2nd Test England v Pakistan, Old Trafford, 22-26 July

[yuppie]

Ali has taken 7 wickets in 8 matches this year at 92.

I guess its time for England to accept that they are not playing a spinner. 3 pacers, and all rounder and a very poor mans Mark Waugh?

[Aidan11]

Has England ever been able to play quality leg spin. They don't seem to come across it much in the country game. The ECB don't seem to want to nurture leg spin players. From the outside it almost seems that they have there heads in the sand when it comes to leg spin bowling.

Lancashire have a promising young leggie called Matt Parkinson. The ECB should get him bowling in the nets to our players along with Shane Warne.

[yuppie]

Has England ever been able to play quality leg spin. They don't seem to come across it much in the country game. The ECB don't seem to want to nurture leg spin players. From the outside it almost seems that they have there heads in the sand when it comes to leg spin bowling.

Lancashire have a promising young leggie called Matt Parkinson. The ECB should get him bowling in the nets to our players along with Shane Warne.

Fingers crossed for the player, but will he be given the opportunities?

[Dr Cricket]

Should be noted last year they said the same thing about mason crane the year before on Ravi Patel and Adam Riley and then the years before on Borthwick.

[hopeforthebest]

Hales reaching wide outside off is a concern, his one day cricket instincts of put bat to ball are deeply embedded. If he doesn't find a way to switch to test mode he'll be no use to England.

[yuppie]

Hales reaching wide outside off is a concern, his one day cricket instincts of put bat to ball are deeply embedded. If he doesn't find a way to switch to test mode he'll be no use to England.

From the feed im watching looks like there is movement, but the pitch should become very good to bat on.

Hales just needs to be there after an hour and then he should be able to play all the shots he likes. Just got to think like a test player. Early on leave the wide ball, he just seems incapable of doing that.

[Dr Cricket]

Poor crowd so far at old Trafford, do hope they promoted it better near Manchester since you expect Pakistani fans to come if tickets are available.

[Aidan11]

Good ball by amir.

[hopeforthebest]

What a beauty from Amir, went between bat and pad though. Another Hales failure though.

[hopeforthebest]

Amir seems to have retained all his skills during his suspension. I wonder if he really sat twiddling his thumbs as the suspension required or whether he was keeping his skill levels up in secret somewhere.

[sussexpob]

Its dismissals like that you love to see in test cricket. Mind, they are catching for Amir like they are secretly trying to get him dropped. Hales rather outclassed

[sussexpob]

As for Cook.... his head is still bobbing around like an apple floating in water. Makes you think, is anyone not working on his technique with him. He was even nearly caught out by that Rahit ball on his pads, ends up just getting an edge on a ball he should have lazered to the boundary.

[hopeforthebest]

The number of times I've seen Hales on the Balcony biting his nails vigorously.

[Dr Cricket]

Amir seems to have retained all his skills during his suspension. I wonder if he really sat twiddling his thumbs as the suspension required or whether he was keeping his skill levels up in secret somewhere.

Well he played a lot of club cricket and was in the nets working on his batting quite a lot although that could be because of the crap bowlers he faced.
He played a lot in England, Pakistan and America I think,

[Aidan11]

Good session for England.