bearded_red

Has any team ever been as bad as this while being so old? Could just about accept it if it were a bunch of young lads being thrown in. Only three players in this 11 under 30.

Not wrong is it

For all the talk about Burns he’s the only bloke so far who didn’t get himself out.

What have England done with the Ollie Pope that came into the team and looked a player? It’s painful watching it now.

We’ve won a session. I swear you’ll never see anything like this ever again. So watch it, drink it in.

The problem with the current criticism of Burns, not that I disagree, is that of the 15 (fifteen) openers England have brought in since Strauss retired he’s been the most successful, as low a bar as that is. I ultimately don’t think he’s good enough, I refuse to accept you can bat like that and be successful in test cricket and I absolutely accept that watching him crab about is torture, but there is no evidence we have anyone that will do better. It’s almost now a decade since Andrew Strauss retired.. Compton, Root, Carberry, Robson, Trott, Lyth, Moeen, Hales, Jennings (twice), Hameed (twice), Stoneman, Burns, Roy, Sibley and Crawley. They’ve all had a go, none of them have been good enough (I think Hameed deserves a decent crack at it tbf). As sad as it is, Burns has been the best of that lot. So fine drop him, I won’t disagree, but who are we playing? Crawley? He struggles to average 30 in first class cricket let alone test level. Bairstow because he gives the white ball a whack? Fly Sibley over? His technique is even worse than Burns. Not exactly spoilt for choice. As is the case whenever criticising this team (and I’m just as guilty of this as everyone else), you have to accept unfortunately there aren’t good players lining up to take these lads places. Same as any criticism of Root and Silverwood. I essentially think they’re both useless, but have whoever you want as captain and coach. Try winning in Australia with one top class batsmen, one injury prone quick bowler* and no dependable spinners. *Root of course partly responsible for Jofra being broken and unable for selection.

You’ll do well to see a more pathetic dismissal of a test match opening batsman than that.

Woke. Of course. Of course Lee Johnson’s inability to manage a successful football team is because of people being woke. I’ve seen some excuses for that bloke offered up on this forum over the years, but blaming it on players being ‘woke’. Jesus wept.

Horrendous drop.

Just a lack of anything different. Pace, spin, left arm. Just nothing. Just like four years ago.

Think we’ve bowled fine, but my god this is a samey attack. How many right arm fast medium bowlers does it take to bowl out a team in Australia?

I’d like Mercedes to push this all the way to CAS, but to be honest I don’t see an outcome that awards the race to Hamilton for being in the lead of the penultimate lap. I can see a scenario of the race result being made null and void, but obviously that still ends up with Verstappen being champion on race wins. I think Sunday’s result being stricken from the records and the end of Masi is the best possible outcome unfortunately. We may even see a rule change that says if there is a Safety Car with less than 5/10 laps remaining you Red Flag the race, allow everyone to change tyres and have a restart. Had that happened Sunday it would still have been unfair on Hamilton and given Verstappen a chance he didn’t deserve, but had he taken it, or Hamilton had messed up, then, fair enough, that’s sport, shit happens. What did happen however isn’t sport. At best, it’s WWE, at worst it’s nothing more than a ******* fix.

The first page of this thread still a top read.

Absurd. Just assumed it would be a tenner..

Yeah bloody Mercedes. Got completely cheated out of winning the title. Should just throw their arms up and say ‘never mind’, and allow Verstappen to celebrate. Bloody Mercedes. As for criticising Hamilton, I thought he was remarkably calm and restrained after the race. Can confirm I’d have carried on like a right *****.

Not a sport. Just WWE on wheels.

What an absolute ******* load of rubbish.

For all of the debate about him, he’s just not very good. Nonsense signing.

Last 11 tests in Australia, 10-0 to Australia. In those 11 tests we’ve managed to take 20 wickets once (at the SCG already 4-0 down). Apart from the freak that was 2010/11 our last test win in Australia with the ashes still on the line was in 1986. If you ignore the money and attention The Ashes brings in, purely talking about our performances on the pitch, it’s impossible to argue we even deserve to play five match series in Australia. We don’t just lose, every four years (with one incredible exception) we fail to even compete.

The batting today even worse than the first day. Impressive really.

Even that one the Ashes were gone, two down with two to play going into that game.

Difficult to believe this is the first session of the third day of the series. The whole intensity and atmosphere is like a Sydney test when we’re already 4-0 playing weirdos like Scott Borthwick.

Underprepared green seamer with rain around. Your strength is seam bowling and your weakness is top order batting. How on earth is it a 50/50 decision? What Cummins would have done with a completely different team is irrelevant, and anyway Mike Hussey on commentary said Smith and Labuschagne on the outfield warming up were basically celebrating when they heard England were batting.

If a game was being played on the exact same pitch in the exact same conditions but in Birmingham rather than Brisbane we’d have seen Broad and Anderson opening the bowling last night. As it is, those two players have been left out and Root decided he had to have a bat because of a decision Nasser Hussain made 19 years ago.