Alex

If only they were allowed to vote, and they bothered voting

I would play Bairstow at 7 if he's got the gloves and 5 if he hasn't. Same with Buttler. Hameed has averaged about 10 this season I think but I would go along with what Boycott was saying and get him games but have him batting down the order a bit at 3 or 4 to try and get his confidence back. The way he's going he might drop out of the game altogether as that's two poor seasons in a row for him now. I think the Lions are in the UAE playing Pakistan before Xmas but they've only got one 4 day game and the rest are one-dayers and T20s.

England name the same 13. Think they've missed a trick not picking Burns like. Currently 60-odd not out and just gone past 1,000 first class runs for the 5th year in a row. They could've even played him at 3 if they wanted to persist with Jennings. While I didn't mind the experiment of Rashid I don't see the point in him playing when Root clearing didn't trust him in the last test. Although Root didn't have huge amount of runs to play with in the 4th innings if Rashid wasn't going to bowl much there then when will he bowl a lot? The problem he has is his lack of red ball cricket. In the longer format you need a stock ball which is reliable and which makes up for the majority of your deliveries. With one-day games and T20s it's almost the complete opposite with the bowler needing to have lots of variety and almost always bowling with defensive fields.

He's about a number 6 at test level. Might play ok there against Sri Lanka and the Windies this winter but you know he'd get peppered with the short stuff as soon as the Ashes start if he was coming in first wicket down.

Thing is, while they didn't exactly look great, most of the batsmen that have been recently discarded by England have looked better than Jennings.

Loses marks for spending the last 10 years of his career batting for his average.

I see Burns is playing for Surrey on day 1 of their county championship game, so he's not playing at the Oval.

I'd point out that none of those are as good as Lara or Viv Richards.

Putting aside the fact they're fantastically well paid now, I don't think anyone has given more to the England cricket team.

CT is seething

Curran looks quality and batted so correctly but he’s another middle order batsman / all rounder. He might end up as a proper batsman but I hope they don’t try and play him too high up the order before he’s ready just because of the lack of specialist batsmen

Good follow up to that Swiss Ramble comparison between ourselves and Spurs: http://priceoffootball.com/newcastle-opportunity-knocked/

Can't understand Burns not getting in already to be honest. He's about 40 runs short of making 1,000 FC runs for the 5th year running, he's been opening and he's averaging 60+ in the First Division this year. Haven't seen much of him bar the odd T/20 game and I can only assume the selectors fancied a few other batsmen and hoped they would come good but Burns seems such an obvious choice. As an aside, I think a major issue for batsmen in the longer form of the game in terms of making the England team is that so much first class cricket is now squeezed into the beginning and end of the season. This means a lot of matches are played when pitches tend to be much more bowler-friendly in April/May. Then when you're looking for batsmen in form when the tests begin they've often played very little first class cricket recently due to one-day and T20 taking precedent. Then come September the season is all but over. Can't see it being addressed in a hurry because the ECB only seems to care about money.

Aye, it's class. Not seen it in ages

Cook's retired from international cricket. Bit of sad end to an amazing career but it was on his own terms at least. I would've liked to have seen him maybe take the winter off and take it from there but I guess he's the best judge of where he's at

Coward

Dave was hoping they'd be more like Freddie the Dolphin

https://thatsliquidfootball.com/2018/09/02/smarm-offensive-how-mike-ashley-is-losing-the-propaganda-war-against-the-toon-army/

Like most countries, it’s the people who spoil it

We must respect democracy though. By opposing a second referendum regardless

Game over

Especially given most teams aren't even arsed about the Europa League place.

She's got rhythm. That fucking face she pulls at about 25 seconds in as well

Probably went on about how Newcastle fans think they have a divine right to success and then went on about how much respect and love he had for Bobby Robson.

Love how they try to pin the rise in crime on Khan btw.