The Winter Cricket Thread

[red sheldon]

with apologies to FCB, (and slightly enviously of his trip to watch the 2nd test) I think that most people would say that Australia would be their favourite place to watch England on tour, but what would people say would be their 2nd favourite tour is.  It was a bit depressing this morning so my mind started to wander.

For me it would be a toss up between the Caribbean or India, a chance to see Eden Gardens may swing it for India, but I think that the West Indies would shade it, for me any thoughts or comments

[fittons_coaching_badge]

South Africa is a good'un.
West Indies is good, but 90% full of English folk.  I may be on my own but I like a strong home crowd and these days you can count the numbers of Windies fand who attend test matches on one hand.
India is obviously a favourite of mine being Indian.  If you get the chance to do a one dayer there grab it with both hands. 
Australia is great as long as England are winning.
Sri Lanka is a stunning country.

[TheMajorSTFC]

Having not been on any tours as yet, I am looking at doing The Ashes in Australia next winter but I'd really like to do the West Indies as well!

This also amused me at work today...http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/20393408

[STFC_Manc]

Well that was a massive let down really, we Bowled poorly and batted even worse in the first innings. I have started another blog for my tour around India. 

www.keithontour.blogspot.com

[TheMajorSTFC]

Well that was a massive let down really, we Bowled poorly and batted even worse in the first innings. I have started another blog for my tour around India. 

www.keithontour.blogspot.com

Good read that! Sounds bloody cheap for 5 days cricket, compared to the £80 per day we'll be paying for The Ashes next summer!

[DMR]

What a bunch of wankers.

Preferred team for Friday?

Cook, Compton, Trott, KP, Morgan, Prior, Broad, Swann, Jimmy, Finn, Monty.

Gamble with 6 batsmen, if the top 7 are gonna get fuck all, it might as well be the top 6 getting fuck all.

I think they'll swap Samit for Monty and Bell for Morgan and that will be it.

[Nemo]

I'd probably pick your team with Bairstow over Morgan DMR. Would be tempted to play 4 bowlers without Broad but there's no chance the actual selectors will.

[fittons_coaching_badge]

Hello

Plane delayed, a bit bored .....

My second test team having had quite a while staring at a departures board begging for a gate number to turn up .....

Cook
Compton
Trott
KP
Bairstow
Morgan
Prior
Swann
Anderson
Finn
Panesar

A tail longer than a giraffe, but bowlers bowl and batters bat.  This give England the best chance of getting 20 wickets and sufficient runs to create pressure.  If the top order fails and the tail gets blown away well it'll look a bit silly but its up to the top 6 to earn their corn.  KP to provide a third spin option as hes a better bowler than Patel.

[Boeta]

don't think you can drop patel after he was in great nick in the warm-ups and got two rough decisions

bairstow completely underwhelms against spin/in the sub-continent so can't (wouldn't want to) see him player

i doubt they will go with both finn and panesar - finn if he's fit in for bresnan, if he's not it'll be panesar for bresnan

[fittons_coaching_badge]

Finn ruled out the second test.  I struggle to see him playing at all on this tour now.

So it will be just be Bairstow for Bell and Monty for Bresnan.

[jonny72]

Find it hard to believe that they'll leave Panesar out again. Even Pietersen's spin got better figures than the seamers.

Don't buy the argument it weakens out batting too much either as Prior, Broad and even Swann average pretty high and can put in match winning innings.

[Nemo]

Finn being out is a real blow.

Think I'd now pick:

Cook, Compton, Trott, Pietersen, Bairstow, Patel, Prior, Swann, Onions, Anderson, Monty

Three genuine number 11s but hell, if the first seven can't score any runs then we deserve to lose.

Once again though, England have lost due to bad batting and are probably going to change the bowling. Bowlers get a shit deal, don't they?

[nevillew]

Hello

Plane delayed, a bit bored .....

My second test team having had quite a while staring at a departures board begging for a gate number to turn up .....

Cook
Compton
Trott
KP
Bairstow
Morgan
Prior
Swann
Anderson
Finn
Panesar

A tail longer than a giraffe, but bowlers bowl and batters bat.  This give England the best chance of getting 20 wickets and sufficient runs to create pressure.  If the top order fails and the tail gets blown away well it'll look a bit silly but its up to the top 6 to earn their corn.  KP to provide a third spin option as hes a better bowler than Patel.

Does a giraffe have that long a tail?

[DMR]

Technically he is implying our tail is longer than a giraffe full stop, and not just it's tail.

[jonny72]

Three genuine number 11s but hell, if the first seven can't score any runs then we deserve to lose.

According to the ICC test rankings, we've got 5 batsmen in the top 20. India have only got 1 and the best any other country has is 3. So they should be more than capable of scoring enough runs without having to rely too much on the tail.