Second Test: West Indies v England, April 21-25

[Gingerfinch]

I'll have to take your word for that.

Is Lyth in form? Played one warm up, and failed.

Since August 2014 he has scored 251, 122, 51, 106, 65,37, 113 in six FC or non-limited overs games

Is that current form? Form can turn in an instance. I'm not against him playing btw, I'd just give Trott one more test. I still think Ali may come in, as well, though him and Stokes do seem to be playing for the same spot.

[sussexpob]

I'll have to take your word for that.

Is Lyth in form? Played one warm up, and failed.

Since August 2014 he has scored 251, 122, 51, 106, 65,37, 113 in six FC or non-limited overs games

Is that current form? Form can turn in an instance. I'm not against him playing btw, I'd just give Trott one more test. I still think Ali may come in, as well, though him and Stokes do seem to be playing for the same spot.

Since Trott's double in Paarl, on a pitch that he wasn't the only 200 scored and general seems the deadest of dead roads, he scored 0,53, 12, 1, 72, 2, 0, 4, 0..... and that has been against some pretty poor attacks

[Gingerfinch]

I'll have to take your word for that.

Is Lyth in form? Played one warm up, and failed.

Since August 2014 he has scored 251, 122, 51, 106, 65,37, 113 in six FC or non-limited overs games

Is that current form? Form can turn in an instance. I'm not against him playing btw, I'd just give Trott one more test. I still think Ali may come in, as well, though him and Stokes do seem to be playing for the same spot.

Since Trott's double in Paarl, on a pitch that he wasn't the only 200 scored, he scored 0,53, 12, 1, 72, 2, 0, 4, 0.....

I'm guessing he's in thanks to his past record. Well that's a given really. It would be wrong to drop him, now they have given him a second chance.

[shankycricket]

http://www.thefulltoss.com/england-cric ... ough-runs/

This article sums up my thoughts on Cook.

Interestingly, one of the comments below mentioned Mildred Plotka (our very own Arthur) and those post World War home Ashes averages. Did you have a chat with the author of this article, Arthur?

[sussexpob]

Cook could be only half way into his England career, and is young enough to blitz all records in the book that are to do with the amount of anything (overall tests, should have played over 120 before he turns 31, English hundreds, Tendulkar's run hall is still within reach is a semi-realistic possibility but will certainly retire as top English scorer)..... In order to deserve any of that though and achieve it, he needs to be shown the writing on the wall and given some stern words about working hard rather than feeling he is simply entitled to it.

Im not sure his time as captain he has shown enough dedication and hunger to become that person he seemingly talks about. In 2010 his technique was all over the place, and that lead to a period where he scored a couple of double hundreds, and about 7 x 100 in 12 matches. After that he stopped showing the effort again and the technical problems are the concern again. He has to work hard to know where his offstump is, he needs to look at his footwork and his overall batting stance and balance. Its obvious flaws that cost him time and time again.

Rather then bang on about things that hurt his ego, like losing the captaincy in ODI or tests, and all that he needs to put words in to practice and improve. But this environment of infallibility that he exists in within the ECB prevents that. It should be Moores coming out and saying "work a damn lot hard, don't spend time moaning about the World Cup when you could be in a net improving".....

Until they sack him and he can focus on his batting, I can see his career fizzling out to nothing. At the very least, he needs a public outing about this sense of entitlement because he seems to think he is hard done by when any other player would have had their place in the team probably gone and his captaincy gone.

He survived only on the ECB cult of personality and a group of individuals that were more concerned with validating his position for their own means rather than asking pertinent questions. The sad thing is, Cook seems to have let this get to his head and seems to believe it

[Arthur Crabtree]

Probably from the Guardian where I post under that name. Thanks Shanky, I'll read later.

[KipperJohn]

Bell beginning to sound a bit different to the 'corporate speak' we've been fed for a while now. I posted a while ago that he would never captain England but you never know.

http://www1.skysports.com/cricket/news/ ... est-indies

[Aidan11]

Judging by the end of the interview it looks like he's picking the team as well.

[shankycricket]

As the author said, Cook, even at his best, has struggled against the type of bowling attacks he is going to face this year (after this series). To survive the year, he'll have to do something he hasn't done before. Score consistently vs world class pace and swing bowling. Getting rid of the armband could help but he'll need more than that. Big test for him.

[shankycricket]

More data... .

https://t.co/A2I6GY1iFY

[sussexpob]

More data... .

https://t.co/A2I6GY1iFY

Do any of them engage their brain

[Alviro Patterson]

More data... .

https://t.co/A2I6GY1iFY

Do any of them engage their brain

By that logic, Jason Holder is the world's best batsman.

[sussexpob]

Its just tragic really, isnt it. He could have phrased it in a billion ways not to sound like the Moores data comment again, but he failed.

[rich1uk]

that one comment almost sums up for me everything that is wrong with this England team

they have a plan, they stick to that plan even when it isn't working, then congratulate themselves afterwards for having executed it as backed up by the data

[Aidan11]

It would be funny if it was happening to someone else.