CrawlingFox

Great to see Patel with a 50. A return to his best form and the run in looks much smoother. Hope he goes on to a ton.

They want their Hundred franchises as the top tier of red ball cricket as well. County cricket relegated to a second tier, the big counties happy as they still host the franchises and the small counties paid off the same way they got the Hundred over the line. The Hundred will soon move to the t20 format also.

Those numbers at Lancs or Surrey probably get you test caps. Shame he hasn't had the opportunity in D1 to see if he can do the same. Bear in mind he used to open batting and bowling for them as well, serious player.

Agree. Taylor has told them "Luis Reece has a ball with your name on it at some point so score as many as you can before he gets you".

Kimber knew full well that there was no point hanging about and the best shout was to get Derbyshire out there for Rehan asap. Even shared that wisdom with the tail.

Kimber prior to today averaged 26 from 61 innings. Take away the ridiculous 243 and that would be 22. He scored those 243 runs so fair play, I'm not trying to do him a disservice but it does further expose that he's really got a very poor record as a batter in this format. Scrivo and Cox both average 28 and Swindells averages just over 26 as well. Feel like any would have been a more reliable option on batting alone.

Davey as elder statesman of the bowling unit taking over from Wright would be ideal, he'll be 35 next season but that's 5 years younger than Wright and he can still bowl and bat to boot. He, Holland and van Beek if he has another season (which I could see as he's been very effective this season) would be an aging attack but then Green who will be 28 and in his prime offsets that slightly and give it two years and hopefully Hull, Wood and A.Green are all fully up and running as Holland and Davey bow out. Scrivo and Mike are in their prime so puts us in a good place. Salisbury and Walker are the other two seamers and think both are out of contract so find it hard to see either staying if Davey and Green both join. There may be an argument to keep someone for depth/injury cover but would prefer we backed A.Green and Wood. Apparently these are the players out of contract this season: Louis Kimber; Tom Scriven; Sam Wood; Lewis Hill; Harry Swindells; Chris Wright; Matt Salisbury; Roman Walker. Absolutely essential we keep Scrivo in my opinion. Hill still has a role to play and Wood is young so hopefully gets more time to develop. Swindells surely gets released as he's not troubled the first team in some time. Kimber worth keeping as a t20 finisher in my opinion (doubt we'll find a bigger hitter for that role) but not beyond that, he's good at that role but he is 28 and aside from that insane double ton hasn't done much in red ball cricket and his captaincy didn't seem a success.

I disagree, bowlers will always look somewhat inconsistent in this format - it's the nature of it, sometimes someone in form is just going to take you to slog city. I'm not excusing them from the odd strange decision or poor spell but if you look at economy rates over the duration: Holland: 4.75 Mike: 7.87 Van Beek: 8.96 Kimber: 8.73 Hull: 8.45 Thomas: 8.66 Ahmed: 9 Walker: 9.55 Scrivo: 7.86 Trevaskis: 7.81 Wood: 9.68 Salisbury: 8.95 The game is evolving and an average economy under 9 is decent these days so not too much to fault. Our batting let us down. I also disagree we need an 'anchor', that role is gone these days, it's all about hitting as average scores creep nearer 200. My view is Patel can come in at 4 and play whatever role needed with the pressure of opening off his shoulders - bring in a slog city merchant up top. 28 players scored more runs than our leading run scorer and about 20 or just under are openers. Thats where we need more runs - up top to take pressure off those further down and pile more on the opposition bowlers.

We should have options for pace right? Van Beek, Holland, Scriven, Mike, Wright, Walker, Salisbury, Wood and A.Green? Maybe even Hull back here and there if he isn't playing crisp cricket. 10 options so rotation definitly doable.

What a disappointing end to the t20 campaign. Kimber as captain didn't really work, too many bowling changes especially which just didn't make sense. He's in the side to go slog city with the bat and he averaged 23 with 1 50 which was his high score at 51. At a good rate of 180 but he'd have wanted more than 250 odd runs Budinger was leading run scorer with 378 at 27.5 and a s/r of 163. 3 50s though didn't go on past 56. Good work though and next season he should look to build on that with some bigger scores hopefully. Rehan and Cox contributed very well also but Masood's contribution was modest for an o/s and Hill and Patel both had poor returns. Nobody else really did much and I think we missed Ben Mike down at 6 or 7 going slog city. Key for me is that our only score over 60 was Cox's 70*. Nobody else got out of the 50s. Next season we need better than that as really in this format it's those big knocks that can win you a game and take the pressure off others. Bowling numbers are generally pretty excellent to be fair can't really criticise anyone. Wood and Walker took a bit of tap but your weakest bowler will always get targeted and everyone else had respectable numbers over the course. We need to go for a Breetzke or a hitter of that ilk to partner Budinger up top next season. Something like: O/S hitter Budinger Ahmed Patel Kimber Cox Mike Trevaskis/Holland O/S bowling A/R Scriven Hull

I think he'd be a handy signing, can bat as well. Need to make sure we have the right balance as Hill, Cox, Holland and Davey plus Wright if he's still around and if any of the overseas like Masood, Handscomb or van Beek are around and we've got a bit of a dad's army coming together. Likes of Hull, Ahmed, A.Green etc are opposite end of the scale plus a fair few in their prime like Scrivo and Patel, Ben Green in that bracket to if he was to join though so the succession planning is there.

I reckon Rehan is already a much better bat than Rashid. Although the latter seemed to regress in terms of batting as his career progressed. If anything I wonder if Rehan will go the other way and do a Steve Smith - hopefully with similar results though that could be too optimistic! Can see him becoming a very good top order bat who bowls a bit of leg spin in white ball but is a part timer in red ball cricket unless it's a turning wicket. I could be wrong though, suspect he can do whatever he wants with his talent if he applies himself.

I think Rehan will be unlucky because he's not bowled as much this season. Long term I think he'll benefit from the clear improvement there's been to his batting but right now he's got no form as a spinner. Leach is a no brainer for the remaining tests, form spinner by some distance and slots in to Bashir's place. They're set on Bashir long term so Leach also easy for them to drop again when it comes to the Ashes even if he bowls really well this series.

It's a class gesture from him, he seemed a really decent bloke when he was here. Although I do wonder about how Zimbabwe feel when the opposition captain has basically said "I didn't want to set the record because the opposition are so poor it would demean the existing record" . Then again Lara transcends the sport to an extent they might not mind.

Scrivo not bowling his allocation is utter madness.

We have a lot of very talented players and some of them will be serious, serious players if they can crack the top two inches. However some of them won't fulfill their potential if they don't sort that mental side. Budinger for example is a box office hitter but rarely a match winner because he doesn’t play the situation and as a result is very one dimensional. Raw materials are all there and he is improving to be fair and would still be at Notts if he didn't have this issue. Kimber is pretty much the same, you'll see the special hitting where he looks made for franchise cricket but an average of 20 with 5 50s but a high score of 59 isn't the match defining batting that catches attention. Patel has 50 or 60 t20 innings under his belt and a couple of absolute quality tons to his name yet other than that just a couple 50s and an average of 22. Ahmed can probably go in the same bracket, he's a hitter too but no consistency. Taylor couldn't ask for better raw materials to work with so hopefully he can bring them on that final step!

Up until this game everything has largely gone right for us, over the last few days everything has gone wrong. Hopefully a bit of a reminder to the boys that this isn't done and dusted and we need to pick ourselves up, refocus and go again. So far from this game I'll give Walker pass marks and make allowances for Wood as he's young and batted well. Green also bowled well. Everyone else should be disappointed as they are capable of much better. Patel looks a shadow of his best this season - I really expected him to go very big. I feel likes he's a key man and Taylor needs to work on getting him ticking again as a return to form would really drive us forward over the run in. Budinger looks tailor made for England - fast scoring and utterly unable to adjust to the situation. I do like it, take it most days over a plodder but it can be frustrating!

It's very disappointing when batters across the country are absolutely cashing in on an opportunity to rack up big runs, that we've got just a first innings 51 from Patel and a gritty 40 from a bowler to show from it.

Wood can definitely bat. Other than Salisbury and Hull don't think we have any bowlers who can't to be honest. Everyone else looks like they're good enough to go in at 8 at a minimum - Wood, Walker, Van Beek, Scrivo, Green are all very sound batters. Wright over the last couple seasons has been more than handy as well. Scrivo seems to have focused on his bowling but good enough to go in at 6 in my opinion.

I've always said he's a top player.

Budinger to be out for 10 off 5 balls?

There is some logic in the concept of English players needing exposure to it given how poorly we usually play in away Ashes series. However in terms of execution what does dropping it in for two games a season accomplish? Are our bowlers bowling faster or our spinners more canny? Are our batters benefiting from the challenge? Oh no wait it's just a run fest everywhere. I've no idea what a better solution is mind, one of each ball from each end all season? (This is a joke not a suggestion ECB if you're reading...). Maybe using it for home tests would make more sense, or even for a series of Lions games with players seen as having potential to benefit being picked. Although maybe the current solution is all part of the plan and as it stands Roman Walker has put himself in the frame for the Ashes.

Alex Green playing for England under-19s today.

The reverse jinx working a treat!

No problem with Wood playing, if the coaching staff think he has potential then he'll benefit from the experience and the club will benefit later. Walker is 25 in a month though and probably isn't even in the same bracket as Griffiths or Davis, looks down in the Sakande bracket of poor pace bowler signing which we used to specialise in. Would prefer giving Alex Green a go if he was available.