The Ashes

[Shaggy]

Well done Jimmy

[captainfog]

We will always struggle to bowl teams out on flat wickets with this attack. We've not got a proper quality spinner and we've not got anybody with express pace and no matter how accurate they bowl, our seamers bowling between 80 and 85 mph are rarely going to take 20 wickets on a flat wicket.

Sack off Broad and bring in Plunkett. At least he has a bit of pace and can rough up the batsmen a bit.

[captainfog]

Moeen Ali has been named an honorary ambassador for Liverpool's official supporters club in Pakistan.

[captainfog]

Broad is bowling less than 80mph. FFS! what is he still doing in the side?

[Alex]

[Buzzo]

That was class.

I watched a fair bit last night Moeen Ali's run out was utterly ridiculous - he played it directly to a fielder about 10 metres away and then set off. It was bizarre :haha;

[Alex]

That was weird. I thought maybe he was told to go out and just get as many runs on the board as possible without worrying about his wicket. It was out of character for what we have seen from him in the past.

[Buzzo]

Yeah he is a decent player, but it was utterly bizarre. He'd have run Root out in the 90's but there just was never a run on, mainly due to the fact he had just rolled the ball to a nearby fielder.

[Buzzo]

Looking like another draw then...

ZzzZzzZzz

[Shaggy]

Another duck for Trotty

Clean bowled third ball

[RichC]

I've just seen his wicket what on earth was he trying to do ?

[RichC]

England actually win a test against a poor windies side and suddenly there being talked about being a tight unit a good side and Cook has galvanised the side.

Drivel as ever being spoken let's see how we get on this Summer; that being said I hope we do kick on I just want to see a few more results before thinking we're moving forwards as a test side.

[captainfog]

I'm still not convinced about Cook, he did well but I thought the Windies bowled very poorly against him. I hope this is the start of him regaining form and he'll pile on the runs this summer, but I'm not sure, he's not really been tested in the areas where he has struggled.

All being well with Cook I would only be looking to make two changes to the side we saw today. Bell must open in the Summer, it's the only logical choice. He's technically sound and would add fluidity to our top order, but also it would then free up the number 4 spot.... perfect for a returning KP. The other change I would be making is with the bowling. I'd drop Broad and bring in Plunkett or someone else who can bowl fast and aggressively with the new ball. Broad gives you the odd magic spell in a series, but that's about it now. The rest of the time he just holds up an end with medium pace dobbers. For large stretches of this game he was bowling sub 80 mph and that is not good enough. You can say it was a slow pitch but at the same time Broad was regularly bowling in the high 70s Stokes came on and regularly hit 90mph.

If we made those two changes we'd be a half decent side. We have quite an exciting looking batting lineup, As well as the established players like Cook, Bell and KP you have some brilliant young players in Balance, Root, Stokes, Buttler, Moeen and Jordan.

[Yozza]

[ame="https://youtu.be/PjWNj7HzJrY"]Americans Watch Cricket For The First Time - YouTube[/ame]

[Shaggy]

"There's a cowboy on the field"