Ashes 2025/6
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@NTA said in Ashes 2025/6:
Hazlewood ruled out for the series. Achilles.. He might be lucky to get back into Test cricket tbh.
So next game we've only got Cummins, Starc, Boland, and Lyon
We know what it’s like when you have a great set bowling attack and they slowly break apart, we went through that with Boult, Southee and Wagner
Re Hazelwood it’s not like you need him. Shit you haven’t needed Cummins and Lyon’s
Impressed with Neser hope he gets picked again -
@Virgil said in Ashes 2025/6:
@Dodge said in Ashes 2025/6:
getting battered in the Ashes in Australia is unlike any other sporting experience, it just lasts so long and its so impossible to avoid. The sinking feeling of knowing you're going to have to stay off twitter, the BBC website, whatsapp because of all the bloody Aussies you've known in London over the years.
Watching us throw wickets away and place 'clever fields' after a couple of overs is depressing. Joe Root deserves so much better from those around him. I still think this team can win a test or two in this series but i don't think i can bring myself to watch...
its always amusing to me how every 4 years theres an expectation your team will win. Like the previous 15-20 years didnt happen.
On paper the English looked more than capable but you've not won a test in OZ since 2010/11.
Australia are fucking tough to beat at home no matter their situation, they seem to find another level when its the Ashes too.I think you're confusing expecting we will win with believing its possible. I don't know anyone who expected we would, plenty who believed we had a chance, however small.
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The rhetoric from England is so interesting. It's why cricket is great, you need to have a diploma in psychology to truly appreciate it at times. And the drama is so drawn out, it's slow playing over a month and a half.
So McCullum said that if anything they overtrained. Despite not listening to 'the noise', it's clear that's exactly what they did by scheduling more training sessions. Then they lose again, so McCullum basically says 'see, that's why my way is the right way, back in your fucking box we're going to Noosa'.
Stokes says Australia is not a place for weak men. Implying he himself is not weak, rather his teammates. He showed fight in the second innings, and by fight we in this case mean blocking balls on the stumps, waiting for the bad ball, absorbing pressure. But as others have pointed out, isn't he the architect (with McCullum) of Bazball? He can't seriously point the finger at his teammates for playing a style he himself has created and championed.
This is not just cricket, this is a personal crusade by McCullum and Stokes. In Baz's case it's an attempt to recast himself and his playing career as 'well he was right all along, it was the rest of us who just couldn't see'. And with Stokes it was about 'saving' cricket in England.
Now in some ways it's been wildly successful. We've gotten this far after all. But the crash seems like it's coming. This 2-0 is very different to the 2-0 in the last Ashes (where we scraped home from an epic 8th wicket partnership in the first test, and Stokes almost batted them to victory in the second).
But I think they will be telling themselves that winning 3-2 will actually be their greatest success, to pick yourself off the canvas and stick it up the chorus of naysayers. It's your back against the wall, telling yourself it's exactly where you want to be. I just wonder if this time they are facing a firing squad.
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@barbarian said in Ashes 2025/6:
In Baz's case it's an attempt to recast himself and his playing career as 'well he was right all along, it was the rest of us who just couldn't see'
his greatest individual moment in tests was scored at the most un-bazball strike rate of 54. remember that Brendan?
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They're even copping it on holiday
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@mariner4life said in Ashes 2025/6:
@barbarian said in Ashes 2025/6:
In Baz's case it's an attempt to recast himself and his playing career as 'well he was right all along, it was the rest of us who just couldn't see'
his greatest individual moment in tests was scored at the most un-bazball strike rate of 54. remember that Brendan?
His greatest individual moment in ODIs:
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@NTA said in Ashes 2025/6:
@MN5 said in Ashes 2025/6:
Then again, in 1999 Air New Zealand did paint a plane with the Otago/All Black front row so maybe we're almost as bad sometimes.
How quickly you all forget 1991 through to 2011...
How can you forget stuff that didn't happen?
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@NTA said in Ashes 2025/6:
They're even copping it on holiday
Stokes looking like he's swallowed a wasp.
Also possibly wondering if its too late to try and qualify to play for the Black Caps.
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England have made just the 1 change for the 3rd test.
Decided against changes to the batting order (bringing in Bethell etc)England XI:
1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ben Stokes (capt), 7 Jamie Smith (wk), 8 Will Jacks, 9 Brydon Carse, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Josh Tongue. -
@Virgil said in Ashes 2025/6:
England have made just the 1 change for the 3rd test.
Decided against changes to the batting order (bringing in Bethell etc)England XI:
1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ben Stokes (capt), 7 Jamie Smith (wk), 8 Will Jacks, 9 Brydon Carse, 10 Jofra Archer, 11 Josh Tongue.Great call, Bazball will work eventually and McCullum and Stokes can say "told you so"
Seriously, I hope it does work, would be nice to go into the boxing day test with the series still alive.
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Archer has started very well, can he maintain it though is the question. Carse has been pretty wayward, but both have a wicket each now and a Smith-less Aus batting lineup will be under some big pressure.
