He'll be facing a different test in Sri Lanka though, trial by spin from ball 1

That's why Burns should have come in during this series whilst he was in form in conditions he's used to. If he fails then we'll fling him back to Surrey with no confidence like the others before him. Hopefully he shows enough to retain his place and keep his confidence high.

Hopefully we don't get to a point where rather than discarding 1 opener at a time, we discard 2 and try another pair and see if they work

If Worcestershire can get a couple of quick wickets after lunch then that'll be an interesting game. If not, Surrey will stroll to the title and Worcestershire along with Lancashire (after their loss to Yorkshire) will be as good as down.

Warwickshire and Kent look to be in pole position to go up as it stands. Northeast will be gutted if Kent manage to go up without him.

240/6, 32 more needed. Bit squeakier than hoped, but we should get over the line. Rikki Clarke and Tom Curran in now.

Well done Surrey.

Essex should be able to give more of a go for it next season than they did this one.

It should be a good battle next season with Cook available for the whole season. Hopefully his return can boost Browne, Westley and Lawrence to get back to what they were for the couple of seasons prior to this one. They're all in the 20s this season when they're capable of being in the 40-50s.

I saw the BBC live text refer to Morkel as a shrewd signing. Not sure signing a world class bowler counts as shrewd but he's been a fantastic signing for them nonetheless.

Yeah, the live text seemed to suggest there was an element of doubt in signing him. He was about as big a risk as Sangakkara was. Really shown his class this summer, and bowling was the area we needed to reinforce from last season.

comment by HaaK (U11574)
posted 1 day, 12 hours ago
comment by Edinspur (U1109)
posted 4 minutes ago
comment by HaaK (U11574)
posted 11 minutes ago
Really? I mean, it's all true, fair enough - but it's just a summary of what most people have been saying for a year now... more in the case of the Root-captaincy stuff, since people were concerned about that before he was even made skipper.

All accurate enough, but hardly revelatory stuff, y'know?
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Fragile Ego
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Just thought it was a weird post to laud that highly
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Hi Haak, I wasn't attempting to bring some sort of 'divine revelation' to proceedings. I simply wanted to say something I think has been 'danced around' for want of a better phrase for quite some time now.

When Cook resigned the captaincy I said I thought Anderson was the best pick to replace him at the time and that giving it to Joe Root was simply repeating the mistakes made with Ian Botham and Andrew Flintoff. Nothing I've seen since suggests to me I was wrong.

Personally I wouldn't normally go for a specialist bowler as skipper but in this case I feel it's warranted especially given the fact that Jimmy's probably got no more than three more years of Test Cricket in him. That would give Johnny Bairstow time to both reach his 'peak' and to gain the experience and 'savvy' a good Test Captain needs to be successful. As to the 'keeper slot I'm not all that bothered if they give Buttler the gloves and make Bairstow a specialist batsman. In my opinion he's certainly good enough ao why not?

Anyway, it's all moot of course since as others have rightly pointed out Joe isn't going to step down after a 4-1 win. I wish for his own sake he would because I truly believe the captaincy has badly damaged his form and self confidence.

Jimmy as captain, is that a joke?

He’d be fine at home, but often goes missing in away matches when conditions don’t suit him. 67% of his wickets are at home - huge margin compared to most o great fast bowlers in recent times. Can’t see him as a leader in tough away tours because of that.

More crap from the Pakistani fan (English when it suits).
Anderson as nearly 200 wickets away from home. Hes played 19 more tests at home than away.. so basically its pretty even. .slightly in favour at home.But to be expected,
As for Anderson being captain. another docile comment.

In the last 5 years

2014 average 22.15
2015-------------22.65
2016-------------23.73
2017-------------17.58
2018-------------20.54

Jimmy is a fantastic bowler and would be an inspirational captain. Can't see it happening though. There is the age thing and Root is growing into the job very nicely.

I was all for giving Bairstow the job. if he wants to keep the gloves. You could always swap him and Buttler and have Bairstow at 8 and be captain..
Just let Bairstow get on with it when he bats..

Or even give Buttler the job when he becomes established. Hes captained the ODI team when Morgan asnt player. And he will probably get the job after next years world cup.

comment by Liverpoolwhoelse17 (U16825)
posted 52 minutes ago
More crap from the Pakistani fan (English when it suits).
Anderson as nearly 200 wickets away from home. Hes played 19 more tests at home than away.. so basically its pretty even. .slightly in favour at home.But to be expected,
As for Anderson being captain. another docile comment.
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Liverpool,

Not sure what the relevance of me being a pak fan is in stating the facts. Anderson taking 67% of wickets in home conditions... doesnt discredit his position as the leading test wicket taker...

As for your comment as “basically even”.... that’s a load of nonsense. Just compare him and steyn as an example;

Jimmy Anderson
Home 360 (Wickets)
Away 204
SR 49.31 (Home)
SR 67.39 (Away)

Dale Steyn
Home 243 (Wickets)
Away 178
SR 39.49 (Home)
SR 45.47 (Away)

The likes of wasim, wayward, stern, Kapil Dev have a better away record than Jimmy Anderson. McGrath is 51% and Kapil 50%

No need to get offended mate

Dontcha just love it when stats(facts) ere used on 606.

Please please never give bairstow the captains job. Right for team bairstow bats 4 and butler keeps. Bairstow the better fielder and butler the better keeper. No brainer. Bairstow threw his rattle out the pram when he was told he wasn't keeping in the 4th test. Selfish player, not captaincy material. Butler will be the next England captain.

More runs for Burns with 78, Stoneman made 85 and he's just starting to make a few more runs of late. Would England considering bringing in the pair of them? Doubtful but you never know. Jennings got another chance so maybe they'd give Stoneman one too.

Roy now out after hitting 63 in his first championship appearance of the season at 3. Not sure whether he was due to come in down the order but was promoted thanks to the platform set as Elgar walked out at 4.

KP has backed the idea of Roy being picked for the test side.

Burns looks a dead cert for the Test side - which means he'll probably be left out!

You're right, I wouldn't be surprised if they left him out but it's nigh on impossible to leave him out. I'm just looking at the article on team of the season and these are the openers in contention...

Burns: 1241 runs at 68.94
Mitchell: 819 runs at 37.22
Libby: 650 runs at 28.26
Davies: 717 runs at 32.59
Slater: 941 runs at 42.77 (about 700 of these were for Derbyshire before Notts signed him last month)
Dent: 795 runs at 36.13
Rhodes: 724 runs at 38.10
Salt: 714 runs at 34.00

Only one other averaging over 40 and that was mostly from division 2.

Centuries for Trott and Bell, bring them back!

Bopara is on the brink of one, lets get him back too.

Trott quit england and bell never should have been dropped from the team which was a shambles.

Comment deleted by Site Moderator