Stokes arrives in NZ on Friday but I doubt if he'll be ready to play in the next match.

comment by Blue Heaven (U20912)
posted 12 minutes ago
Stokes arrives in NZ on Friday but I doubt if he'll be ready to play in the next match.
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I’m well stoked about that.

I did wonder why it wasn't on bt this morning. Back on sky.

Ridiculous chase by the Aussies to chase 243 in a T20. However having said that the ground was a joke. My backyard is the same size as that ground. Bowlers had no chance.

Both openers failed again and both caught just outside the circle again.. Will this be the end of Roy in 20/20? You know his average of 18. Is that not poor enough? does it really matter? Probably not.

England bowlers getting a bit of a tonking at the moment.

The bowling is garbage

Buttler fails once again. One of the most overrated batsman out there.

thank god we are out of this, had a horror show!

comment by (Kash) I'm the Mané, I'm the Mané - Justice4Gaza (U1108)
posted 1 day, 2 hours ago
Buttler fails once again. One of the most overrated batsman out there.
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Not sure that's fair, he's rated highly as a destructive batsman in one day cricket which he is.

It's been a poor series from England considering their batting line up is full of power hitters. The batting let them down a lot despite the poor bowling line up. Only Rashid consistently delivered and he will continue to do so for England as he is now focusing on just "white ball" cricket. I wonder if Plunkett will do the same as both seemingly aren't going to get into the test team any time soon.

Morgan needed that knock to be honest, agree with Buttler, I rate him but he's struggled at times with the white ball down under.

I like Malan, top class batsman

Buttler is more your icing on the cake type of player. When England really need him he doesn't deliver.

Craig Overton has been called up to the ODI squad to replace the injured Plunkett.

comment by (Kash) I'm the Mané, I'm the Mané - Justice4Gaza (U1108)
posted 1 hour, 22 minutes ago
Buttler is more your icing on the cake type of player. When England really need him he doesn't deliver.
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Nonsense. Buttler has delivered for England and his highest scores usually come when we're struggling to set a decent target. He's won 8 man of the match awards in 104 ODIs and that's not going to be down to what he did behind the stumps.

He's not going to score consistently like Root does but he's got the ability and the nerve to score quickly at the end of an innings against death ball bowling.

Alex Hales has disappointed me, Jason Roy has been in and out, reminds me of Warners form

I would open with butler in the T20 side. Drop Hales been poor. Root, stokes, woakes and moeen will strengthen the side.

So Hales follows in Rashid's footsteps. After Rashid announced he would only play white ball cricket in 2018, Hales has signed a deal with Notts to only play white ball cricket until the end of the 2019 season. It wouldn't surprise me if a few more follow suit; Morgan, Buttler and Plunkett wouldn't be huge surprises.

Hales wont be a massive loss. he doesn't have the ability to play test cricket so no point playing domestic first class. and I think with Rashid not really in the picture test wise.. (think they will stick with Moeen for the summer) so he may as well play odi as well.

Whilst Hales nor Rashid will be huge losses for the England test side, though some made claims for both to be included. I think it's disappointing that they won't be playing first class cricket. They're still decent players and shouldn't really be closing the door / having the door closed on their test careers.

It's also better for the county game to have top players playing. Whilst there isn't that much appetite for first class cricket in comparison to the limited overs stuff if you look at attendances etc, decisions like this just bury it further. They should be looking at ways to improve it and I don't see how this does.

comes down to money they will get more for a shorter period of time.

True, it does feel like there's a mercenary element to it but they can play a fair few T20 tournaments around the world that go on outside of the county season. The ECB have also been pretty laid back on allowing players to feature for the whole IPL too. The CPL tends to go on around the time of the T20 Blast tournament here in England as well so I'm not sure how much extra white ball cricket he will play.

He was reinventing himself as a middle order blaster anyway so he didn't have to change his approach or technique too much.

Anyway, it's been done and I suspect he won't be the last to do it. If it improves him in that format then that can only be good news for the England one day side who I'm sure are desperate to win the next world cup.

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

I can blame Rashid he has the personality of a gnome
we want players who actually celebrate when we win. Not a person that has his mind elsewhere.

There's no doubt Rashid should have been selected in the Ashes squad over Crane. If the ECB have made it clear that they're looking to the future now and Rashid is unlikely to picked for England again in the test arena then you can understand his decision.

Whether Yorkshire have a young spinner who will now benefit from this remains to be seen. With Hales not in the side for Notts, it is a great opportunity for someone like Billy Root to come in and he looks a decent talent although I didn't realise he's already 25, I thought he was like 21/22. If he can have a good season in the middle order for Notts then it wouldn't surprise me if England take a look at him.

Anyway, on topic with the series, Australia won this at absolute ease today. It was a pretty lame tournament from England and New Zealand, hopefully they'll put on a better show in the tests.