David Kelly

Apparently half their squad was at Close House yesterday never setting foot outside the hospitality tent. Celebrating their point no doubt.

I really don't get where you can pick up anything to praise Perez about. Apart from just before he got taken of and he actually seemed to wake up to the fact that he has to actually sprint and put his body into challenges. If he did that regularly I might be able to forgive the fact that every time the ball goes near him the move breaks down. I really don't see what we could possibly lose by playing Gayle instead of him. If nothing else he'd be a threat in the box and his extra pace would trouble defences. Personally I think we should have had Hayden on for him yesterday. I think taking Merino off for Hayden was a mistake as we couldn't keep the ball once this change was made. If we'd took Perez off instead it might have looked on paper like a more defensive move, but it would have actually stopped us from dropping so far back and helped us retain possession. At the moment it's playing against 12 men and we're just about getting away with it. But if we want to stay up this end of the table, we're going to have do something about Perez. Anyway I still think that was a good result against a team who have well over a £100m of attacking players. Yes they might have had more of the play but they rarely troubled us apart from lucky bounces leading to counter attacks or sliced clearances. I thought all of the back four were excellent and Yedlin in particular deserves to be singled out for praise. I think it was the first time I realised just how fast he actually is. Shelvey and Merino were also both very good and if the continue like that will dominate lesser teams. And once again Ritchie's worth ethic alone makes him just about our most important player.

I actually think he'd quite enjoy the stick. It's just a case of making sure he's not allowed out by himself at night.

Unless they have no other choice there's no way they won't take Stokes to Australia. He's more important to the team than Root.

I think it will be Vince. But I agree with Bayliss that it should be Root. Seemed clear from that interview (although I missed the end of it) that Wood would have been in the squad had he proved he could stay fit. I think without him they've just dismissed any thought of a fast bowler and just looked to stick to our strengths. Whether or not our strengths can outweigh the conditions remains to be seen.

Should be a good run chase to watch here.

They are a strength of ours but could end up being a weakness if we don't have the specialist players we need. Plunkett as you say seems to have been forgotten about at test level now. As does Finn.

I don't know much about Overton, does he have pace? Ball is pretty much the same as those other four so I tend to agree with you.

That's a major reason for me wanting him there.

Some of them are wanting Pardew now

He is pretty much. He got an injury in the champions trophy so missed most of the summer and is only really coming back to fitness now. He would be the most vulnerable of our seamers compared to Anderson and Broad (and Stokes but more down to his batting) but I'd still expect him to play most if not all of the matches.

Baby Driver and Free Fire are both on Kodi and well worth a watch if you've not seen them. I really enjoyed Skull Island too.

Woakes is a vastly improved cricketer in both forms of the games (has three wickets so far today) and is bordering on allrounder status these days.

Vince played in the big bash for one of the Sydney teams last time around. Surely you'd heard of Chris Woakes? He's played 18 tests and 66 ODI's.

I doubt even he knows

Taylor retiring is a real shame, not just for him obviously. He was really starting to look the part.

Game over then.

Stoneman for Jennings (which already happened against West Indies), Vince for Westley and Woakes for Rowland Jones. Maybe Ballance challenging Malan too.

Completely agree.

Wasn't on the hard pitches though which is what I assume Ken's getting at. Mind you, they would have been hard when we beat them in SA.

I think it will be close too. I think Australia have the edge playing at home but I don't think it's a forgone conclusion.

Agree with that.

What about the pitches when you played South Africa?

That's five bolwers though. Doubt they'll do that. Most of them can bat a bit but none of them are all rounders. I'd guess they'll play another batsman.

I've just googled them both and yeah they have been injured but it doesn't seem like they're too concerned about them not being available. Them two, and Cummings with Lyons for Spin is certainly a strong attack in their conditions. I don't think it's a forgone conclusion that we'll lose though and I certainly don't see us getting the thrashing we got last time.