England marks out of ten for the first test

But they've gone around the houses a bit, via Shah, Bopara and the odd cameo from Flintoff, to get there.

Hmm, makes our reserves look well poor. We were even thinking about bringing Ramprachoke back.....

...to Shoeshine's disgust.

Rob I wrote:Hmm, makes our reserves look well poor. We were even thinking about bringing Ramprachoke back.....

Well, the press were.

Not sure it was ever a serious consideration by the powers that be.

Andy Flower seems quite a sensible bloke.

Woa! Thought the entire Test had slipped me by and we were bemoaning England's defeat already. Felt cheated of experiencing Kallis' latest soul-sapping century and the inevitable England batting collapse on the 5th day.

In the spirit of this, here in advance are my marks out of 10 for the England team.

Strauss 7 - solid in both innings, captaincy lacked flair
Cook 3 - twin failures, why is he vice captain?
Trott 5 - seemed unsure which side he was on
Pietersen 8 - best batsman in both innings but what about that harebrained dismissal to Harris?
Collingwood 6 - gritty
Bell 4 - pretty 40odd in 2nd innings
Prior 3 - keeping average, batting disappointed on this occasion
Broad 5 - bowling lacked cutting edge
Swann 5 - some handy runs down the order but is selected to take wickets
Anderson 4 - a couple of good spells but too often diappointed
Sidebottom 3 - why was he picked when clearly struggling with a side strain?

Recommend Luke Wright, Rikki Clarke and James Dalrymple being drafted in for 2nd Test.

Gary 111 wrote:

Strauss 7 - solid in both innings, captaincy lacked flair
Cook 3 - twin failures, why is he vice captain?
Trott 5 - seemed unsure which side he was on
Pietersen 8 - best batsman in both innings but what about that harebrained dismissal to Harris?
Collingwood 6 - gritty
Bell 4 - pretty 40odd in 2nd innings
Prior 3 - keeping average, batting disappointed on this occasion
Broad 5 - bowling lacked cutting edge
Swann 5 - some handy runs down the order but is selected to take wickets
Anderson 4 - a couple of good spells but too often diappointed
Sidebottom 3 - why was he picked when clearly struggling with a side strain?

My God! It's like you can predict the future!

Bell 0.

Gary 111 wrote:Woa! Thought the entire Test had slipped me by and we were bemoaning England's defeat already. Felt cheated of experiencing Kallis' latest soul-sapping century and the inevitable England batting collapse on the 5th day.

In the spirit of this, here in advance are my marks out of 10 for the England team.

Strauss 7 - solid in both innings, captaincy lacked flair
Cook 3 - twin failures, why is he vice captain?
Trott 5 - seemed unsure which side he was on
Pietersen 8 - best batsman in both innings but what about that harebrained dismissal to Harris?
Collingwood 6 - gritty
Bell 4 - pretty 40odd in 2nd innings
Prior 3 - keeping average, batting disappointed on this occasion
Broad 5 - bowling lacked cutting edge
Swann 5 - some handy runs down the order but is selected to take wickets
Anderson 4 - a couple of good spells but too often diappointed
Sidebottom 3 - why was he picked when clearly struggling with a side strain?

Recommend Luke Wright, Rikki Clarke and James Dalrymple being drafted in for 2nd Test.

Feel satisfied now - I have seen Kallis' latest century against us and witnessed the trademark England batting collapse.

Gary 111 wrote: Luke Wright, Rikki Clarke and James Dalrymple

Talk about the axis of evil !

Going back to the original post in the thread - "Strauss 3 (weak comeback, should be under pressure from Shah)" - was this really less than two years ago?

IIRC, Strauss was "on the brink" going into the second innings of the final Test, having continued his "weak comeback" with a first innings duck, pulled a great innings (170-odd) out of his arse and has never looked back.

I guess that's the mark of a proper Test-class cricketer: being brave enough and mentally strong enough to rise to the challenge of seemingly insurmountable pressure.

Dello wrote:IIRC, Strauss was "on the brink" going into the second innings of the final Test, having continued his "weak comeback" with a first innings duck, pulled a great innings (170-odd) out of his arse and has never looked back.

I guess that's the mark of a proper Test-class cricketer: being brave enough and mentally strong enough to rise to the challenge of seemingly insurmountable pressure.

Yeah, I remember it well, he was probably one game/innings from the end of his Test career. But to even think that we would want to consider replacing him with Owais Shah of all people is hard to believe given the fortunes of the two of them since. Well, at least it wasn't Bopara I suppose...

Shah was banging down the door - and Strauss hadn't re-earned his place. He was dropped for the previous tour (Sri Lanka, was it?) and, in spite of doing nothing in-between, was then recalled for the NZ tour and went straight into the XI.

Meanwhile, Shah was left scratching his head as he'd been picked in the squad to tour Sri Lanka, only to miss out on a place in the starting line-up to Bopara, and then kept his place in the squad to NZ (Bopara was dropped) only to get leapfrogged in the pecking order by someone not considered good enough to make the previous squad.

Got his chance eventually - a year later - and loused it up. But there's no doubt he has been one of the more bizarrely treated cricketers of recent times.