England

England’s batsmen give the bowlers a rest

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Ian Bell was the only batsman not to be toss today. He said:

“We all know we have to get better at playing in the subcontinent. It’s a long-term goal and it isn’t going to just happen overnight.”

This is a shame, because England will almost certainly be batting again tomorrow. After that, they’ll be halfway through the series and most likely unable to win it. If they can’t improve overnight, they could certainly do with improving before next week.

On the plus side, England’s batsmen have been giving all the bowlers a rest. They’ve given Sri Lanka’s bowlers a rest, obviously, by only keeping them in the field for three quarters of an hour, but they’ll also be giving the England bowlers a rest by contriving to lose the first Test inside three days. That’s like getting a bonus weekend. Who wouldn’t want that?

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7 comments

  1. The Sri Lankan batsmen seem to be doing it too. There must have been a memo circulated, which Mahela missed before he came to bat in the first innings.

    There’s an evil genius at work. My bet is on Samit Patel.

  2. The best you can say about the top order is they faced a few more deliveries than the tail (although they only scored half as many runs).
    The depressing part is this is more or less the same team that thrashed us in the ashes.

  3. It’s a shame that, while they are still cubs, very few of our players go to the subcontinent and learn a vital part of their trade out there during the winters.

    Once they become international players, they just get the occasional tour out there at the very highest level.

    By the time they wake up to the fact that it is kinda different and they’ll need to adapt their game, the tour is over and it’s years before they get another chance to “practice” – again mostly in the very matches they are supposed to be practicing for.

    This has gone on for decades but no-one in authority seems to have worked out the obvious thing to do – organise a lot of winter cricket on the subcontinent for our young hopefuls as they come through.

    It isn’t rocket science.

  4. Why do sub-continental players come to county cricket to learn to play the moving ball, but English players never go to Asia to learn to play the turning ball?

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