West Ham Online

1st Test June 20-24 @ Headingley
England team : Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Jamie Smith, Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse, Josh Tongue, Shoaib Bashir.

No Bethell & various fast bowlers .. Atkinson, Wood, Archer unavailable

India lose Kohli and Rohit Sharma to retirement after the debacle in Australia

I'd bin Bethell and take James Rew, even if he doesn't keep wicket he's gotta be better as a specialist batsman.

fraser wrote: ↑04 Aug 2025, 12:10

onsideman wrote: ↑04 Aug 2025, 12:03

fraser wrote: ↑04 Aug 2025, 11:31 Nah just the pressure getting to them I reckon 

 

Even the one he gave that would've missed another set of stumps?

That would be a skinny set of stumps, it wasn't that wide but yeah definitely poor. 

Fucking useless especially after that top order of Brook and Root got them back in it.

Must admit from an Ashes point of view I was watching Bethel & Smith closely last night
Hmmmm 

Bethel and Smith threw the series away

The game seemed to change when Bethell came out, he looked woefully out of touch and nervous. He faced about 40 balls and got 5 and his nerves just seemed to transfer to everyone else.

onsideman wrote: ↑04 Aug 2025, 12:03

fraser wrote: ↑04 Aug 2025, 11:31 Nah just the pressure getting to them I reckon 

 

Even the one he gave that would've missed another set of stumps?

Hopefully that's the last we see of that fat prick Overton in the red ball test arena.

He is just a bang average county player.

The jury is also out on Bethell, he needs to be playing rather than carrying the drinks out. As soon as England announce their 11 he should have gone back and played a county match.

An incredible hour of sporting theatre this morning though. Fair play

fraser wrote: ↑04 Aug 2025, 11:31 Nah just the pressure getting to them I reckon 

 

Bethel should never play for England again. The way the twat threw away his wicket was total incompetence. However hats off to India especially Siraj. They have entertained throughout.

Great series
2-2 about right
Stupendous effort from Siraj, he has really stepped up from 3rd seamer previously 

Absolute theatre.
Well done India, fantastic spirit and more than played their part in a cracking series.

Smith shat himself last night and did the same this morning. You can overlook the fact he's not the best glovesman if he's getting 50s and 60s but of not his keeping isn't good enough

Well played India, amazing how it changed after tea yesterday. Oh and yeah Smith completely bottled it a rabbit in the headlights. 

What a match and what a series!
Well played everyone.

Woakes going out to bat one handed to save the test is absolute theater.

He shouldn't even need to be in that situation though, the moronic Bazball prick Brooks threw his wicket away and Smith bottled it this morning (I thought we binned off Foakes for Smith because the former supposedly can't bat with the tail?)

Holy shit. Superb ball from Krishna.
Out comes Chris Woakes.

Nah just the pressure getting to them I reckon 

Borderline cheating from these umpires 

Another awful decision and cost a run

So tight this, that lbw he changed his mind I think... Not a great decision... 

Brook averages not far short of 60 playing the way he does, he's the one player you just give license to do what he wants.

Crawley & Pope, on the other hand, shouldn't be anywhere near getting in the team, it's unfathomable how these pair of chancers get away with it. Crawley has scored 290 runs in 9 innings, Pope 306 in 9 innings, at 1 & 3 in the order, easily the worst performing batsmen on both sides. Pope has a century included in those figures, take that away, 200 runs in 8 innings, I won't go on about his ridiculous selfish review of the plumbest of plumb LBW shouts you'll ever see. The only way he should be near the team is batting 6/7 and take the gloves.

This is to go with absolutely appalling form for both prior to this series. I don't give a fuck what either does in Australia, we're sacrificing series after series in the hope that they might do well out there, it's a disgrace. The real shame is, had we picked the right team for this series, we could've gone out and walloped the Aussies, as their batting line up is laughable. Too late now.  This coupled with carrying Ben Stokes in the batting line up, who take out his 1 admittedly brilliant innings of 140, had another absolute shocker with the bat, not reaching 50 any other time.

If we weren't carrying those 2, we'd have won this series at a canter.

Not sure you can have it both ways
If he is going to play in an aggressive albeit risky way to score a run a ball century to turn the game then sometimes he is going to get out to shot that doesn’t look the best

Interesting to see how many people get along on a Monday morning to see maybe an hours cricket
 

Percy.

Yep, as good as Brook is there are times when his decision making/shot selection are plain irresponsible and costly.