It's The Ashes (again)

[AnelkasBeard]

England Men's XI

1. Ben Duckett
2. Zak Crawley
3. Ollie Pope
4. Joe Root
5. Harry Brook
6. Ben Stokes *
7. Jonathan Bairstow +
8. Stuart Broad
9. Ollie Robinson
10. Josh Tongue
11. James Anderson

Sigh. We haven't learned from our mistakes. No specialist wicket keeper, the continued selection of Crawley and no front line spinner. What is going on? I'm not sure if it's sheer overconfidence, arrogance, and ignorance, or stupidly? Possibly a combination.

No spinner kinda makes sense at Lords?

But how has Tongue got in ahead of Wood, Woakes and/or Potts?! Really baffling. Woakes averages 61 with the bat and 11 with the ball at Lords... and we all know what Mark Wood can do. If they're going to select that type of bowler over what Woakes gives, surely it had to be Wood.

And as much as we'd all have wanted to see Foakes in to the team, I think we all knew it wasn't going to be happening.

[SuperBob2002]

England Men's XI

1. Ben Duckett
2. Zak Crawley
3. Ollie Pope
4. Joe Root
5. Harry Brook
6. Ben Stokes *
7. Jonathan Bairstow +
8. Stuart Broad
9. Ollie Robinson
10. Josh Tongue
11. James Anderson

Sigh. We haven't learned from our mistakes. No specialist wicket keeper, the continued selection of Crawley and no front line spinner. What is going on? I'm not sure if it's sheer overconfidence, arrogance, and ignorance, or stupidly? Possibly a combination.

No spinner kinda makes sense at Lords?

But how has Tongue got in ahead of Wood, Woakes and/or Potts?! Really baffling. Woakes averages 61 with the bat and 11 with the ball at Lords... and we all know what Mark Wood can do.

And as much as we'd all have wanted to see Foakes in to the team, I think we all knew it wasn't going to be happening.

I'm not sure I feel comfortable with Joe Root being our main spin option regardless of venue. He's not a bad second option but there's no way he should be heading into a Test as the main option. 

Completely agree with Tongue. He has a bright future, and is clearly a talent but Woakes is the obvious option if we wanted to get another seamer in. 

Crawley is never going to get dropped because his dad's best mate is part of the selection team. Crawley making way for Foakes (Bairstow moving to opener) makes sense to anyone with half a Braincell. 


I can't help but feel we're conceding an advantage to Australia even before the coin toss. Apologies for being too negative, but this selection is just bizarre. It really is. It's almost as if we're trying too hard to think outside the box, while it's a pretty idea, it, like our overly aggressive batting, is reckless.

[Cheshire East Baggie]

England Men's XI

1. Ben Duckett
2. Zak Crawley
3. Ollie Pope
4. Joe Root
5. Harry Brook
6. Ben Stokes *
7. Jonathan Bairstow +
8. Stuart Broad
9. Ollie Robinson
10. Josh Tongue
11. James Anderson

Sigh. We haven't learned from our mistakes. No specialist wicket keeper, the continued selection of Crawley and no front line spinner. What is going on? I'm not sure if it's sheer overconfidence, arrogance, and ignorance, or stupidly? Possibly a combination.

No spinner kinda makes sense at Lords?

But how has Tongue got in ahead of Wood, Woakes and/or Potts?! Really baffling. Woakes averages 61 with the bat and 11 with the ball at Lords... and we all know what Mark Wood can do.

And as much as we'd all have wanted to see Foakes in to the team, I think we all knew it wasn't going to be happening.

I'm not sure I feel comfortable with Joe Root being our main spin option regardless of venue. He's not a bad second option but there's no way he should be heading into a Test as the main option. 

Completely agree with Tongue. He has a bright future, and is clearly a talent but Woakes is the obvious option if we wanted to get another seamer in. 

Crawley is never going to get dropped because his dad's best mate is part of the selection team. Crawley making way for Foakes (Bairstow moving to opener) makes sense to anyone with half a Braincell. 


I can't help but feel we're conceding an advantage to Australia even before the coin toss. Apologies for being too negative, but this selection is just bizarre. It really is. It's almost as if we're trying too hard to think outside the box, while it's a pretty idea, it, like our overly aggressive batting, is reckless.

Yep, I agree with all the comments above. No spinner, no wicket-keeper, no Woakes - it all reeks of cronyism. I thought Bazball was about winning, not giving your mates a game. Speaking of which, apart from the crippled Stokes himself, the luckiest man to be in that team is Anderson. Very poor at Edgbaston (by his own standards), probably not fully fit. This puts huge pressure on Broad, who will almost certainly rise to the challenge.

[AnelkasBeard]

England Men's XI

1. Ben Duckett
2. Zak Crawley
3. Ollie Pope
4. Joe Root
5. Harry Brook
6. Ben Stokes *
7. Jonathan Bairstow +
8. Stuart Broad
9. Ollie Robinson
10. Josh Tongue
11. James Anderson

Sigh. We haven't learned from our mistakes. No specialist wicket keeper, the continued selection of Crawley and no front line spinner. What is going on? I'm not sure if it's sheer overconfidence, arrogance, and ignorance, or stupidly? Possibly a combination.

No spinner kinda makes sense at Lords?

But how has Tongue got in ahead of Wood, Woakes and/or Potts?! Really baffling. Woakes averages 61 with the bat and 11 with the ball at Lords... and we all know what Mark Wood can do.

And as much as we'd all have wanted to see Foakes in to the team, I think we all knew it wasn't going to be happening.

I'm not sure I feel comfortable with Joe Root being our main spin option regardless of venue. He's not a bad second option but there's no way he should be heading into a Test as the main option. 

Completely agree with Tongue. He has a bright future, and is clearly a talent but Woakes is the obvious option if we wanted to get another seamer in. 

Crawley is never going to get dropped because his dad's best mate is part of the selection team. Crawley making way for Foakes (Bairstow moving to opener) makes sense to anyone with half a Braincell. 


I can't help but feel we're conceding an advantage to Australia even before the coin toss. Apologies for being too negative, but this selection is just bizarre. It really is. It's almost as if we're trying too hard to think outside the box, while it's a pretty idea, it, like our overly aggressive batting, is reckless.

I agree with your negativity this time, it's a really weird selection. If you're going 4 seamers, go Woakes, his record speaks for itself. If you want a quicker seamer in that 4, go Wood, his record and experience speaks for itself.

Re: Chesh - Jimmy himself was very negative about his performance as well, he knows he didn't bowl well. Hopefully he can regain something at Lords.

[wba13]

I think we have to have a little faith in Stokes and McCullum the way we have played in the last 12 months is astonishing, they obviously wanted some pace in the side and Wood hasn’t played any form of cricket for 3 months,so Tongue was the obvious choice for pace, where as Woakes will only be picked if one of the 3 seamers are playing rubbish or injured.
As for Foakes yes he’s unlucky but to have a batsman like Bairstow coming in at 8 must be a good thing. He’s no mug as a keeper and a brilliant batsman. Bairstow is not an opening batsman in test cricket yes in the one day game but as Jason Roy found out 5 day game is totally different.

[rsbaggy2]

England Men's XI

1. Ben Duckett
2. Zak Crawley
3. Ollie Pope
4. Joe Root
5. Harry Brook
6. Ben Stokes *
7. Jonathan Bairstow +
8. Stuart Broad
9. Ollie Robinson
10. Josh Tongue
11. James Anderson

Sigh. We haven't learned from our mistakes. No specialist wicket keeper, the continued selection of Crawley and no front line spinner. What is going on? I'm not sure if it's sheer overconfidence, arrogance, and ignorance, or stupidly? Possibly a combination.

No spinner kinda makes sense at Lords?

But how has Tongue got in ahead of Wood, Woakes and/or Potts?! Really baffling. Woakes averages 61 with the bat and 11 with the ball at Lords... and we all know what Mark Wood can do.

And as much as we'd all have wanted to see Foakes in to the team, I think we all knew it wasn't going to be happening.

I'm not sure I feel comfortable with Joe Root being our main spin option regardless of venue. He's not a bad second option but there's no way he should be heading into a Test as the main option. 

Completely agree with Tongue. He has a bright future, and is clearly a talent but Woakes is the obvious option if we wanted to get another seamer in. 

Crawley is never going to get dropped because his dad's best mate is part of the selection team. Crawley making way for Foakes (Bairstow moving to opener) makes sense to anyone with half a Braincell. 


I can't help but feel we're conceding an advantage to Australia even before the coin toss. Apologies for being too negative, but this selection is just bizarre. It really is. It's almost as if we're trying too hard to think outside the box, while it's a pretty idea, it, like our overly aggressive batting, is reckless.

I agree with your negativity this time, it's a really weird selection. If you're going 4 seamers, go Woakes, his record speaks for itself. If you want a quicker seamer in that 4, go Wood, his record and experience speaks for itself.

Re: Chesh - Jimmy himself was very negative about his performance as well, he knows he didn't bowl well. Hopefully he can regain something at Lords.

The idea of Tongue alongside Robinson is really quite poetic! 

[SuperBob2002]

Liam Dawson has taken 10 wickets and has scored a century. Just sayin'.

[Ted Maul]

Feels like a big morning in the series this one. On a green top under the clouds at Lords I'd be getting Australia in to bat. A few wickets before lunch would be the only way to wrestle back momentum. I fear for us this morning if sent in, there's every chance we're 4 for not many come midday and genuinely at that stage I reckon it could be case closed for the summer.

Big gamble on the lad Tongue but he's a solid Pears lad so hope he goes well - does put pressure on the other bowlers as if he goes at 4 an over Robinson, Broad and Anderson will be doing a lot of bowling.

Promises to be another great day, get the Aussies in and have half an eye on making sure Crawley and Duckett have bat in hand by the end of the day.

[rsbaggy2]

England win toss .. bowling on green top with cloud cover to boot.
Advantage England

[AnelkasBeard]

Hopefully Clouderson strikes again