Re: English Cricket
 

That is because for 3 years England have chopped and changed their openers more times then one changes their socks.;)

---------- Post added at 16:27 ---------- Previous post was at 16:24 ----------

They are no better then our equivalents as they are in form and ours are not.

Re: English Cricket
 

That's because we don't have any decent openers full stop. They have 4 bowlers in the averages top 20, we have 2 and as they Anderson and Broad they won't be around much longer.

Re: English Cricket
 

l disagree as good openers are there in county cricket but England seem obsessed with playing one day players in test matches.

---------- Post added at 16:33 ---------- Previous post was at 16:30 ----------

We need to pick players who will bowl well in English conditions as as been the cases in previous home ashes series.

Re: English Cricket
 

Decent openers in County cricket says it all, decent openers in TEST cricket, there are none.

Re: English Cricket
 

But if they are not given a good run or are not picked its no wonder we have problems opening currently.

Re: English Cricket
 

Since Strauss retired in 2012, Cook is the only other decent opener we have had in the past 20 years. None of the other people tried have come up with the goods consistently.

Re: English Cricket
 

But when they are picked and if they don't perform pretty much straight away they are out of the side after a couple of test matches.

No continuity springs to mind.

Re: English Cricket
 

When did England last have a number 11 coming in after getting 92 in his last test?

Re: English Cricket
 

https://www.cricket.com.au/news/engl...man/2017-08-13

This slightly out of date(2018) list suggests that apart from obvious stop gap openers such as Root, Trott and Moeen Ali, all the openers tried since Strauss retired have been given more than, to quote you ‘a couple of test matches’.

A broken finger curtailed the young Lancashire batsman Habeeb but since then he has done very little. Reading that article also shows that the other openers tried including Compton who was given two bites at the cherry rarely set the world on fire after returning to the ranks. If you take out Root, Trott and Ali, one of whom has retired and the other two are still in the England squad that leaves just 8 batsmen tried and discarded in the past 8 years. Please name me one of those on that list that deserved or even now deserves another chance?

Re: English Cricket
 

When l say given a fair run l would say at least 10 to 20 test matches and most of those apart from a couple have not been given a long run like that.

l remember several openers for other countries who struggled for a fair while before they made the breakthrough.

l still say we chop and change our openers too much.

Re: English Cricket
 

Bottom line....none of those players are or where good enough to open in test matches, sad but a true reflection of county cricket standards.:(

Re: English Cricket
 

l think personally think you are underestimating the standard of our cricketers Jim as many of them who play in county cricket were good enough to win the World Cup so the county cricket system is still producing quality.

Re: English Cricket
 

It's produced great one day players, but no one that can knuckle down and in a Test Match. Not so long ago we were no 1 at Test cricket but crap at one days, seems you can't have one without the other. Know which I'd prefer and has the most kudos.

Re: English Cricket
 

England finally find a way to stop Smith, that did look like a nasty blow though. :(

Re: English Cricket
 

Archers bowling brought back memories of the great late Malcolm Marshall.