Australia/England/India Tri Series Jan/Feb 2015

[alfie]

Didn't see a ball. But from commentary and comments on here I assume most people would say England fell away in the middle order despite a wonderful platform and that basically cost them the game. Perhaps the bowling lacked a bit of edge too ?
Whatever : doesn't seem to me to be grounds for despair , sacking the coach , or massive changes. They improved from getting slaughtered last week to losing on the penultimate delivery (and yes I'm aware Australia were not at full strength : still strong though) so that is progress , surely ? At the moment Broad seems to be well short of his best , reasonably enough after coming back from injury , still time ; and Bopara , and arguably Buttler , are not doing much at present , so room for further improvement. Nobody had them as cup winners , and events so far in Australia have if anything improved their profile a bit (Finn back in some form and Morgan having one fine innings under his belt , plus Bell proving a lot of us wrong...)

Well done Smith and Australia. Deservedly cup favourite and will win unless they have a bad day in a knock out. England still doing some things right , some wrong...but still that "puncher's chance" , I reckon.

[rich1uk]

Taylor/Root is a distinctly ordinary combination at three/four.

yeah coz we have so many good options that are actually available to us that can bat at #3 that we can choose to ignore a guy who has a career list A average of 52

he has shown more than enough in the limited chances he has had to suggest he deserves a run in the team

32.12 @ 74.71 is nothing to write home about and he's failed miserably against the only good bowling team he's faced.

and 9 games isn't really a viable sample size ...

[Arthur Crabtree]

Seven games against top eight sides at 38.5 and a SR of 79. It's just a start, but not especially poor.

[KipperJohn]

I do wish the media would at least get basic facts right. Bell hasn't scored his 4 ODI centuries opening. His first came batting at 3 at Southampton against India in 2007. Makes one wonder what else they get wrong.

Of course its a mystery why he hasn't scored more centuries, especially as he has scored 75 or more 14 times, excluding the hundreds.

I tend to regard Bell as bit like fine wine. He has taken a long time to mature but now seems far more relaxed and confident. Perhaps the responsibilities and joy of family, his guaranteed iconic status at Warks and coming to terms with the highs and lows of cricket have played their part.

A self confessed cricket nerd. he stays fit, works on his game and has lost little of that boyish enthusiasm for the game.

MS reckoned he would retire from ODIs after the World Cup - the question is which World Cup? I have always hoped he would become the Jayawerdene of English cricket - it is still faintly possible, if unlikely.

[rich1uk]

Seven games against top eight sides at 38.5 and a SR of 79. It's just a start, but not especially poor.

if people were going to be discarded after just a handful of games with a record like that there would be quite a turnover of players and quite a few great players wouldn't have been heard of

[Robert]

I do wish the media would at least get basic facts right. Bell hasn't scored his 4 ODI centuries opening. His first came batting at 3 at Southampton against India in 2007. Makes one wonder what else they get wrong.

Of course its a mystery why he hasn't scored more centuries, especially as he has scored 75 or more 14 times, excluding the hundreds.

I tend to regard Bell as bit like fine wine. He has taken a long time to mature but now seems far more relaxed and confident. Perhaps the responsibilities and joy of family, his guaranteed iconic status at Warks and coming to terms with the highs and lows of cricket have played their part.

A self confessed cricket nerd. he stays fit, works on his game and has lost little of that boyish enthusiasm for the game.

MS reckoned he would retire from ODIs after the World Cup - the question is which World Cup? I have always hoped he would become the Jayawerdene of English cricket - it is still faintly possible, if unlikely.

Jayawardene? The bloke who's basically built a career on filling his boots on the flattest of subcontinental wickets.

[Slipstream]

What about
1 Ali 2 Bell 3 Taylor 4 Stokes 5 Ballance 6 Morgan 7 Buttler 8 Woakes 9 Broad 10 Finn 11 Anderson

[Arthur Crabtree]

Stokes isn't going to get called up. I don't think he should be given form. Buttler seems too low at seven. He feels like England's best middle order bat, so why not at five? Root is doing ok lately. Some of the team seems to be working, so would you shake it all up just to replace Ravi? The squad is pretty flawed, but best keep on with what is going ok.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I think I was convinced to pick Tredwell on this board. I reckon he should be in. If the pace bowlers were picking up middle over wickets, you might leave JT out. But they aren't, and Tredwell will go for fewer runs.

[rich1uk]

I think I was convinced to pick Tredwell on this board. I reckon he should be in. If the pace bowlers were picking up middle over wickets, you might leave JT out. But they aren't, and Tredwell will go for fewer runs.

the only person you could realistically replace with tredwell is broad , otherwise you end up with an extremely long tail, finn isn't going to get dropped after the last couple of games

[Arthur Crabtree]

Not sure both Broad and Finn need to be in the side unless playing at Perth or Brisbane?

[meninblue]

It will be interesting to see what effect the rare 100 and a big one has on Bell in terms of confidence and taking his form. His 187 was written off saying it came against club level opponents. Then the 0 in the first match and more reasons came why he scored 187 in warmup and why he failed in first Triseries match. Hope this 140+ is atleast considered against a good opponent

Disappointing overall as team though. They were in long bad patch and got a win against us, but then that win seems to be the odd good innings after the prolonged bad patch. They need a lot of continutiy in wins (atleast 4 continous wins which if happens is almost a series win) to prove they have got rid of bad patch sonwhat as a team.

[meninblue]

Some first choice Aussie players might go to play the Big Bash knockouts and miss the match against us.

[GarlicJam]

Some first choice Aussie players might go to play the Big Bash knockouts and miss the match against us.

That's not how Aus cricket has ever worked. I know that this is a new age, and T20 is a big thing, but in Aus, the raison d'etre of the state teams has been to provide for the national side. National considerations come 1st, 2nd 3rd and 4th.

[hopeforthebest]

A straight swap of Tredwell for Bopara is an option. Recently with the bat Tredwell has averaged 24 v India and !7 v SL, add to the fact that he's a fine slip fielder and with Bopara so out of form he's a decent option.