Hopefully his defense can be mistaken identity and they ban Plunkett !

Seriously though our bowling will be up shit creek without him, and don't get me started about Kerrigan !

He's knackered and needs a rest. The ECB are launching a counter-claim anyway so Anderson will probably play in the next two tests at least.

Our fast bowling cupboard is bare though sadly, a few years back we had Finn and Tremlett in good form, and Bresnan chomping at the bit

Sadly we are now stuck with journeymen chuckers like Plunkett so can't give Amderson a rest

I think Plunkett is doing well considering what he's being asked to do

I genuinely feel sorry for your fingers.

Nelson Mandela had to put up with less repetition on a daily basis than your fingers whilst on Robben Island.

Do they ever go into spasm and make you post stuff like 'Baines Bairstow Plunkett Plunkett Plunkett help me help help me Baines Baines Bairstow kill me?'

It must be a bugger when you have to edit a couple of words to form one of your posts when that happens.

They should bring back Bairstow

Seriously - what's with the compulsive need to denigrate some professional sportsman or other in nearly every post you make?

He likes to reiterate his point about 50,000 times.

Sad really when people feel the need to do that.


Flinders

I know a couple of people who know Liam, maybe we could arrange a net so tripledecker could face him?

At least during his recovery in hospital we wouldn't have to read his posts on here.

Ah yes this would be good, then Liam can get Bairstow to face a few of tripledeckers pies.

That's a bit harsh. Old Tripledicker wouldn't know which end of the fucking bat to hold.

I am quite sure Plunkett could bowl me out and Bairstow could hit me for six every time, unfortunately the standard of players they face in the test arena are a little higher than mine !

Fair point though on Plunkett, he can only do his best and hopefully he does well, but in general our bowling options have fallen down dramatically recently.

Here is hoping he gets a 5-for at Lords !

That's sort of the idea

I think we have loads of options in the seam department but the truth is any bowler from any era would struggle to take wickets on a surface like Trent Bridge and to a lesser extent the Lords and Headingley wickets we played Sri Lanka on. The big, huge miss is Swann who allowed us to play three seamers and gave control from one end in the first innings then was a match winner in the second. It's no coincidence we went to World number one in the period we had a World class spinner.

Agree Swann is the biggest miss, not sure what quality test seam options we have apart from Anderson and Broad though ?

Well the likes of Finn and Bresnan are still around. Stokes has masses of potential, Jordan looks an exciting cricketer, Plunkett is capable of bowling 90mph.That's only the people who've played Test cricket recently. We hardly have a dearth of quality seam bowling in this country, every county could probably offer a couple of prospects coming through. I'd love to see Onions get fully fit and firing because he surely deserves another chance if he can?

It's a shame Finn just fell apart but he is young enough to get his form back, Onions is a little older but to be fair to him did very little wrong, was just unlucky that at the time he was up against stuff competition

In general I would rather play younger players who can learn and get better, than older players who have peaked.

If it wasn't for Graeme Smith calling Finn out on the stumps issue in 2012, we'd have one of the world best 90mph+ fast bowlers (probably only 2nd to Steyn). As it is, Finn's game fell apart but he's slowly getting it together.

Such a shame that him and Monty both lost the plot. How we could do with Monty now. Not quite Swann's class but still a very good spinner.

Finn will be back in the mix soon but I doubt Monty ever will. He's wasted his opportunity to replace Swann.

Skittling 'em. 19/3 in the last 10.

Anybody rate Moeen Ali?? I do.

Surprised they didn't bring Anderson on when Jadeja came in. Not that he last long anyway.

baines can bowl a decent off-break an all.

You all joke but I was proved right about Baines , people just didn't notice as I am not the sort to say I told you so !

Cook has to go. 34 innings for an average of 30.4 (can you score .4?) is not a 'blip.'

Get shot and bring Bairstow in.

Plunkett's had a decent game so far.

Bairstow for Cook?

What to open?

So Cook (forgetting the 25 hundreds and 8000 runs) is averaging 30 in the last 34 knocks, which is poor form for a class player and you are advocating replacing him with someone who averages 27 in his Test career and is a middle order batsman. If it is decided he needs time away from the team I'd imagine they'd go for another left handed opener.

All the heat is on Cook but non of the senior players are performing. Bell has looked a million dollars this summer but not made a significant contribution. Prior doesn't look fit plus Broad and Anderson are way off their best. They look like they collectively need to somehow win a Test match as the weight of the World is on their shoulders.

Fuck me Christ not Bairstow, and Plunkett has been poor so far like most of our bowling

I think Cook will be fine if he stays in the side. Just not as captain - it looks too heavy a burden on him. Once he's free of that he can get back to playing cricket the way he used to.

Well done Plunkett, hopefully he takes the momentum with him with the ball

Another poor failure from Stokes...bring back Jordan ?

Or not, really needs to put his back into after tea

No, just to wind Tripledecker up.

Please don't encourage him!

See he was spot on about Plunkett.......

Mind, I don't really need to bother, as the useless Plunkett's doing it for me.

Much better Plunkett, nicely done !