4th Test England v Pakistan, The Oval, Aug 11-15

[Dr Cricket]

Telegraph don't paint a good picture for the management or the players.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2016 ... -pakistan/

[The Professor]

Never mind best....are England and Pakistan the most exciting teams in Test cricket?

[Dr Cricket]

TBH pakistan don't meet that criteria, batting is quite poor and timid and bowling quite defensive.
England 50-50 since they do have a lot of attacking players but do have 2 dud in the bat that are boring to watch and at the moment they not playing much attacking cricket and probably need a fast paced deck to be an entertaining side.

in terms of entertainment Australia are the clear number 1, the rest for me are all the same now.
NZ were quite good to watch with McCullum but since he gone they moved down again.

[Dr Cricket]

Assuming we basing this on attractive batsman, fast scoring and Attacking bowling.

[backfootpunch]

Never mind best....are England and Pakistan the most exciting teams in Test cricket?

Misbah is the most defensive captain in world cricket

[Dr Cricket]

Never mind best....are England and Pakistan the most exciting teams in Test cricket?

Misbah is the most defensive captain in world cricket

yep also doesn't help they play most of their cricket in the UAE which are by far the slowest decks in the world.

[backfootpunch]

For all the talk of pakistan having an vulnerable batting they still took the lead in 3 test out of 4, that probably shows how poor or vulnerable england batting line up been really.

Our top order has been appalling for at least 18 months

Probably longer

[backfootpunch]

Iftikhar will get a few short balls in his career if that's how he plays them

Fair play to younus, must be one of the most underrated batsmen ever

His hundreds to innings ratio is off the charts

[Dr Cricket]

For all the talk of pakistan having an vulnerable batting they still took the lead in 3 test out of 4, that probably shows how poor or vulnerable england batting line up been really.

Our top order has been appalling for at least 18 months

Probably longer

quite hard to understand how the batting failed this summer or this series since barring a few deliveries/spells pakistan bowling been ordinary and quite easy to score runs off and pitches been quite flat.
pakistan were probably expecting far more help for the pace men and would have thought they would be winning this series if you told them you got the lead 3 times out of 4 last month.
pakistan bowling been very poor however.

[backfootpunch]

For all the talk of pakistan having an vulnerable batting they still took the lead in 3 test out of 4, that probably shows how poor or vulnerable england batting line up been really.

Our top order has been appalling for at least 18 months

Probably longer

quite hard to understand how the batting failed this summer or this series since barring a few deliveries/spells pakistan bowling been ordinary and quite easy to score runs off and pitches been quite flat.
pakistan were probably expecting far more help for the pace men and would have thought they would be winning this series if you told them you got the lead 3 times out of 4 last month.
pakistan bowling been very poor however.

They are being too aggressive

Not leaving the ball enough

Playing one day shots

Pakistan have been terrible with the new ball in every innings yet we are always 70-3 anyway

[backfootpunch]

Root in particular has been very dissapointing

He has to be disciplined like he was in the big hundred not wafting at balls outside off stump as we rely on him a lot

As our best player by miles he can't keep giving his wicket away

[Arthur Crabtree]

Two of the top three are averaging over 69 though, with centuries and two/three other scores of fifty-plus (each). Passing 50 every three innings is standard for a good batter (the Don passed 100 every three innings!). Root has 3/7 in the series, Cook 4/7.

Surely 4+5 are the problem? These are key batting positions where the bulk of runs are normally scored.

6-8 have been fine too.

Agree about Younis. Feels like he had a bigger reputation ten years ago. Apparently averages 40+ against everyone, and 50+ playing away.

[Dr Cricket]

england batting been awful since maybe 2013.
doesn't help at the moment only Root/bairstow are a solid option and trustworthy with cook being 50-50.
at the moment cook is a tough one since he always finds a way of scoring runs but it should be noted that if teams bowl full and wide at him he can be kept quiet and will eventually get out when cook get bored.
a very solid batsman but you think you can tame him or control him, if I was the opposition captain or a bowler I would be confident of troubling cook or getting him out.
basically he a circus lion if that makes sense.

[Dr Cricket]

reading the press it seem that it is certain ali being promoted to the top 6 for india and likely to keep it for the next summer if he does well with the bat.
not sure what happen with stokes though if he stays in the top 7.

[Dr Cricket]

Arthur the averages are good but in terms of wicket fallen in the series they been falling in bunches at the beginning doesn't help barring one innings cook/Root haven't scored runs together so if one scores the other fails add in Hales failures, vince and ballance and then 110/5 been very common occurrence.
Sometimes Averages are misleading in series outlooks with partnerships telling the full picture since hundreds or 50s can mask the failings.
not too many hundreds run partnership in the top order for england.