Ashes 2013/2014 Thread

Comprehensive hammering,time for a huge rebuild at managerial,captaincy and playing level now.

Thumped, to a degree that is a bit shellshocking to be honest.

A rebuild required. Even the Injuns will be fancying themselves in England next year, and they're dire away from the subc.

Inja looking pretty decent in the first Test against the Saffers. Kohli has always been touted, but to me Pujara looks a boy.

Can't see that seam attack causing many problems, though. That scalp last winter of India away is looking more and more impressive.

Grahame Swann has announced his immediate retirement from all forums of Cricket [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Wonderful spin bowler for England it will be tough finding a replacement for him after this woeful series comes to an end. Could Monty Panesar step up?

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the gobshite is taking on brett lee in the nets today. I gather he will do a little better than our batsmen.

is it me or has brett lee lost his touch? if he bowled them in a match we would be reward runs for no balls  

I'd like to be able to get excited but the Aussies batted like they were already on the beach.

Can't bare to watch it.   

England are doing well dismissed Australia for 204 and are currently 34-0 with and extra 51 runs add due to Australia coming up short in their total.

Took to long to take last wicket

feckin abysmal batting again from England. Lost 3 wickets for one run and then 5 wickets for 6 runs to leave the Aussies with a paltry 231 to win. Then they got to stumps at 30-0 without even the sniff of a wicket.

Meanwhile Alistair Cook becomes the youngest player ever to reach 8000 test runs. Quite some achievement when you consider that Sachin Tendulkar was such an early starter in test cricket.

Scant consolation if the team lose this one to go 4-0 down but it's an amazing feat for Cook personally.

When i stopped watching it was at lunch and England where looking calm and steady and boom back to form what are they serving at lunch there i wonder?

This match like the first one should have been won by England but instead its been handed to Australia in a tuckerbag.

Greenjock wrote:

feckin abysmal batting again from England. Lost 3 wickets for one run and then 5 wickets for 6 runs to leave the Aussies with a paltry 231 to win. Then they got to stumps at 30-0 without even the sniff of a wicket.

Meanwhile Alistair Cook becomes the youngest player ever to reach 8000 test runs. Quite some achievement when you consider that Sachin Tendulkar was such an early starter in test cricket.

Scant consolation if the team lose this one to go 4-0 down but it's an amazing feat for Cook personally.

Great achievement by Cook but he would probably have got there even quicker if not burdened by the captaincy,a facet of the game at which he doesn't excel IMHO-case in point this morning,far too defensive a field for Lyon,edge where third slip should have been and another 35 runs added as a result.Totally unfair to blame him for all of England's failings of course but his chief contribution should be to make a shedload of runs for the next five years or so and leave the hassle and crap involved in captaincy to someone else.

Anyone in mind as a new Captain? There aren't many candidates - you can automatically rule out Carberry, Pieterson, Bairstow, Stokes and Panasar. Its too early for Root, Vice Captain Prior has just been dropped and Anderson is coming towards the end of his career.

That leaves Bell, Broad or Bresnan of which Bell and Bresnan have no Captaincy experience at all. Broad is a possibility. From there you are looking at someone outside the team to almost be a specialist Captain a la Darren Sammy. I don't think the balance of the side will allow us to carry a player who is not top drawer Test class at either batting or bowling.

Jon L wrote:

Anyone in mind as a new Captain? There aren't many candidates - you can automatically rule out Carberry, Pieterson, Bairstow, Stokes and Panasar.  Its too early for Root, Vice Captain Prior has just been dropped and Anderson is coming towards the end of his career.

That leaves Bell, Broad or Bresnan of which Bell and Bresnan have no Captaincy experience at all.  Broad is a possibility.  From there you are looking at someone outside the team to almost be a specialist Captain a la Darren Sammy.  I don't think the balance of the side will allow us to carry a player who is not top drawer Test class at either batting or bowling.

It will either be Bell or Broad not too sure if Bell has experience as a captain but Broad is the twenty20 so he could be number one contender for the position on that ground if and when the time comes.

Pietersen has been captain before and that ended bitterly with Peter Moores being fired so i cant see him having that position back anytime soon.

Unless Cook quits, he will be Captain for a long time yet by which time Joe Root will be ready to take over. The lack of talent in this area is shown up when Chris Woakes is made Captain of the Lions tour. The management like him but he showed in his 1 test that he isn't Test class and now Ben Stokes has emerged he is miles down the pecking order.

ECB has some soul searching to do and tough questions to ask flower and his team as to why this tour has been a clusterfuck from start to finish. The squad too also have to be asked tough questions to get to the bottom of this. I just pray the ECB afterwards make the changes the team/setup needs before the summer test starts so we can start the rebuildng and get back to the side we were.

Fatigue, mental exhaustion, bad luck in the warm ups and shock.

I doubt they have done much different to last tour but back to back Ashes series has taken its toll. The warm ups went all wrong - injuries, weather, form which resulted in the planned team being changed.

Then the pure shock of the force Australia hit them with - pace, bounce, sledging, even the papers etc and they just haven't been able to stop the slide and drag it back. Just like a football side that gets relegated 2 seasons in a row, momentum is funny old thing.

I would add there isn't that much difference between these 2 sides, not as much as 3/4-0 says.

not a lot of difference, just 1 as far as i can WE ARE SHIt

I'm heading back to my winter retreat shortly and will be interested to see how the Aussies get on in the 3 test series in SA. I've got tickets for the 3rd test in Cape Town at the beginning of March and hope I they can be given some stick by my proxy team.

Cricket, like so many sports, is played too much now. No sooner is one tour over than another one starts and it's starting to show that the players can't really cope with the schedule.

The England team have spent around 260 days in hotels in 2013. Whilst I appreciate that is the life of elite sportspeople these days, that is far more than any other sport.

You only have to look at some of the mental health issues in cricket to see that it doesn't help. Cricket is already a game played 80% in the mind.

England are not a bad team, the players are not bad, they are just shot to bits. Some will come back from it, some will be finished forever.

What the hell was Cook thinking when he took that shot!!!! 8-2 in a 318

Andy Flower is to remain in his post the ecb have just announced on talksport just now. I think the axe will fall on Cook after this test he just isnt captain material.

Charlie Wood wrote:

I'm heading back to my winter retreat shortly and will be interested to see how the Aussies get on in the 3 test series in SA. I've got tickets for the 3rd test in Cape Town at the beginning of March and hope I they can be given some stick by my proxy team.

Cricket, like so many sports, is played too much now. No sooner is one tour over than another one starts and it's starting to show that the players can't really cope with the schedule.

TV sports have become the new electronic wallpaper. The picture needs to be refreshed 50 times a second. That's a whole lot of men winning something.

17-4 this is embarrassing and its a totally whitewash. Well done Australia pity we couldnt be arsed to play you.