Eng v S.A. Test Series

Batting frailties to the fore again. Do they keep faith with Jennings and Balance, or try someone like Stoneman ? Personally, I'd drop Dawson , drop Ballance down to 5 and play Stoneman, batsman. 3 quality seamers , Ali and root turning his arm over should be enough. They miss Woakes.
 
Batting frailties to the fore again. Do they keep faith with Jennings and Balance, or try someone like Stoneman ? Personally, I'd drop Dawson , drop Ballance down to 5 and play Stoneman, batsman. 3 quality seamers , Ali and root turning his arm over should be enough. They miss Woakes.

Jennings isnt good enough at test level. You shouldnt be getting bowled through the gate at any standard. I also think dawson isnt good enough and Rashid should be in the side as he is a better bowler and a better bat.
 
Jennings isnt good enough at test level. You shouldnt be getting bowled through the gate at any standard. I also think dawson isnt good enough and Rashid should be in the side as he is a better bowler and a better bat.

And Balance clearing isn't.

same dismissal again and again
 
I've said my bit about Ballance on this thread.

Jennings I thought was tidy until this series. Hangs his bat and too upright. Stoneman is worth a call, though he is another leftie.

Top class ball that from Morris!
 
Dawson, Wood, Ballance and Jennings need to be dropped.

As a bowler, you need to take wickets. Wood just doesn't get them....and his body was obviously struggling with 2 tests on the bounce. Who you replace him with is the question.
 
Dawson, Wood, Ballance and Jennings need to be dropped.

As a bowler, you need to take wickets. Wood just doesn't get them....and his body was obviously struggling with 2 tests on the bounce. Who you replace him with is the question.

should never of picked Wood for this test, proven his body cant deal with back to back tests, think he needs to be carefully managed and used in lots of small bursts then given a rest etc to say that wood doesnt get wickets though is just wrong for me. i also think they need to use him as an out and out strike bowler, his role seems confused at the moment, he doesnt get the new ball and isnt bowling flat out

bit early to drop Jennings for me, theres a couple of flaws in there for sure and this mornings dismissal is very poor but think he deserves until the end of the summer at least

would never of picked Ballance or Dawson (its impossible to see either being right for this winters trip down under!!!)

Woakes has been an obvious miss and in his absence Id like to have seen TRJ have a shot but as discussed a few weeks ago, theres a lot of potentially good young quicks about but hard to make a case that any of them are ready

As for batters, Stoneman has more than earnt a shot, Hameed is clearly on the radar if he can get runs at county cricket level again and if looking in the middle order Id think Malan is one worth a look at
 
Ballance is averaging nearly twice as much as the next Englishman in first class cricket. I think he should have a run at number 5 in the test team and bring in Stoneman at number 3. Not a huge Balance fan but I say this because I'm not sure which other batsmen in our county system is good enough........
 
This is pathetic. This team have no backbone. They're great when things are going their way, but everytime they've been in a position like this one they crumble. South Africa are going to go into the next game on a massive high if we fail to put up a fight here.
 
This is pathetic. This team have no backbone. They're great when things are going their way, but everytime they've been in a position like this one they crumble. South Africa are going to go into the next game on a massive high if we fail to put up a fight here.

welcome to modern test cricket, saffers no different in first test. no interest in digging in and battling, just keep playing loose shots
 
What happened to digging in ? Caught on the boundary, stumped dancing down the wicket etc etc. Fair play to South Africa but lack of application by England helped. I don't buy into this 'its the way they play' BS. We have hardly passed 300 in recent times and that's 6 losses in 8 matches. We need to bounce back with a bit of determination. It's ok being positive, but play yourself in first !!! Credit where its due, Amla, Elgar, Faf & Philander were superb in this match.
 
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