The Ashes

Jack Leach ruled out with injury. :rolleyes:

Rehan Ahmed or maybe Will Jacks would be my pick as a replacement.

Both been handy with the bat lately.
 
We have been giving the Aussies a fair bit of practice to get used to the English condition…think we will be up against it a bit…if anyone has any spare tickets for weekends let me know please?
 
I'm not certain that we even need a spinner at all in this Bazball test era.
Unless we have a really good wicket taking spinner that can rip through a batting line up (and we haven't really had that since Swan) I feel four seamers (assuming Jimmy and Broad will play) with Stokes as a fifth seamer and maybe Root as an occasional spinner is the better route to go down. Seriously how many wickets does anyone expect Leach (or Ahmed or Ali for that matter) to take?
 
Reading through some articles it seems that Hampshire’s own Liam Dawson could be in the mix. Or they take a different route and go with Liam Livingstone or even not bothering with spin and add Sam Curran.
 
DJ said:
Reading through some articles it seems that Hampshire’s own Liam Dawson could be in the mix. Or they take a different route and go with Liam Livingstone or even not bothering with spin and add Sam Curran.
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See my post above. Why even bother with a spinner in our conditions and with the plethora of good seamers we have available?
 
zigger zaggar said:
See my post above. Why even bother with a spinner in our conditions and with the plethora of good seamers we have available?
Click to expand...
zigger zaggar said:
See my post above. Why even bother with a spinner in our conditions and with the plethora of good seamers we have available?
Click to expand...
Possibly because it is looking like a long dry summer and not having a spinner severely limits your options when the seamers fail to get anything out of the pitch
 
You do need a specialist spinner plus Root.

If Stokes is crocked and the Summer is as dry and sunny as predicted, two specialist spinners plus a word to the various Groundsmen could be the way to go.

Gutted for Leach.
 
Sounds like they will ask Moeen Ali to come out of test retirement.

Guess he will be useful with bat and ball.
 
So it’s Moeen Ali. Personally I’m surprised, he hasn’t done that much bowling in white ball cricket for England or even in the franchise leagues I’ve watched. It’s just an over here or there.

Watched Ahmed take three wickets in the blast last night and he looked good, that said he was talking about struggling to find his rhythm so maybe a series to early for him.
 
I agree, too early for Ahmed. If we need a spinner to hold down an end while we rotate the seamers, I don't think it's a good idea to rely on a rookie teenaged spinner to do the job. Being carted around the park would probably set his career back.

At least Moeen has a lot of experience and can help extend the batting lineup. Of course, he may still go round the park.. so could Leach whom the Aussies targeted in the last series down under.

See the Test Championship final has started this morning. India put the Aussies in..not sure I would have done that, especially at the Oval. I'm very much "old school" in that "win the toss, bat. If thinking about bowling first, I'd think about it for a while and then bat." It's not like it's Headingly under leaden skies.
 
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