I thought it best to start a new thread, to stop the talk of non cricket issues.

So, Ballance?

Will he get a late call?

Anyone but Bairstow
It will be tough to come back, but the Aussies are definitely coming over as too up themselves, fingers crossed they are heading for a fall , if we make it 1-1 they will be shitting it again

Dont you rate Bairstow?

I'm biased when I say I'd like to see Stokes play but I think they'll go with Bairstow.

By today's batting order I'm guessing neither and they'll go Ballance.

I think you might be right.

The way I see it, nothing is decided until stokes bowls tomorrow. That's the thing the lad has the edge on and 4/5 wickets tomorrow and he will be selected. Root bowled way too much, on these pitches we need a 4th seamer who can obviously bat.

All on tomorrow for me

I think it depends on what the wicket looks like at Adelaide if it's really flat they might just might go for Stokes but 6 is too high for him to bat, Ballance is the big favourite to play I'd say though. What Stokes does with ball tonight won't make any difference to the thinking.

So if stokes takes all 10 wickets he wouldn't be selected? Of course what happens tomorrow will influence the decision. Ballance had previous scores of 0 0 4 until this 50 so it defo has relevance.

He's only on the tour as an all rounder, his bowling is better than his batting and we struggled to take wickets once the new ball had done its bit. We certainly need a plan b in attack. If bresnan replaced tremlett that would compensate for stokes at 6 or 7 as you seem to think.

Balance is there as a batsmen simple as that, bairstow is there because if priors form. If it was over here I'd agree with you 100% but on those pitches I can see us going for stokes provided he bowls well tomorrow.

All will be revealed in the morning

I think Stokes does have an outside chance of playing because of the likelihood of the wicket being a flat one but Ballance is still clear favorite to play this replacement is going to bat 6, I can't see them moving up Prior when he's scored 58 runs on the full tour and averaged 16 in First Class c ricket since last winter. Six is a proper batting position in a Test Match, Stokes struggled with the bat in the First Class game last season Ballance career averages nearly 20 more than him, 35 v nearly 54. It's not just down to what happens in a couple of tour matches, especially a pretty pointless two day one which is more of a PR exercise.

England have lost one Test match this year which happened to be the last one, but still one defeat in 2013 against a team who's won one Test in 2013. I can't see England altering the balance of the team after one defeat, it's not as if a four man attack of Anderson, Broad, Bresnan and Swann aren't capable of taking 20 wickets. It's very rare in recent history England have gone with 5 bowlers, and after being bowled out for less than 200 twice it would be a big call to weaken the batting.

Stokes is an all rounder. We wouldn't be going with 5 bowlers.

As I said see what happens tonight

If he's an all rounder then so are Broad and Bresnan. 6 is a specialist batsman's position not a bowling all rounder.

Fuck sake even links change the word.

"What is truly remarkable is that he has achieved these world-best figures while batting at No.3 or 4 and not in the traditional No. 6 spot reserved for all-rounders. Even the great Sir Garfield Sobers only batted at No. 4 for a relatively short period of his Test career".

Anyway that's the bit I was referring to. The guy in question is kallis
but focus on what the South African cricket team think the no 6 spot is. Do they say batsmen or all rounder?? Surely Pj you wouldn't still argue??

It all depends on the pitch but once again I can only give my opinion, Adelaide is gona be like Brisbane and we need a 4th seamer. The only way possible to play a 4th seamer is to play an all rounder and stokes is the only 1 there on the tour.

He didnt take a wicket last night which has probably fucked up his chance but I'd still play him. Root and Swann were smashed allover at Brisbane and this can't happen again. They have doctored the test wickets to suit themselves. It will be flat with no turn and we must select accordingly to suit the pitch.

You are totally missing the point I'm not saying an all rounder can't bat 6 or higher I'm saying Stokes batting isn't quite strong enough to bat 6 yet.

Without his bowling Kallis would have played as many Tests as firstly he is one of the best batsmen in the World.

Why isn't he ready, age, is that your point??

He's 22 and improving, his figures will get better. His 1st class c ricket average is 36. That ain't shit, he has 8 hundreds to his name and a bowling average of 28. They ain't bad figures at all. He took 5 wickets on a 1 Dayer v Australia to prove he can play against these fuckers. At 22 those stats will increase, we desperately need an all rounder in the team now.

Choice is play ballance and let root bowl 20-30 overs or play stokes and let him. When you remember what they did to spin in Brisbane then surely it makes sense to play stokes.

If he wasnt ready he wouldn't be on the tour and that's the bottom line. I really hope your wrong and stokes plays

I'm not saying he isn't ready and haven't. I'd just having reservations about him batting that high when he didn't bat well in 4 day stuff for Durham last year. With Prior so out of form our tail potentially looks long and I think that's why Ballance is favourite to play.

As for being desperate for an all rounder since Flintoff retired we haven't done too badly for a four man attack we've won in Australia for the first time in decades won in India for the first time in decades and been number one in the World. So it would be a big step for them to change the balance of the team after one defeat, I'm not saying they won't but it would be removed from the way they normally think.

So you Havnt said " he isn't ready" but you did say " he isn't quite strong enough"

Can you tell me the difference???

I said neither.

His batting isn't quite at the standard of a Test match number 6 yet , but it has the potential to be in the future. He is very talented though and certainly has the ability to play in a Test Match. You never know England might say we haven't had many runs from number six for a while do we'll take a punt. I am not saying that won't happen but that is the outside bet at the moment.

So if you said neither who wrote this??

Yeah you missed the word 'yet' from the end of that.

It's just what I think I'm not asking you to agree.

Very dry looking pitch apparently so two spinners is being rumoured if that was the case at a guess the team will be;

Cook
Carberry
Root
Pietersen
Bell
Prior
Bresnan
Broad
Swann
Anderson
Panesar

Long looking tail!

why doesn't the swear filter change the word "all-rounder" - we need answers!!!

funniest thin had to be the picture of Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket!!

Does look a long tail indeed if that is the team, the top order batsmen definitely have to deliver this time around

It is. Worrying.

There again, if it turns, then the aussies might be in trouble as well.

I see they are unchanged.

Not sure why they'd go for an overly dry pitch as that's what we prepared all summer and won 3-0.

Maybe they didnt. From what I have heard, the weather has been appalling with extremely strong winds. Strong enough to completely dry the pitch out?

It's a drop in pitch though that has been grown and prepared outside of the ground until a couple of days ago, maybe they haven't had the chance to water it because of the weather I don't know. It could suit England though.

Watch it be green as grass

I reckon the chances of that are close to nil!

The reckon the chances of playing panesar are nil also

Giles Clarke has said he is playing, quite of few of the media think he is (Bumble tweeted it earlier) and after the nets today he was on the outfield with Mustaq Ahmed discussing field placings. Alistair Cook also hinted at it.

I'd say that suggested his chances are slightly higher than nil.

Talksport think he is playing as well.

No turn for around 3 n a half days so aye lets play 2 spinners.

If it was gona turn the Aussies would have selected 2. They have doctored the pitches to suit there strengths which is basically seam as there spinners are shite

No one is saying they want two spinners, its just the majority of the media are suggesting it.

How do you know it isn't going to turn are you there?

The rumours about him playing are from people who are who've seen the wicket.

Maybe the wicket hasn't quite turned out how they wanted to plus they don't have two spinners to pick. Plus why on Earth would they change a winning team!? When push comes to shove and they actually have to decide I still think the most likely team is Ballance for Trott and Bresnan for Tremlett we'll find out in a few hours!

Ballance for trott was 1/20 after stokes didnt take a wicket in the warm up so staying the obvious is pointless. Personally is choose different

As for "are you there" embarrassing comment

Why would they change a winning team?? Have you really just wrote that, again embarrassing. If the wicket was gona spin and they had won 10 games in a row they would still compensate for the turn.

The obsession continues

Eh!?

Fuck me, the first ball hasn't even been bowled yet, they haven't even tossed up, and already you're at each others throats.

Give it a fucking rest.

I just thought it was a decent debate, then Birthmark went nuts.

aahhhhh he's back. I wondered who'd kidnapped the real RB and replaced him with a reasonable fair-minded clone. POK and the real RB back in one week !! All's well with world

I'm not at anyone's throat, I posted what a lot of the media are saying that Panesar will play for some reason Mr Birthmark is being completely dismissive of it. It's not my opinion it is people who are there.

As for giving it a rest that seems a little bit rich from you who's constantly having run ins on here, and posting stuff that is intentionally inflammatory.

Well I'd play Stokes, but what do I know?

See?? I call for peace and you start on me.

'Give it a Fucking rest' is 'calling for peace'

As I say read it back I wasn't at anyone's throat.

As long as Bairstow stays dropped I am happy, lets just hope the useless 'lovely lovely person' doesn't drop the drinks !

Dunno about anyone else but Cook's TV interviews haven't exactly filled me with confidence that the boys are up for giving the Colonials a good thrashing.

I know he sounds half asleep at the best of times, but it's time for some inspirational leadership. Great that Bresnan's back - that team could do with a few more Northern lads!