The Ashes 2015.

faiz0

Glenn McGrath on modern day batting:

"When Australia play cricket in India its very one sided and vice versa. Batsmen learn to play in particular conditions and learn to adapt. Wickets used to vary from ground to ground. These days wickets are all the same and players are not challenged. They can't adapt when they play in other countries in different conditions. At the end of the day that is the difference between a good player and a great player - the ability to adapt."

JimmyMac

bit of a batting collapse from us this morning, cheap wickets going, think the lead is already pretty healthy though

pandemic

Decent recovery from Ali and Broad, was not expecting a 400 run innings earlier. Both have decent batting averages for 9/10.

cR4cKF0x 5TevE

He has been done by some good bowling as well as poor shot selection as a result of pressure.  Think back to how bad Bell was in his first Ashes series (2005), and look at him now.

A few of the English media said Hashim Amla was nowhere near test class in his debut series against England, he has proved a few wrong to say the least.

The gap in class between county and test cricket is huge: you need to give people time to adjust.  Its easier for bowlers: they get a second chance, batsman don't.

JimmyMac

Another low score, early reports are that Root will replace Smith as the worlds number 1 batsman after this test

faiz0

Root is easily the better of the two. Amla, de Villiers too. Proper test batsmen in all conditions, unlike Smith.

cR4cKF0x 5TevE

Smith hasn't tightened up his technique to counter the moving ball.  He is capable of destroying attacks on true and quick pitches but 'goes at' the ball far too hard for English conditions.
The Aussies have made some strange selection decisions this summer, but dropping Mitchell Marsh was a real mistake.  I would have been tempted to bring back Haddin as a specialist batsman ahead of Shaun Marsh.
Are we witnessing the end of the careers of Clarke, Haddin, Rogers (who I think has already announced his retirement) and Watson?  Maybe Mitchell Johnson will become a short format specialist as well?

faiz0

Big rebuilding job on the cards for them. The bowling has enough depth, there doesn't seem to be many batsmen coming through though.

faiz0

Great series win for England. Best thing about it was they weren't a one man team, virtually every player has made an important contribution somewhere along the line.

Derek S-H

Barely into Day 3 and it's all over - not exactly the see-sawing, heart-stopping, thrilling Series I was hoping for.

I guess that only leaves South Africa as the current international side that can succeed home or away, though New Zealand were an absolute revelation and deserved more than the recent two Tests.

The Oval? A classic batting strip where both sides should make decent scores, unless the Aussies' confidence has been completely shot to pieces, of course.