Quote Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda View Post
Wouldn't argue with that - agree it is bit early for Ahmed so Mo was only logical choice. Still think they might go without a spinner (or with Joe Root as the main one) but looks like Mo will play at Edgbaston at least.
I agree. But how has Woakes been this season? His record in this country is astounding, and give him green seamers at Edgbaston and Lords and he could be a real handful, with Root to attack the lefties.

But the damnable Convicts are sadly looking good with both bat and ball against my boys atm. And they have an all-rounder now when we might not get any overs out of the skipper. If you think how hard they've been to beat when we've had Both/Freddie/Stokes and they haven't had one, with the boot on the other foot, we could be screwed.

I still worry about Zak, so it would have been hard even with a fully fit Stokes and Leach. JL may have gone for 38 runs a wicket since Bazball started but he's taken 45 wickets and we reckon we can knock off 380 runs every time, so he's been great for us.

Basically, we need all the batsmen to fire to some degree, we need Stokes to be able to bowl with the old ball and get it reversing and we need a Mo fairytale ending. Or Harold Larwood and no helmets.