ljkeane Posted July 4, 2015 Author Share Posted July 4, 2015 Ryan Harris is out of the Ashes and has retired. Pat Cummins replaces him. A shame his career ends this way, cracking bowler when he was fit. I suppose this is a bit of a boost for England but the depth in Australian fast bowling at the moment is good enough that I can't see it having a massive impact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 Ryan Harris is out of the Ashes and has retired. Pat Cummins replaces him. A shame his career ends this way, cracking bowler when he was fit.I suppose this is a bit of a boost for England but the depth in Australian fast bowling at the moment is good enough that I can't see it having a massive impact.It is always a shame to see player's careers prematurely ended by injury. He feels a bit like Australia's Simon Jones - rarely fit but still capable of writing his name in Ashes history on the rare occasions he could bowl. Australia probably had a bit of a selection dilemma deciding between the veteran Harris with the great record and some of the promising young bowlers, either way they seem to have a strong team available. Not many surprises in the England team selection, although it's nice to see Rashid in the squad even if I suspect he's only going to play if the pitch looks like it will really help the spinners a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereward Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 In other news, Mitchell Warner is still a shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paxter Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Yeah unfortunate career for Harris. Agree with BillyJ that he falls into the same category as guys like Jones and Bond. Could have been a 400+ test wicket-taker if his body had permitted. Re: the test match starting on Wednesday...I'm feeling a bit jaded. Would have preferred two more tests against NZ than yet another Ashes series. Am expecting flat wickets to compensate for both teams' inherent batting weaknesses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paxter Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Pretty incredible test match (and series) unfolding in Sri Lanka. The hosts looked very comfortableuntil Khan and the young Masood got together on Day 4. Now Pakistan are favourites to chase down 377 :wideeyed:. Once again Misbah's team is able to produce something special against the odds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereward Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 The Ashes starts tomorrow and there's nothing here, or in real life, about who might win, where the key battles will be and no trash talking. Sooner or later the schedulers are going to have to wonder whether frequency has killed the goose that lays the golden egg.I've always previously got very excited and taken time off to watch. This time I have barely bothered, despite loving the NZ series and even watching the ODIs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
williamjm Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 The Ashes starts tomorrow and there's nothing here, or in real life, about who might win, where the key battles will be and no trash talking. Sooner or later the schedulers are going to have to wonder whether frequency has killed the goose that lays the golden egg. I'm not entirely sure how they decided that it's time for the Ashes again, although at least this time they're not having 10 Tests in a row - last time would have been much better if they'd skipped the last 5 of those... I think it's difficult to see an outcome other than Australia retaining the Ashes. England will be encouraged by some of their recent performances but even against New Zealand they were hit-and-miss so while they might be able to snatch a win I think there may be a couple of big defeats as well. I'll go for 3-1 Australia as a prediction. I do have a ticket for the Saturday (third day) of the Lord's Test, so hopefully England won't have got off to too bad a start in the series. Anyone else going to any of the Tests? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted July 7, 2015 Author Share Posted July 7, 2015 Nah, I'm not going to any of the tests. I need to start getting more proactive about getting tickets for the cricket, I tend to just leave it and see if any of my mates get tickets. So I hadn't been for a while but I went to Lords for the New Zealand test and it was brilliant. I have taken the day off work tomorrow though. Yeah, they're overdoing it with how often it's played, I'm not too confident in England's chances and New Zealand really deserved a longer series but, bollocks to it, it's still the Ashes. Plus the All Blacks play Samoa in the morning so there's a bit of extra midweek sport thrown in. Regarding matchups apparently Lyon got a bit of tap against Essex. It might make it a bit more interesting if England can get to Lyon this time round and put a bit more pressure on the quicks to bowl longer spells. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereward Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 I went to the NZ game at Lords, but having got rugby wc tickets my wife felt Ashes tickets were a no no.I can't see us winning, but if the Mitchells' batting is fragile we may get some momentum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xray the Enforcer Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 The Ashes starts tomorrow and there's nothing here, or in real life, about who might win, where the key battles will be and no trash talking. Sooner or later the schedulers are going to have to wonder whether frequency has killed the goose that lays the golden egg.I've always previously got very excited and taken time off to watch. This time I have barely bothered, despite loving the NZ series and even watching the ODIs. I was thinking the same thing. Could have given it a rest for a few years and let the antici.............................................................................................pation build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmanion Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 Something to do with the london olympics i think which basically led them to reschedule and have only 2 years? Between visits to england for australia i think 2 years ago they played 10 tests against each other in a year or so Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arataniello Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 Something to do with the london olympics i think which basically led them to reschedule and have only 2 years? Between visits to england for australia i think 2 years ago they played 10 tests against each other in a year or so I believe the shift in the Ashes timing was to prevent the games in Australia, which would have been this year (2015), happening at the same time as the 2015 World Cup, which was held Down Under around the same time that the Ashes would have been staged. So the 2013 Ashes in England were therefore swiftly followed by the 2013-14 Ashes in Australia, and now we have the 2015 series, back in Blighty. I assume at some future point there may be another leapfrogging of the tournament whenever it conflicts with the World Cup. A similar situation has occurred in living memory, in the middle of the 1970s I think. Setting the alarm now so I can be up early tomorrow for every minute of TMS coverage. Hoping that Blowers will at least be commentating at The Oval or Lords, and not still in Edinburgh doing his show at the Festival. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmanion Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 Not my living memory haha ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arataniello Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 Some comments here about future timing of Ashes - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Ashes_series Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paxter Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 I think this could be a competitive series if England can find a way to get Warner and Smith cheaply on enough occasions. Starting to get (mildly) excited now...glad to see this thread heating up. But where are Jeor and Stubby! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Winged Shadow Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 Whether or not Australia will win the Ashes, an Aussie will hold the Urn. So Aussies win regardless! So the Poms may as well give up now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stubby Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 I think this could be a competitive series if England can find a way to get Warner and Smith cheaply on enough occasions. Starting to get (mildly) excited now...glad to see this thread heating up. But where are Jeor and Stubby! Uninspired, sadly. I will bold this for posterity: Hereward is correct - (on the lack of excitement this time around.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desire Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 Not much hype this time around compare to last summer when Johnston was deadly then the black mamba.Still the beers are cold and I'm looking forward to seeing the Aussies clean up the Poms on home turf not looking forward to the egg and bacon ties :ack: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desire Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 England to Bat first be wonderful to see if Starc can nail his name in the history books Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljkeane Posted July 8, 2015 Author Share Posted July 8, 2015 And it's raining.ETA: Looks like we won't lose much time. We could do with all this flag and anthem rubbish before the cricket starts though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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