comment by The Welsh Xavi (U15412)
posted 17 minutes ago
Good and bad signs from the intra-squad game so far.

Team Root finished 184/2.
Root 74*
Lawrence 46*
Crawley 46

Team Buttler is currently 31/4
S Curran 10
Bairstow 5
Sibley 1
Buttler 0

2 wickets each for Robinson and Anderson.
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Jonny backing up his words there with a strong performance

I'm really worried he's going to get a big score against SL and then the selectors use it as justification to keep him in the team

Obviously. His series figures will read

1
14
186
0

And he'll be on the plane to India

Oh, and the 186 will probably come after he does terribly in his first two innings and is dropped to 7 and is inexplicably given the WK gloves, with Moeen equally inexplicably being promoted to 3 (where he of course does terribly too)

Scorecard and highlights from the warm-up:

https://www.ecb.co.uk/england/men/news/1968156/highlights-scorecard-england-intra-squad-warm-up

Good to see Pope back

Bairstow at his best was better than Prior at his best but Prior played at a consistently high level throughout his career. If he can get anywhere near that level than he'll be an asset to the England test team. Unfortunately his role change in the shorter forms means that is just extremely unlikely to happen.

Do what Rashid is doing and stick to white ball cricket now, it's where you're at your best.

Team Root finished 184/2.
Root 74*
Lawrence 46*
Crawley 46

Team Buttler is currently 31/4
S Curran 10
Bairstow 5
Sibley 1
Buttler 0



Those in team Root play. Wouldnt play/pick 3 of those in team Buttler

Sounds like Lawrence will bat at 5. So presumably that means

Sibley
Crawley
Bairstow (sigh)
Root
Lawrence
Buttler
Woakes/Curran
Bess
Stone/Wood
Leach
Anderson/Broad




Definitely a bat short considering Bairstow is gash and Lawrence is untested. I just don't know what Ben Foakes has to do to get a game. I'd have him at 3 ahead of Bairstow in a heartbeat.

We'll see.

I really don't get why we've taken so few batsman. Maybe it's due to not wanting to put players in a covid bubble if they're not going to play, but there surely must have been 1/2 players who could benefit from the experience.

I also have no idea why we're shuffling our top order to accommodate Bairstow in Burns absence, instead of just calling up another opener.

I'd rather they just called up Jennings so Crawley could stay at 3 given it's in SL where he's actually decent.

The incredible thing is there are no batsmen in the reserve list either. If you try and pick an XI for the first test, you've got a huge list of bowlers to choose from and they even include the reserve list. When trying to pick your top 6, you can literally only choose from the 4 bats/3 keepers and one player is available for all 6 positions in the drop down options... Bairstow!

Is Stokes being rested?

Stokes is on compassionate leave I think, cos his dad died. He might have been due a rest anyway tbf

Moeen to miss whole series

I don't like Moeen as a player, but crikey - that's rough on the poor bloke, being stuck out there on his tod for weeks on end. I don't know if he's able to fly home - unsure how the Sri Lankan government is treating outbound flights when he's no longer COVID-positive. Although kudos to them for at least taking quarantine rules very seriously...

That's unfortunate for Moeen and although I don't rate him too highly, he's still a pretty decent spinner and had a huge role to play the last time we won in Sri Lanka. He's also a very likable character with the rest of the team so that will be a bit of a downer for them too.

At least there are plenty of spinners in reserves and I imagine Parkinson would be the first one they'd turn to especially as a leg spinner. However it would be great to see Amar Virdi, he looks the real deal.

Heard Lawrence at 5, whats the rumoured XI?

3 seamers with Leach and Bess has been confirmed. Crawley opening the batting with Sibley has also been confirmed.

I believe Woakes is likely to miss out because although he had a negative test, he came into close contact so is self isolating so they probably won't take the risk.

On that basis, I'd expect Curran to play as 7 feels too high for anyone else and he offers left arm variation. You'd expect Wood to play over Stone to bring the pace and then maybe Broad based on how he bowled in the summer.

If England were smart, they'd give Foakes the gloves and leave Bairstow out but I assume we'll go Sibley, Crawley, Bairstow, Root, Lawrence, Buttler, Curran, Bess, Wood, Leach, Broad

Need a wicket.

Would play one of Parkinson or virdi and go 3 spin bowlers. Last time out there the seamers barely bowled.

Anyone waking up early(ish) for the match?

Hoping to catch the start of the 2nd session

Wow, unexpected score to wake up to with Sri Lanka winning the toss and choosing to bat. Need to finish them off and not let them get to a decent score now.

Great start

Shame they didn’t give Olly Stone a go though

And yes Bairstow once again. It’s like we’re incapable of just moving on from players who are clearly past their best.

100 (Need a wicket)