BUMBLE AT THE TEST
BATSMEN NOT AT RACES
JUST 25 deliveries were needed by Pakistan to take those last four wickets, leaving England totally dejected. They just haven’t been at the races in this Test. There can be no hiding place. There’s something fundamentally wrong. It’s not the bowlers either. They kept Pakistan down to par. It’s woeful batting…
BACK TO BASICS
IT’S all very well saying England’s batsmen are a talented bunch. The bottom line is you have to score runs. If I were the coach now I would be forever on tenterhooks because they just look like they’re going to get out. It’s basic stuff too. Like a propensity to play back when they should be forward. England look in a haze.
HONEYMOON FROM HELL
NEW national selector Ed Smith’s honeymoon period is over after just one match. What can he come up with before the second Test at Headingley on Friday? Smith (right) is a very worthy man but he’s all of a sudden got a lot on his plate. I can tell him and you, there’s nobody knocking that door down…
FLOWER SOWS SEEDS
WE haven’t heard from Andy Flower for ages but he made significant comments on Friday after stepping in for Andrew Strauss. He said we need to look at county cricket and when it is played. Virtually all the Championship games are at the beginning or end of the season! It’s no preparation for international
cricket.
THE THIN BLUE LINE
THE finger will start to point at Trevor Bayliss (right) just as at one stage many years ago it pointed at David Lloyd. But Trevor doesn’t play, just like I didn’t when I was coach. You can talk until you’re blue in the face but you can’t actually go out there and do it for them. I wish you could.
CRYING GAME
I WATCHED the Champions League final on Saturday and it reminded me so much of that Rolling Stones classic Start Me
Up. As the lyric goes, you make a grown man cry. First it was Mo Salah and then it was the goalie. People might feel sorry for him but it’s the people back in Liverpool I feel for.
PAT ON BACK FOR JENNINGS
MARK STONEMAN has averaged 14 this summer and that tells you he hasn’t been playing well. Test cricket is white hot and he’s struggling. Both Keaton Jennings (right) and Nick Gubbins will come into the frame now. I’ve seen Jennings at Lancashire this year and he’s in good nick. His confidence is back.