For once I find myself agreeing with locky.
Seriously-get over it.
You did not thrash us. Three more runs at Edgbaston and we won the trophy. Unlike the previous series back to the mid 80s which we did thrash you. And we will again.
nadera78 said:
Can anyone seriously name a better skipper than Vaughan? Anyone? No, didn't think so.
Stephen Fleming's one. I think there's a few more floating around who give him a run as well.
nadera78 said:
And Simon Jones had his operation a while back, saw him on the telly a week ago, on crutches. He reckons he'll be back so if you don't mind I'll listen to him not you.
From cricinfo:
Simon Jones is likely to miss this winter's Ashes after undergoing keyhole surgery on his left knee. The ECB confirmed that he is likely to need at least five months' recuperation from the operation which was performed in Colorado by the surgeon Richard Steadman.
That was mid-june. So you're telling me that you're going to put a man in a test match in November who won't even be fit untill the end of October? I really hope he does play if that's the case! Even that pie-thrower Plunkett would be better than a bloke whose been on crutches for 5 months.
nadera78 said:
Team will be (assuming no more injuries)
Trescothick, Strauss, Cook, Petersen, Collingwood, Flintoff, G.Jones, Hoggard, S.Jones, Harmison, Panesar.
Reserves; James Anderson (seamer), Liam Plunkett (seamer), Chris Read (wickie), Joathan Trott (another devastating south african batsman) and Ed Joyce (stylish left hand batsman).
My God. If that's the squad then you have...4 blokes who are actually from International cricket playing countries other than England. To be fair, none of them would have had a hope in hell of playing for their own countries (bar Pietersen maybe) oh and Joyce, who has actually represented Ireland in their pre-ODI days!
nadera78 said:
More than good enough to deal with you lot.
OK lets do a squad comparisom then:
Hayden (bat 7326 @ 53.08) vs. Trescothick (5690 @ 45.14)
This is a close one. Hayden who's down on form vs. the most technically incorrect batsman on Earth. The fact that Hayden has more than 1600 more runs in only 12 more tests though says something though.
Goine with Hayden there.
Langer (7393 @ 45.35) vs. Strauss (2153 @ 43.93)
Both great batsmen, however, Langer represents the country he was actually born in, so Strauss is disqualified.
Ponting (8792 @ 58.22) vs. Cook (358 @ 51.34)
lol. the best batsman in the world vs. a 21 year old who's played 5 tests. Show me his average at the end of February.
Martyn (4361 @ 47.40) vs. Pietersen (1250 @ 48.07)
Two batsman who rarely perform when the game is on the line. Hell even Pietersen needed to be dropped 486 times off Warney at the Oval last year to save the day. I nearly gave this one to Pietersen-But then I remembered he was disqualified on the same grounds as Strauss.
Hussey (1139 @ 75.93) vs. Collingwood (703 @ 37)
lol.
Clarke (1123 @ 36.22) [bowl 8 @ 9.37] vs Flintoff (3128 @ 32.91) [186 @ 31.32]
Clarke's an all-rounder isn't he? He has a better average and best bowling than Flintoff, and a better average with the bat? OK not really a fair comparisom, and Flintoff's a better player on the whole, but the only like-for-like player I could match Flintoff against would be Watson...And that really is embarassing, and I doubt he'll play a part anyway.
Gilchrist (5124 @ 48.8) {ct/st 320/35} vs. G.Jones (1067 @ 26.67) {108/4}
Bahahahahaha. This is more of a laugh than Ponting vs. Cook. Jones is easially the worst test keeper in the world. In anycase, he'd miss out for the same reason that Strauss and Pietersen do.
Lee [211 @ 31.45] vs. Hoggard [212 @ 28.03]
Very even here. They've even played almost the same amount of tests (Hoggard has 3 more) and on the strength of it, you'd probably have to give the money to Hoggard here. However if there's no cloud cover, expect him to be as useless as the last time he was here.
Gillespie [259 @ 26.13] vs. Jones [59 @ 28.23]
Jones is, at the moment, a better bowler than Gillespie. Wait no he's not, he's in a wheelchair, which is where he'll be come ball one of the first test in Brisbane. And he doesn't have a test 200 either.
Warne [685 @ 25.25] vs. Panesar [15 @ 34.8]
Laughing.......too.......hard......to.......type.......
McGrath [542 @ 21.55] vs. Harmison [159 @ 29.02]
Harmison's handy, but McGrath is the greatest. Easially. And that's only if Harmison doesnt have a cry about being overseas and go home.
Now lets evaluate your reserves:
Anderson [41 @ 33].
You are kidding right? He's played 2 tests in 2 years.
Plunkett [14 @ 34].
And he was averaging above 40 until his most recent test. I hope he plays!!!
Read (199 @ 15.31) {31/4}.
Amazingly these figures are from 11 tests. For a keeper/
batsman. Was he even at the ground?
Trott |yet to debut|.
He's not even listed on cricinfo as a pommie, he's a South African-how can you have claimed him already? Gone for the same reasons as Strauss, Pietersen and Jones.
Joyce |yet to debut|.
His BROTHER plays for Ireland ffs. Like he used to. How can you claim him? Disqualified for....ah hell you know why.
Compare to our reserves, Kasprowicz [113 @ 32], Katich (1260 @ 36), MacGill [198 @ 27], Clark [21 @ 18], Hodge [409 @ 58], Haddin |yet to debut|.
You'll note there's one thing in common with the Aussie reserves-They're a million bajillion times better than the Pommie ones.
In short: 4-0 to us, or, if it doesn't rain, 5-blot.
