England Cricket Team

[The Red Baron]

Certainly in Test cricket we seem to be back to the bad old days of the 1990s. Being bowled out for 58 is an absolute disgrace.

Strauss should resign and Bayliss should stick to white ball cricket.

[wing commander]

   it was bloody awful...Joe Root is a nice guy but he's no test captain..That said When you bat like that on a pitch that wasn't going sidewards then you wonder who could do any better...No variation in the attack either,Woods should have played

[NickDRFC]

Read this earlier and agree with pretty much every point...

This has been coming. It's been coming since cricket went solely down the pay-for-TV route. Your average 18-year-old will have no memory of seeing an England delivery on any televised medium other than Sky or BT Sports if their family are lucky enough to be able to afford the sports packages. It's been coming since we decided to tear up the county system that had worked so well for the England team between 2000 and 2012, meaning the long form of the game was pushed into the bookends of the season and generally treated with utter contempt. It's been coming since we decided to focus on short-form cricket in spite of the longer games enduring popularity in this country. It's been coming since we chose a head coach based solely on his limited overs skills. It's been coming even since Strauss and Graves went hell-bent on their less-is-more mantra when it comes to county cricket, and continue to do everything in their power to make money from T20 and f**k everything else. It's been coming since we promoted Joe Root to a captaincy role that he's done nothing to suggest he's capable of. It's been coming since we dropped players for whistling in team meetings. It's been coming since we stopped giving a shit about preparing for overseas tours. It's been coming since we did away with dropping players in utterly wretched form.It's been coming since we decided to attempt to appease the non-thinkers who bray out the 'Root at three' mantra without ever explaining what it will achieve, meaning we've lost our two leading run-scorers with barely a scratch on the new ball's lacquer. It's been coming.

England's test team is a mess. A mess approaching 1988-89 proportions. And the annoying thing is that it shouldn't be like this. Test cricket remains popular enough - and financially viable enough - for the ECB to continue to take it seriously, and provide those developing the talent with a foundation in which to continue to do so.

We were a very good test side from 2000 to the summer of 2011, al be it with some blips. Central contracts were doing what they were supposed to. The two-tier County Championship was being treated with respect and producing the goods. The 2005 honeymoon was still being felt years after. But we've systematically moved to f**k up every last bit of what we were getting right, all in an attempt to emulate the Big Bash, but completely ignoring its 'reach over revenue' mantra. Boult and South bowled excellently - they're excellent bowlers - but there is never any excuse for us to be 27-9. If you want to know what happens next, we'll lose by an innings and Liam Livingstone will come in for Chris Woakes while the coaches talk about 'positives' and 'stern words'. And we'll lose the next test too.

[The Red Baron]

Who wrote it, Nick? It's excellent.

[Geoff Blakesley]

I am not so sure. He/she somehow seems to be juxtapasosing a bad day at the office with a historic move away from the long form of the game. Times change. 5 day cricket is under pressure. Today's world doesn't do let's see how things develop. Yorkshire CC are in deep debt and without the few sell outs that T20 affords would be even more in the mire. I like to read but when do I see other guys reading a book? Very rarely. We would rather see the film of The Book Thief rather than read the book takes too long ? Not me. Anyway my accommodation and flights are booked for Sri Lanka this November and if I have to spend an extra day or two on the beach/sightseeing it won't be so bad and the Barmy Army will still be singing.

[hoolahoop]

I'm not sure what to say other than not really surprised but saddened at the state of our game .

[GazLaz]

Lack of preparation didn’t help, the warm up matches were a farce.

[hoolahoop]

Lack of preparation didn’t help, the warm up matches were a farce.
[/quote ]

I think it was as simple as that but the emphasis of our game does seem to be on the limited overs version - in order to produce fine test match and limited overs Eñglish cricketers for that matter - we do need to work hard again on our basic County cricket .
Sorry I'm a bit of a purist with cricket 3/5 day cricket is cricket and the one day stuff is for fun but an   add on or we will just carry on with embarrassing days like these.

[Geoff Blakesley]

It's more than about preparation. New Zealand haven't played a test match since last December and they aren't doing badly. We played one in January. Hopefully some new players will come through this summer.