07-30-2025, 03:10 PM
Win, lose or draw at The Oval, we'll be left looking in poor shape for The Ashes. It looks more and more like the Baz'n'Ben show rather than a serious effort to build England's Test team for the future. Big hitting batters and pacey bowlers are match winners when it all works, but we still need the essential glue of a Root (who could play for 4 more years) and the spark of a Stokes (who definitely won't).
Brook and Smith are gems for the long term, maybe Duckett, but not Crawley IMO. We don't have a replacement all rounder for Stokesie, we insist on playing a rookie spinner for no apparent reason, or struggling by with part-time tweakers.
What progress have we made with the bowling attack? Wood is ancient, Archer is fragile, Atkinson and Tongue have been injured or inconsistent - will Carse's toe stand up to Oz and is he quite good enough?
There is no pipeline of players because no-one in the England setup cares a toss who's playing well in the County Championship. I have a feeling that when Ben is finally broken, Baz will walk away and we'll be left pretty much where we started. A case of "thanks for the memories".
Brook and Smith are gems for the long term, maybe Duckett, but not Crawley IMO. We don't have a replacement all rounder for Stokesie, we insist on playing a rookie spinner for no apparent reason, or struggling by with part-time tweakers.
What progress have we made with the bowling attack? Wood is ancient, Archer is fragile, Atkinson and Tongue have been injured or inconsistent - will Carse's toe stand up to Oz and is he quite good enough?
There is no pipeline of players because no-one in the England setup cares a toss who's playing well in the County Championship. I have a feeling that when Ben is finally broken, Baz will walk away and we'll be left pretty much where we started. A case of "thanks for the memories".