You have said Aus bowlers are better than Ind bowlers last summer, but still they have lost the series. Since Aus batsman didn’t score enough runs, I understand bowlers needed to win test matches, but still batsman need to support and this England batting lineup is horrible.
It would be great if you could do a podcast on this!!!
Very interesting and intriguing take. But it also seems true that their batting has fundamentally serious problems which were exacerbated and ruthlessly exposed by India’s and Australia’s top dog attacks.
Thinking again, I can see the class of 2010-2011 struggling to do much better against this Ozzie attack to be honest. They give you precious little to work with. India won in 2021 because we had worked out how to nail 20 wickets better than any previous Indian Test side in history. Kohli gets some of the plaudits and deservedly so but the bowlers had to buy into the plans and work it out themselves. Planning is one thing, execution quite another.
I think this attack is almost as good and actually, even deeper than the McGrath-Warne era. While Lyon is very very good, Warne was a palpably greater bowler.
Great attacks are harder to score against and harder to survive against. It would be odd if this didn't show up in the scorecards.
Besides, the point is not that ENG's batting doesn't have flaws. All batting line ups have flaws. Its that fixing the flaws is not going to make them more competitive against this AUS which has this attack.
Warne was unquestionably a better spinner than Lyon (he was a wrist spinner, for one thing, and a truly great one). But the fast bowling of the current AUS side is significantly deeper than anything in the McGrath era.
You have said Aus bowlers are better than Ind bowlers last summer, but still they have lost the series. Since Aus batsman didn’t score enough runs, I understand bowlers needed to win test matches, but still batsman need to support and this England batting lineup is horrible.
It would be great if you could do a podcast on this!!!
India won a narrow victory. A narrow defeat for IND would have been an equally reasonable result given the balance of chances created by each team. (https://cricketingview.substack.com/p/india-were-lucky-in-australia)
This ENG line up is fine. Its quality is not independent of what circumstances it is asked to bat in.
Very interesting and intriguing take. But it also seems true that their batting has fundamentally serious problems which were exacerbated and ruthlessly exposed by India’s and Australia’s top dog attacks.
Thinking again, I can see the class of 2010-2011 struggling to do much better against this Ozzie attack to be honest. They give you precious little to work with. India won in 2021 because we had worked out how to nail 20 wickets better than any previous Indian Test side in history. Kohli gets some of the plaudits and deservedly so but the bowlers had to buy into the plans and work it out themselves. Planning is one thing, execution quite another.
I think this attack is almost as good and actually, even deeper than the McGrath-Warne era. While Lyon is very very good, Warne was a palpably greater bowler.
Great attacks are harder to score against and harder to survive against. It would be odd if this didn't show up in the scorecards.
Besides, the point is not that ENG's batting doesn't have flaws. All batting line ups have flaws. Its that fixing the flaws is not going to make them more competitive against this AUS which has this attack.
Warne was unquestionably a better spinner than Lyon (he was a wrist spinner, for one thing, and a truly great one). But the fast bowling of the current AUS side is significantly deeper than anything in the McGrath era.
Before I forget, great piece though. It really made me think.