**The Official England vs Australia Ashes Series Thread****

[mr.watford]

Originally Posted by premfan

Yes you are right. I simply remember England getting excited before the Ashes a couple times only to get hammered!

We are a far far better team than we were a couple of years ago, and this time we have home advantage. Flintoff, Strauss, Harmison (i think), Bell and the keeper Jones and Pietersen if he plays have not played Ashes series before so they wont be intimidated or scared by the Aussies, and won't have the pain of the previous thrashings on their mind. I just hope Vaughan can do what he did last time, then we are in for something special :lick:

[hanuma]

to my shame i have lost contact with cricket, probably since the world cup.

how many WORLD CLASS players would you say we have.

arent australia's players a little over the hill.

how good is this england side in comparison to other good england sides down the year.

[mr.watford]

Originally Posted by hanuma

how many WORLD CLASS players would you say we have.

three (flintoff, harmison, vaughan)

[hanuma]

so how good are players like;

jones, pieterson, trescothick, strauss

[The Fratton Roar]

I'll run through the squad for you:

Trescothick - dependable but technically flawed opener, who can be relied upon to either play an anchor role or take attacks apart, depending on the situation. One of the world's most consistent openers.
Strauss - has almost perfect technique, and a fantastic mindset to go with it. Could become one of the world's best if he continues as he is.
Vaughan - strong, innovative captain, stunningly free-scoring batsman on his day, but the captaincy has affected his batting a little.
Bell - compact, technically sound, mentally tough, can bowl a bit, great fielder, got his head screwed on straight, young but still been around a bit - future England captain, and a great batting prospect.
Thorpe - the most reliable batsman in world cricket, but still as destructive as any on his day. Deserves to keep his place ahead of Pietersen.
Flintoff - the world's most consistent all-rounder, a match-winner with bat or ball. Essential that he plays well this summer.
Geraint Jones - an aggressive and adept batsman, who scores quickly and is technically very good. Slight concentration lapses and doubts over the reliability of his wicketkeeping are the main negatives.
Giles - Mr Dependable Mark 1. Fast becoming a valuable weapon for England, as well as being the man Vaughan turns to to hold up one end so the quicks don't get tired.
Hoggard - Mr Dependable Mark 2. Accurate swing bowler who can be devastating if the conditions are right, he is excellent at getting wickets when it doesn't seem like they're there for the taking.
Simon Jones - developing nicely, getting some genuine swing with his new stock outswinger, and rediscovering his pace to go with it. A great prospect.
Harmison - finding his form again after a poor winter, and has the pace to really worry the Aussies. A key man this summer.
Pietersen - an explosive, brash, arrogant batsman who can take apart any bowling attack in the world. Not yet considered worthy of a Test place ahead of the more reliable Thorpe.
Lewis - reliable county seamer who is dangerous in the right conditions. Much like Hoggard but with a slightly shorter natural length.
Tremlett - 6ft 9in seam bowler who, whilst not the quickest, gets extraordinary bounce to go with his metronomic accuracy. A great threat if he comes into the side.
Batty - unspectacular but effective off-spinner, who is a good fielder and can contribute from no8. Unlikely to feature if Giles is fit, though.

That's all the players who might play in the Ashes, injury crises not withstanding. Hope it helps, hanuma.

And for the record, I'd say we had five world class players - Trescothick, Vaughan, Thorpe, Flintoff, Harmison.

[hanuma]

very helpful mate...thanks alot.

i will be watching my botham vids to get me stoked

it seems like we have strength in depth for the first time in ages.

how are our youth ranks? and do we have any excellent spin bowlers coming through?

[The Fratton Roar]

Youth ranks are great - a lot of promising batsmen coming through; the aforementioned Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen, plus Ed Joyce (who's actually Irish but qualifies for England as of July 1), James Hildreth, Matt Prior (who's also a wicketkeeper), and Alastair Cook. The bowling department looks solid too - Chris Tremlett, Liam Plunkett, David Harrison, James Anderson, Sajid Mahmood and Kabir Ali are all either breaking through at international level or will do soon enough.

The one department of concern, however, is the spin bowling department. There are a lot of young spinners around, but the trouble is none of them are actually that good. Most of them are adequate at county level, but wouldn't be anything remotely threatening in a Test match. Gareth Batty is second choice behind Giles at the moment, and Graeme Swann appears to be just behind him, but they're both spin-bowling all-rounders really, and neither would really be anything special at Test level. There are a couple of spinners with potential - a leg-spinner called Michael Munday who plays occasionally for Somerset after his term at Cambridge University ends each summer (!) but finishes Uni for good this summer; a left-arm spinner called Arul Suppiah, who is of Malaysian descent and who also occasionally gets in the Somerset team; and Chris Paget, an off-spinner who made his county debut against the touring West Indians last year at the age of 16 and took four wickets in the second innings - he's still at school, so he's not played much since then.

It would appear that the future of English cricket is very bright - but we do need to find a quality spinner to replace Giles when he retires, otherwise the future may not be bright for long.

[NJ10]

did u know theres a bowler in the county league called yasir arafat? made me smile when i saw it on skysports news before

[The Fratton Roar]

Yeah, Yasir Arafat plays for Scotland as their overseas player - he's played a couple of times for Pakistan as well, I think.

[mr.watford]

I wouldnt call Trescothick world class, although he can take the bowling apart his movement and footwork is shocking, and the Aussies dont rate him at all

[hanuma]

he has gained much confidence since that dreadful tour of australia...looks confident and decent.

no longer morbidly afraid of gillespie.

the problem i have with trescothick is he is a natural hitter, not a very thoughtful player....he can get flustered easily.....he has looked less likely to do that of late though.


on the sin department....call me ignorant, but surely we should be developing spin bowlers of a better ilk....as a basic technique it doesnt seem too hard to do...obviously getting it world class is rock 'ard, but i cant see any reason why we arent developing.

[The Fratton Roar]

Originally Posted by mr.watford

I wouldnt call Trescothick world class, although he can take the bowling apart his movement and footwork is shocking, and the Aussies dont rate him at all

The Aussies don't rate him because he hasn't scored runs against them, and that's because of his shocking footwork, it's all interlinked. However, you don't always have to have top technique to be a world-class batsman - Steve Waugh had more than a few flaws, but scored thousands of runs just by sheer perseverance. I think a batsman's class should be judged on weight of runs more than anything else - and yes, you're right that Trescothick probably isn't world class. He will be if he gets runs this summer, though.

As regards the lack of English spinners, it's being blamed by those in the know on the fact that English school/junior club groundsmen don't have the ability to produce wickets that turn very much, and the fact that very few ex-England international spinners are currently involved in coaching in the UK youth system. There's no reason which can't be overcome, in other words.

[hanuma]

I mean there must be some kid out there that has a ****ed up wrist

aussies 59-3 lol.....they must be over the hill.

i was shocked to read how old they all are...not that it should matter much.

[Olzy]

The Fratton Roar - cheers for the player profiles.

I hope Thorpe keeps his place in the team. I hope one of the England fast bowlers proper rough up the tailenders and break Brett Lees fingers lol.

thats what they are planning on doing hehe.

[mr.watford]

I cant stop laughing, Bangladesh have just beaten the aussies by 5 wickets