Duquesne Whistle

He's a decent replacement. I was surprised he was edged out in the first place. Broad replaces Robinson too. Robinson has bowled well for his first tests in Oz, but has a slight shoulder issue and probably deserves a rest with the series gone anyway. Are you staying up to watch tonight? I'm feeling a little tight for throwing a paddy and getting rid of BT after the last test

Sometimes, I think there's a parrot on my shoulder..

Hey, Poirot, there's just no need to ruin it for everybody. We all have a right to dream.

Ravi Ashwin is such an reliable cricketer. 46 off 50 balls to scrape India up to 202 against South Africa. Could be the difference by the end of this test, though the Saffers have started reasonably well in their first innings.

He is, but if Chelsea want him, why would we stand in the way

I'm all for it. Straight swap for Chilwell. Chilly would perform better, a week after surgery, than Bertrand has this season.

Did the 4th official see that nudge by the bloke in the tuxedo. It was minimal, but there was definite contact. I think that's why Salah went down. Definite penalty for me.

He should have used appropriate protection then. Maybe he could have wrapped a mask around it.

Lukaku dropped from the Chelsea squad. Seriously, I don't know where players get off these days. Paid huge sums to play football, supported through injuries (and covid infections) and spouting off to some media outlet about not being happy to be a 'bit part' player. Everyone is allowed to have an opinion, but some opinions are best not thrown out in public. Tuchel seems to divide opinion on here, but deserves some praise for removing the player from the squad. Rotten apples and all that..

Bangladesh showing how to bat patiently against the World Test champions in Mount Manganui. Both openers scored at less than 40 runs per 100 balls but they put on 43 for the first wicket and 104 for the second. Pretty impressive, away from home against an attack with Southee, Boult, Jamieson and Wagner. 175/2 is a great start in reply to the Kiwis first innings. Bangladesh are beginning to challenge teams in all formats now.

Hamza

I sense we may be of a similar vintage Woolley! There's a few on the music forum I didn't know until you posted them. Keep up the good work

Breaking news Watford will be debuting their new FA cup strip in their upcoming 3rd round FA cup match against Leicester City.

Rumour is, he struggles to focus. Guaranteed to put 10 lbs on too.

Gary Kirsten was always a no nonsense batsmen. If he took that attitude into coaching the English test team, I think he'd be a success. Some of his resolute attitude is exactly what is required within English Test cricket, particularly the batting. It might take him some time, and not everyone would be on board with his methods, but as long as he had the balls to weed out those not prepared to listen and put in the requisite effort, I think he'd do a good job. I do wonder sometimes how much interference there is around the England coach, so he'd have to be single minded and strong too. I can't help but agree that different coaches is the way forward. Test/one day (particularly T20), are completely different games really, with an entirely different emphasis in the two main disciplines (obviously good fielding is required in both), it therefore follows that the coaching outlook is different in both. Let's face it, there's not that many are experts in one area, let alone two or three.

Great idea. Stick him on the bench, couple of good international matches against Slovakia and Slovenia and we could probably sell him back to them for £90m in 12 months.

No team has ever lost more Tests in a calendar year than the nine defeats suffered by England in 2021. England have been bowled out for under 150 a joint-record eight times this year. England batters reached 25 runs 91 times in 2021. Root converted 10 of his 18 into half-centuries, including six three-figure scores. The rest made 22 fifties from 73 scores of 25, with just one hundred - Burns against New Zealand. Joe Root is the only England player who has averaged more with the bat in 2021 than 2020. Burns' from a moderate 28 to an unspectacular 27, but most others have slumped dramatically - Sibley from 47 to 19, Crawley from 52 to 10, Stokes from 58 to 21, Pope from 43 to 21, Buttler from 38 to 25. England still have only two players who have posted half-centuries in this Ashes. Only three of England's 15 Tests this year did not feature a duck by one of their openers. England's openers finished with a collective tally of 14 ducks in 2021 It took just 852.3 overs, the smallest quantity of cricket ever required for Australia to win the Ashes at home after a third Test lasting just 180 overs and four balls - also making this the earliest any team has ever lost a five-Test series. England's quarter-to-half-century conversion rate of 35% is the worst by any team other than Bangladesh in their hapless early forays in Test cricket since 1999. No team that has played 10 Tests in a year has ever had a worse 25-to-50 conversion rate than England in 2021. When you list it down, that makes for some reading. Not sure how anyone is keeping their jobs after the debacle of 2021. Pandemic? Everyone had that to deal with.

Neil Ruddock..

Actually, can't be bothered.

Amazing what gets removed and what doesn't... Keep giving 100% as they did last night and the atmosphere will be fine.

This isn't meant to be unduly critical, but one swallow does not a summer make. Let's hope it's the beginning of a much better approach to facing dead ball deliveries into the box. Massive improvement last night, obviously. If the coaching now concentrates on that defensive set up, we should get better and better at it, hopefully. If we can do the same in the next game and lock the opposition out from corners and freekick deliveries again, we might just be on to something.

Tbf, I think most of us noticed it long before Shearer.

So good it's like having 2 new players apparently

Of course not. He gets his advice on here.