end but it was a 3 day test match in reality with the weather. So no consolation whatsoever.
Time for a gross over reaction, I think.

[jjamez]

Would it be a gross over reaction considering the ashes debacle?

[Lord Snooty]

Well if we were to shoot them all and play future series' for their ashes, that could be an over reaction. Bayliss is stepping down anyway, so apart from sacking Root, what else is there?

[jjamez]

Stands down in 2019. England seem to be drifting behind in test cricket, where we once were pretty far ahead. We're now ahead or one of the leaders in odi, where we once were behind. Surely we need to address this by looking at our coaching set-up and organisation