Mr Hankey

Yet they let Boland terrorise our batters in Edgbaston when the light was awful and it was raining, umpires seem immune from criticism in cricket, but more consistency is very much needed.

Not sure if i will ever forgive Ollie Robinson’s bowling in the first test against Lyon & Cummins after this…..such a shite way for it to end

So the Aussies are going to go with Travis Head as their main spinner, maybe with Marnus pitching in as well? Seems a bit odd that……not sure why Cameron Green has been chucked straight back in, he hasn’t looked very good to me this series, but we’ll take it!

Both of them are god awful & always have been, that Kaveh is an absolute weapon, just have a read of what Crystal Palace fans think of him. They are both part of the main reasons why sky sports news is such a joke these days and why you can’t trust a word of their “sources” when it comes to transfers - many years back sky sports were always the most reliable and trustworthy before those 2 got more involved.

Goodbye, Alex

As @And Its Smith said, just wouldn't be possible due to the bowlers, if he wasn't keeping wicket he was out. Whilst i agree i would like to see him without the pressure of being keeper it just wasn't going to happen.

Didn't think they would drop Bairstow, especially after we won. However, he looks completely shot to pieces so can't see anything changing for him in the next 2 tests, apart from more misery..........sorry for the dampener! Hope he proves me wrong.

This will be done by 4pm, no chance of it going until tomorrow.

Crawley either won’t learn or more worryingly can’t learn.

Peter Whittingham by a country mile.

Be a shame if Tongue is rested. He is very erratic & can be what you need to break down a settled partnership. Robinson just adds nothing for me, i expect the Aussies would be much happier facing his slow bowling than god knows what coming at them from Tongue.

Am i being far too optimistic to suggest that i am confident that if we bowl them out around 350-365 that i think we will chase them down…….is it just me??? ?

Yeh i think you are right there, they will certainly be discussing how to make things better or when they need to change thier approach, i think some people think that Stokes and Baz are just saying “be aggressive, whack anything you can!” but of course they will be talking & looking at things to make it better. Was surprised by Stokes, the one player that i didn’t expect to be the anchor! He did very well to keep things ticking over with Brook.

All for Bazball, but sometimes you just dont need to force it. The pitch is/was there for runs all day long no matter how you bat. My issue with yesterday is that when Lyon was injured, all they had to do was calm things down for 7 or 8 overs and just let the bowlers tire themselves instead of looking for the shots - it turned out Australia set their traps perfectly to get the wickets, particularly Root’s. Still think we will at least draw level, maybe even slightly ahead after our innings, but we missed out on a chance to put some real pressure on the Aussies. It’s still looking decent to me, but could of been a lot better had we played a little bit smarter at times. I certainly don’t want them to change their approach, but yesterday does feel like a missed opportunity at the moment if they just played the conditions at times, fingers crossed it all goes well today.

Think he will end up at West Ham, especially now Rice has gone. Would be a great move for him & should get us a good fee. Perfect stepping stone to move on again in another 4 years should he carry on developing the way we think he will.

I am assuming his move abroad didn't quite materialise? I think the likely situation is that Pearson probably pulled the plug on this one fairly quickly so we could move on to sign Roberts. Shame, but if he wasn't fully committed then i'm glad we moved on (of course this is just an assumption).

Didn’t Jason Gillespie retire mid-Ashes after being absutely taken apart in a couple of matches? Really hope the same doesn’t happen to Jimmy, but he has been phenomenal for so long.

Not quite as simple as you make it out to be. Of course most players speak to other clubs before a bid is made, & you are right that not many will say "actually no i don't want to join you" - all modern day footballers, particularly in the lower leagues, will always keep their options open & not burn bridges. He is likely to have already met with Ipswich as well & told them he "wants to join". This one is anything but a certain signing in my books.

Absolutely, didn't think Khawaja had it in him to play like that in England & Cummins did excellently well both with bat & ball, although i do think he is underrated as a batter (definitely not an all-rounder but can do a job when needed!). Dom Bess seems to have disappeared, but would be surprised if Mo can make it so be interesting to see what they do there. I think Foakes is a better keep than Bairstow, but don't see who he would come in for. Brooks hasn't done anything wrong to be dropped & Pope is VC so no chance of him making way & i don't think you can drop Bairstow for what he can bring to the bat when he's on form. My main concern is what you have mentioned at the end - we got Warner, Smith & Labushagne out cheaply in both innings, but still couldn't do enough to get the win.......what happens when they hit form?

Really good test that, think it was our own mistakes that cost us (Bairstow missed stumpings, charging down Lyon when he was bowling when we didn't need to do it quite so much, no balls) & not so much Australia being better than us. Does make the next test an almost must win so will that add to the pressure, but a very entertaining start. Can't see any changes, apart from Mo if his finger hasn't healed, which if it does will likely just rip straight back open as it's only a week away. Jimmy potentially rested, but that only happens if he doesn't feel he can go again so soon. I would expect the same line-up, or as close to it as they can possibly get.

Don't think what i stated had anything to do with jumping to conclusions! More of a potential outcome theory based on a "what if" scenario. I have no idea what will happen with this, but can certainly see us walking away if Derby try to play the waiting game.

FFP will catch them out, especially if they are outbidding in the millions. We have cut our cloth accordingly for this season. I don't know much about Ipswich's squad but having had a quick gander, i don't see anything worthy of note that they can sell if they need to balance out the books.

He said yesterday that he doesn’t know what he is going to do & is going to go away for a few weeks to think things over - think we are likely to have moved on to other targets by that stage especially if Derby want a bidding war. https://m.independent.ie/sport/soccer/international-soccer/im-an-ambitious-person-irelands-jason-knight-to-weigh-up-future-at-derby/a816436125.html

Don’t you mean Bristol Rovers?