Smith out - wd Jofra

[Burney]

Fine work pinging the Touretty fúcker imo. MBEs all round.

[Rich]

Why? Because team doctors cannot be trusted to put the best interests of their patients/players first?

Doctors really are ****s, are they not, r?

They reside in the dressing room of the team that employs them. They presumably report to the Head Coach of the relevant team and are therefore exposed to certain pressures that will invariably prevent them from making an unbiased medical decision (even if that's subconscious).

[Burney]

They reside in the dressing room of the team that employs them. They presumably report to the Head Coach of the relevant team and are therefore exposed to certain pressures that will invariably prevent them from making an unbiased medical decision (even if that's subconscious).

I said this about Anderson's fitness test the other week, of course.

[Rich]

I said this about Anderson's fitness test the other week, of course.

If he's fit for Old Trafford, who do you drop to bring him in?

Woakes (this loses you a relatively strong batsman).
Archer (obviously no)
Broad (been our most effective bowler in terms of wickets so far)
Leach (you would be reliant on Root to be your spinner).

My vote would be to bring him in for Woakes & bring Liam Dawson in to replace leach (and the batting lost in dropping Woakes).

[Burney]

If he's fit for Old Trafford, who do you drop to bring him in?

Woakes (this loses you a relatively strong batsman).
Archer (obviously no)
Broad (been our most effective bowler in terms of wickets so far)
Leach (you would be reliant on Root to be your spinner).

My vote would be to bring him in for Woakes & bring Liam Dawson in to replace leach (and the batting lost in dropping Woakes).

I wouldn't bring him in. We can't risk it. We have Australia at a disadvantage, so risking only having ten players ourselves would be retarded.

As far as I'm concerned, Anderson is finnish.

[Rich]

I wouldn't bring him in. We can't risk it. We have Australia at a disadvantage, so risking only having ten players ourselves would be retarded.

As far as I'm concerned, Anderson is finnish.

How dare you! Please consider the prospect of Archer bullying Aussies at one end with Anderson tying them in knots (and preventing them scoring at the other). He also bowls very well at Old Trafford, IIRC.

[Burney]

How dare you! Please consider the prospect of Archer bullying Aussies at one end with Anderson tying them in knots (and preventing them scoring at the other). He also bowls very well at Old Trafford, IIRC.

No, I'm sorry. He's shown he can't be trusted to assess his own fitness and he's ninety-fúck years old. Time to move on.

[Luis Anaconda]

Pfft. He'll still score a ton in each innings. At least.

Just been hit on the head again in the nets by Mitchell Starc

[Luis Anaconda]

If he's fit for Old Trafford, who do you drop to bring him in?

Woakes (this loses you a relatively strong batsman).
Archer (obviously no)
Broad (been our most effective bowler in terms of wickets so far)
Leach (you would be reliant on Root to be your spinner).

My vote would be to bring him in for Woakes & bring Liam Dawson in to replace leach (and the batting lost in dropping Woakes).

Depends on the workloads for the bowlers - Woakes has been underused imo but Broad will bowl a lot in back to back Tests. Would be harsh to leave him out though

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

Depends on the workloads for the bowlers - Woakes has been underused imo but Broad will bowl a lot in back to back Tests. Would be harsh to leave him out though

Ironically, despite Stokes saying he wouldn't bat above 6 (and I swear on Ganpati that the article did exist), he bats at 5 and scores a ton. Might as well open with Leach. He couldn't do any worse than Roy and that would make space for the fifth seamer. I'd like to see Leach as a night-watchman. Perhaps he saves his batting for tests? Thought it was silly for YJB to slog himself out in the first innings when Leach was still there on six.

Maybe not being a slogger, and therefore unlikely to get an IPL contract, he's an old fashioned no.11 spinner who just works in the nets on just playing the forward defensive and the leave. I miss those.

Pity we can't fit young Sam Curran in. Denly?

Burns
Leach
S Curran
Root
Stokes.
YJB
Other JB
Woakes
Archer
Broad
Jimmy.