England squad for Pakistan series

[Aidan11]

Ansari will go. Compton wont.

[SaintPowelly]

Personally think that Liam Dawson is a better option than Ansari, but no chance of that.

[Arthur Crabtree]

They are predicting Ansari will go. This squad is named tomorrow.

Ansari will go as the third spinner, but unlikely the first choice opener.

Yes, that's what they suggest. And they have six pace bowlers in the squad.

[sussexpob]

the way he been bowling in Test so far, it is obvious to see he is a Class bowler.
Shane Warne rates him highly and the guy has hardly seen him.
By the way most of the pitches he bowled in Sri lanka were green seamer, Sri lanka prepared green decks since they were scared of Pakistan spin attack and let be honest Sri lanka current spinners are crap only Herath being any good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2V8rk1t2ck
here all of yasir Shah wickets in Sri lanka.

The pitches dont look green, and clearly spin on offer there.

Whatever you say about a guys quality when he is a spinner who plays only in Asia is pretty redundant. Ashwin has a better record in Asia than Shah....

And we all know what happens to Ashwin when he leaves Asia....

[Arthur Crabtree]

But cricinfo has Lyth on the plane. Both sources have Taylor ahead of Ballance. In fact they only differ on the Lyth/Hales selection.

Hales/Lyth
Cook
Bell
Root
Bairstow
Buttler
Taylor
Moeen
Ansari
Rashid
Stokes
Anderson
Broad
Wood
Finn
Plunkett

[rich1uk]

I would have lyth in front of hales for the UAE , if as we keep getting told that we have to give guys a run then surely he deserves more than 7 tests having been the standout opener in domestic cricket for the last couple of years

also think the lower bounce in the UAE might suit him better

my question would be whether taking him to the UAE basically commits to taking him to SA as any possible replacement wont be playing a lot of cricket in between

[Making_Splinters]

Lyth is an interesting one. His game looks to have completely fallen apart at international level over the summer; he looked unsure where his off stump was, when to play back and when to play forwards, had zero foot movement, unable to work out what to play at and most damningly was completely unable to soak up overs of good bowling instead resorting to playing terrible shots. That said he was back to some scoring ways as soon as he bid fair well to England and returned to Yorkshire. He looked very good in the Royal London semi final.

Hales has been prolific over the last couple of seasons scoring over 1000 runs at 49 last year and is closing in on 1000 runs at 50 this season. If there's a next cab off the rank it has to be him.

The most telling statistic I've seen in a while is that Compton's 9 Tests were the longest any opener has been given since Strauss retired.

[Making_Splinters]

I would have lyth in front of hales for the UAE , if as we keep getting told that we have to give guys a run then surely he deserves more than 7 tests having been the standout opener in domestic cricket for the last couple of years

He hasn't been. He was the stand out player last season.

[rich1uk]

I would have lyth in front of hales for the UAE , if as we keep getting told that we have to give guys a run then surely he deserves more than 7 tests having been the standout opener in domestic cricket for the last couple of years

He hasn't been. He was the stand out player last season.

and that would be because he has hardly played any domestic cricket this season ...

[sussexpob]

That said he was back to some scoring ways as soon as he bid fair well to England and returned to Yorkshire. He looked very good in the Royal London semi final.

Is there any greater indicator that a player has no stomach for international cricket? Taking Lyth to UAE for me is utterly crazy, he didnt just look bad, he failed in every single facet of his job.

Even if he does well there on low bounce wickets (which would also ignore the fact that English batsman have never really done well in Asia against spin, most have better home records), how many tests in South Africa would he get against Steyn and Philander? If Hazlewood and Starc destroyed him, then against good seamers wickets against two guys with averages not that far above 20, what do we expect?

The "we need to give him games" argument is valid, very valid, but should not apply to someone who looked like a tailender being forced to open.

[Making_Splinters]

I would have lyth in front of hales for the UAE , if as we keep getting told that we have to give guys a run then surely he deserves more than 7 tests having been the standout opener in domestic cricket for the last couple of years

He hasn't been. He was the stand out player last season.

and that would be because he has hardly played any domestic cricket this season ...

Point missed. He actually had a pretty poor 2013, averaging mid 30s. Infact, looking at it, he's only ever gone past 1000 runs in the season twice, once in 2010 and again last season.

[Making_Splinters]

That said he was back to some scoring ways as soon as he bid fair well to England and returned to Yorkshire. He looked very good in the Royal London semi final.

Is there any greater indicator that a player has no stomach for international cricket? Taking Lyth to UAE for me is utterly crazy, he didnt just look bad, he failed in every single facet of his job.

Even if he does well there on low bounce wickets (which would also ignore the fact that English batsman have never really done well in Asia against spin, most have better home records), how many tests in South Africa would he get against Steyn and Philander? If Hazlewood and Starc destroyed him, then against good seamers wickets against two guys with averages not that far above 20, what do we expect?

The "we need to give him games" argument is valid, very valid, but should not apply to someone who looked like a tailender being forced to open.

I think it's a tad more complex than simply saying someone doesn't have the "stomach" for it. Lyth didn't play a lot of cricket this season, and it's pretty damn hard to get back into form against two of the best pace test attacks going.

I largely agree with Kimber on Lyth. He possibly has a future for England, but right now he needs some time out of the limelight to get his game back together.

[sussexpob]

He went on tour with the Lions to South Africa, he played for Yorkshire in the MCC game in Dubai, he then played in a two test series vs New Zealand and three county games before the Australia game. So in 2015 before the Ashes series he played 8 games..... Sussex played their 9th FC match of the season during the First test. Not sure you can say playing was an issue, he played from early May basically all the way to July I would guess judging on how many games he played..... how many games does he need to play?

Sorry, whatever excuse you give, averaging 12 in a 5 match series at the start of your career indicates all I need to know about him. He was utterly rubbish, I have literally no positives. I see no reason to continue this experiment.

[sussexpob]

In fact, his performance for the lions (8 matches, best score of 64) is pretty poor also, he didnt even score runs at B level.... average just scrapping into the 30's.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I hope Ansari has been picked (if he has) because he is the best spinner in the CC, not because he bats. Having the best slow bowler in the squad should be a priority for this tour.

I wouldn't mind if Compo returned. He was a victim of the Captain Queeg phase of the latter part of Flower's era. There's unfinished business there. Why not take a couple of openers, plus Cook. I don't think it would be unreasonable for England to rest Bell, but after the response to his implying he might retire, that's unlikely.