AKCJ

More down to a difference in ability as opposed to mindset though. This England side is full of talented players. You can see that. But it's also full of arrogance thinking that everything will always go their way and they refuse to budge. It's like if Ranieri decided that the 15/16 team was going to play out from the back and have Vardy drop into midfield as a false 9. We'd have got relegated. Every great sports team plays to their strengths. This England side plays to an ideology and doesn't look at the reasons as to why their side or their opposition might not suit that style of play.

He's scored 7 goals. The first time he's scored 7 or more in a season outside of Scotland and he's 28 next month. The blokes crap. Plain and simple. So is French football.

I think you need to factor in that we paid £25m at a time where money was extremely tight. The Skipp signing is pretty much the difference between failing PSR or getting through by the skin of our teeth. We've seen nothing to suggest that he's been worth that. The others on that list were all just as bad or worse than him in terms of ability but were bought from a position of relative comfort and we had squads that could mask their ability a bit more. Loving his revival but it's only been 3/4 games. We need to see him have a full season of this form to say he's worth £25m.

Cummins has Root's number for sure. He's the only bowler i've seen get in his head consistently.

It's a 400 run pitch. No two ways about it. Australia will be 400-450 runs ahead by stumps tomorrow and Lyon will bowl us out on Sunday. It's so predictable.

The ECB will always be judged on results against India and Australia.

Basil D'Oliveira Trophy (South Africa in England), 2022 2022 England 2-1 (3) England in Pakistan Test Series, 2022/23 2022/23 England 3-0 (3) England in New Zealand Test Series, 2022/23 2022/23 drawn 1-1 (2) Ireland in England Test Match, 2023 2023 England 1-0 (1) The Ashes (Australia in England), 2023 2023 drawn 2-2 (5) Anthony de Mello Trophy (England in India), 2023/24 2023/24 India 4-1 (5) Botham-Richards Trophy (West Indies in England), 2024 2024 England 3-0 (3) Sri Lanka in England Test Series, 2024 2024 England 2-1 (3) England in Pakistan Test Series, 2024/25 2024/25 Pakistan 2-1 (3) Crowe-Thorpe Trophy (England in New Zealand), 2024/25 2024/25 England 2-1 (3) Zimbabwe in England Test Match, 2025 2025 England 1-0 (1) Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy (India in England), 2025 2025 drawn 2-2 (5) 0 series wins in a 5 test series.

100% I think Brendon McCullum is on thin ice as well. The two of them have bred an England team with an horrible attitude and their arrogance is being laughed at by the whole planet.

Because they decided four years ago that they were going to bowl 90 mph bouncers and haven't listened to anyone who has been telling them that Aussie pitches have favoured bowlers that pitch it up these days. Same with the batting. We don't have to worry about the fact that Crawley always nicks off to slip playing on a length because surely great bowlers like Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Boland won't notice that.... right? They'll just bowl short... right? Frustrating that the only player that's seemingly allowed to judge the conditions and play to the occasion is Stokes. Everyone else has to sink while the captain starts playing normal cricket.

I do think that he might be our worst ever striker. Certainly in my time and i've seen some absolute stinkers. He's got no redeeming traits or abilities.

Baffled by the seemingly positive response to this. 36 years old, Premier League wages, short term deal, hasn’t put a pair of boots on in well over a year and has always relied on physical attributes. The same shit decision making that has put us in this mess. In June we will have one striker at the club, Jake Evans. A lad that has literally never played up front in a men’s game. Sick of the club refusing to look at the reason as to why we are in such a mess. Rudkin OUT.

Great idea. Bet the board haven’t thought of it.

Because the only reason this is happening is because fans kicked off. The board can't be trusted to do the right thing without fans pointing out the obvious to them.

Am I misremembering how I watched test cricket 20 years ago or did a bowling team generally manage to get through 70 odd overs and still look quite fit and sharp? England look knackered and to be fair Australia did last night too. I get that it’s a hot day but Christ they look unfit. I don’t think they’ve prepared for this series at all well enough.

This Ben Stokes/Brendan McCullum team always look to attack, often quite recklessly. A couple of years ago they were in a similar situation against Australia at Edgbaston. They decided to declare when 9 down with Root 120 odd not out and a capable partner in Ollie Robinson with him. I do understand declaring when you've got two genuine tail enders at the crease but when Root is looking comfortable and is seeing it well just let him continue to knock the ball about and let the other batsman throw his hands at the ball to see where it gets them. Obviously the quick scoring makes it look like a better decision than it might have been but I do think that continuing to bat is the right move 90% of the time. Ultimately declaring is only good if you're taking a wicket in that spell before stumps and not declaring is only good if you get on with it and score runs.

Love it when the tail wags during the extra half an hour for slow over rates.

It's a bit like when we had that series where they shit the bed with Mitchel Johnson. Mixture of fantastic bowling at his pace coupled with English batsmen cacking it.

You would think that they'd just put some sort of a sensor on the cables.

Felt like Jacks was too nervous about getting Root to his 100. Played well but then shit it.

Here we go ffs

What is he doing...

Shouldn't be able to continually try and change the ball like this. It's taking time out of the day for paying customers. The laws need to be changed to allow 2 opportunities to ask for the ball to be looked at with a reset after 80 overs. I've been watching for about an hour and they must have asked 5 times.

Any update on this? Thought we were supposed to get the deduction this week.

He hasn't done anything. But he'd at least be something for the fans to relate with. I've not had that since Enzo left.

They finished what 6th? 7th? Their squad is clearly loaded with quality footballers. Ours simply isn't. The only thing i'd be happy to see is for Aiyawatt and Rudkin to give Andy King the job. Just something to make life under King Power remotely interesting. Who cares if he takes us down? At least we'll get rid of the shit we've got cluttering the place up. We desperately need to get rid of King Power and hope we miraculously end up with the next Pearson, Shakespeare and Walsh.