The Ashes 2023

Have to think Lawrence is a massive downgrade on Pope.

Pope has scored 4 hundreds and 11 half centuries

Lawrence has 4 half centuries and no hundreds, he’s played 11 tests. So he’s been enabled with opportunities.

I wonder will Root be elevated to number 3. Lawrence has been batting 5 for England previously….

27 innings for England… 9 times he was stuck on single figure scores when he got out. A third of the time.

5 innings out of those 27 he didn’t even get off the mark.

Brook is a big call at No3, was flapping a lot in that scratchy 50 he got at Lord's. Still, he is explosive when he gets going. Hoping for a England win to keep this cracking series lively. If not, I'll take 5-0 to the Aussies.

They’ve gone to town on it. It’s boring now. Jonny tried to do labuschagne earlier in test I saw. Many examples of England taking wickets when shouldn’t have but let’s forget that.

Brook has batted at 3 for Yorkshire on a handful of occasions with indifferent success but his preferred position is 5, he’s on record saying that I remember somewhere …

They need a performance from him.

the bowling is interesting. Stokes and McCullum are rightly worried but the template was set in the selections in the lead up to this Ashes. A seriously aged group.

Robinson gets a lot of stick but has arguably been their best bowler so far. Economical and takes wickets. He seems to suffer because he is not as good as prime Anderson or Broad, but he is probably better than both right now.

Look at the batsmen .. Australia have four of the top ten vs Englands one.

Bowlers England have the advantage but two of their three on that list are basically you’d imagine 6 weeks away from retirement. Broad and Anderson. Can’t see either continuing after the Ashes

I dunno, Broad is 38 next birthday, his pace has really dropped off.

162 tests, 121 ODIs a lot of miles on that clock and it’s showing…

11 wickets in his last 2 tests….not ‘terrible’ granted but he’s not setting the world alight… not the threat of yesteryear…averages 2.75 wickets per innings in this series. This despite taking 4 in the second innings last game.

Top class ‘fast’ bowler should to my mind be taking closer to an average of 4….every innings…and bowling in terms of speed consistently late ‘80’s

Either way I think the value of jettisoning both supersedes keeping either of them…..

has to come a time England move on…

Simon Taufal posted this on LinkedIn

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Simon Taufel, who is a former ICC Elite Umpire and current member of the MCC laws sub-committee, has written this post on LinkedIn discussing the Jonny Bairstow dismissal during the second Ashes Test at Lord's:

"Was Jonny Bairstow’s dismissal at Lords a breach of the Spirit of Cricket? This is a question I have been inundated with, so I thought it best to share my thoughts publicly by asking everyone a question or eight to consider…

1. "Have you seen any umpire tell a fielding side that the keeper standing back is not allowed to attempt a stumping?

2. "Was there a complaint from anyone when Bairstow tried to stump Marnus exactly the same way in the first innings?

3. "What has Jonny Bairstow said about his dismissal? He has been very quiet. Why?

4. "My experience is when people don’t like a dismissal under the Laws of Cricket, they cite the Spirit of Cricket to support their view.

5. "Which part of the codified Preamble (the Spirit of Cricket) was breached by the fielding side?

6. "What did the fielding side do in effecting a legitimate dismissal that unfairly impacted the ability of the batter in their attempt not to be dismissed? (Did they run into him or distract him or prevent him making good his ground?)

7. "Should a batter be immune from dismissal as per the Laws by simply being negligent (and leaving his ground too early)?

8. "Did England retire Ben Duckett when they disagreed with the Starc catch decision as per the Laws and umpires’ decision?

"The hypocrisy and lack of consistency from some people and groups is quite interesting and concerning for the future of our game.

"Maybe I am the odd one out here?

"The good news is that we are actively engaged with Test cricket, the best form of the game."

Damning.

Why should Cummins withdraw the appeal?

If The Bairstow stumping was beyond the spirit of Cricket, how come there was no issue with this? Patel wasn't trying to gain an advantage. We see this off spinners in particular a lot more yet its always tagged as "smart keeping" etc but how long is too long to wait.

Bairstow never even looked to see where the ball ended up and if you look at the wide angle of the stumping, Stokes hadn't even returned to his ground when the ball hit the stumps as presumably he had been backing up when Green bowled the ball.

I reckon from the time Carey collected the ball to it hitting the stumps on Sunday was way shorter then the time some keepers hold the ball before attemtping a stumping off a spinner as they wait for a batsman to overbalance or lift their foot. Even the example below, I reckon the times are similar. So I don't see a problem with Cummins not withdrawing the appeal.

They are there to win. Its their livelihoods at the end of the day. Why should they have to make allowances for an opponents stupidity?

Stay in or regain your ground until its clear the ball is dead. Otherwise play to the Laws of the game.

Stuart Broad talks about this being the only thing Carey gets remembered for. Oddly enough, I don't remember the spirit of Cricket being an issue for him in 2013, literally the only thing I remember about that ashes series is him edging to first slip and not walking. That's downright cheating.

England win toss again and bowl. Marsh in for Green as was rumoured and Murphy for Lyon and Boland for Hazelwood.

I wonder was that the best choice by Stokes, didn't work out too well last match. Means they could be in the field for a good long spell before facing the Aussie quicks and then in all likelihood, batting last.

Warner out 5th ball. 16th time Broad has gotten him

Booing is not the spirit of cricket

Wicket taker Broad has been taken out of the attack after 3 overs.... strange call... is it a case that his body requires managing to that level now where he only will bowl mini spells ? Especially weird with Robinson not doing a huge amount from the other end.... surely he's got 5 overs on the trot in him.... he was causing problems...

Kawaja bowled by Wood.