West Indies v England, 2nd Test, North Sound, Feb 13-17

Dunno if Rashid is ready yet. He went for a tidy few in the first warm-up game.

Basil wrote:Dunno if Rashid is ready yet. He went for a tidy few in the first warm-up game.

Anyone's better than Monty right now though. According to all observers he bowls the same six balls an over, the only variation being whether it's an over or round the wicket delivery!
I for one miss his early career mixed bag, but frankly, it really is time to try an alternative.
Throw Rashid in the deep end, at least he can bat and field some!

Merlin wrote:

Basil wrote:Dunno if Rashid is ready yet. He went for a tidy few in the first warm-up game.

Anyone's better than Monty right now though. According to all observers he bowls the same six balls an over, the only variation being whether it's an over or round the wicket delivery!
I for one miss his early career mixed bag, but frankly, it really is time to try an alternative.
Throw Rashid in the deep end, at least he can bat and field some!

I suppose it might be worth a gamble, he might nick the odd wicket purely because the Windies' batsmen won't have seen him.

Rashid's worth taking a look at. The team is so shit at the minute that we might as well explore every possibility. I'd probably play Swann as well.

Strauss, Cook, Shah, Pietersen, Collingwood, Prior, Flintoff, Broad, Rashid, Swann, Sidebottom.

Much as I want to play a four-man attack, we don't have the players out there to do it at the minute. Edit: England will win, by the way. They will win this series 3-1.

Okay, I don't actually think that. But I have to say it otherwise I'd be an unpatriotic turncoat tw@t like the rest of you.

Basil wrote:Dunno if Rashid is ready yet. He went for a tidy few in the first warm-up game.

Shouldn't that be "untidy"?

Basil wrote:Dunno if Rashid is ready yet. He went for a tidy few in the first warm-up game.

And got smacked a bit by the Indians in the A game last year. Still, he wouldn't be alone in that.

PS ...
Before the band wagon starts to roll .....
FFS let's keep Vaughan's name out of this - leave him to enjoy his family holiday at his house on Barbados.

Thanks.

Historically WI haven't done too well against the leg spinners.

PlanetPakistan wrote:Historically WI haven't done too well against the leg spinners.

Michael Holding was talking about this the other day. It is actually a myth. Shane Warne was pretty much dominated by Lara and co, and we all know how West Indies like to manhandle Kaneria, Mcgill etc.

We are awful against left arm spinners. Vettori, Giles, Price and Panesar have all caused havoc against us as our batsmen have a habit playing for turn when there is none. As umpires are giving people out lbw on the front foot nowadays, we have had real problems.

It is very strange as our batsmen can cope with turn, even when its fairly big, but subtle changes of pace and armballs etc befuddle them.

BCL was the greatest player of spin.

How he played against Warne during the 1999 series, Murali during the 2001 series and Kaneria in both 05 -06/06-07 was exemplary to say the least HOW ever with the exception of BCL i don't think WI have done too well against the leg spinners.

Leg spinners v Windies:

BS Chandrasekhar 15 matches, 65 wickets @ 33.52
Abdul Qadir 10 matches, 40 wickets @ 30.83
Anil Kumble 17 matches, 74 wickets @ 29.78
Shane Warne 19 matches, 65 wickets @ 29.95
Stuart MacGill 16 matches, 60 wickets @ 34.08
Danish Kaneria 7 matches, 28 wickets @ 35.92

Looks like Mikey is right, no really amazing figures there are there?

JKLever wrote:

Basil wrote:Dunno if Rashid is ready yet. He went for a tidy few in the first warm-up game.

And got smacked a bit by the Indians in the A game last year. .....

That bully Harby was playing, was he?

WIFAN wrote:Leg spinners v Windies:

BS Chandrasekhar 15 matches, 65 wickets @ 33.52
Abdul Qadir 10 matches, 40 wickets @ 30.83
Anil Kumble 17 matches, 74 wickets @ 29.78
Shane Warne 19 matches, 65 wickets @ 29.95
Stuart MacGill 16 matches, 60 wickets @ 34.08
Danish Kaneria 7 matches, 28 wickets @ 35.92

Looks like Mikey is right, no really amazing figures there are there?

hmm interesting....

Sarwan and Chanderpaul are strong against spin.

I love Zaltzman.

Two days after the event, English cricket is still stumbling around in a state of catatonic shock, this fresh embarrassment heaped upon its recent upheaval, which possibly explains coach Andy Flower’s almost outlandish suggestion that it is now “best to stay calm and not to have knee-jerk reactions on selection”. While I accept that it may be necessary after such a humiliation to allow sufficient time for the investigating authorities to bag and label all the evidence, I would argue that neither staying calm nor artificially fixing the selectorial knee in a rigid brace is now a sensible course of action.