Australians are master of mind games and sadly Joe fell victim and lost the plot.
It is not just Joe the back room staff too I must add

As art implied, I don't think the 200,000+ strong backroom staff are helping much.

Like I said, misplaced loyalty from me mate

Nope, they are busy checking thier tweet histroy to see if they made any racist comments rather than helping England concentrate on the job in hand :)

The problem is, there's not enough of them...

It would seem so.

He's hopelessly out of his depth. And it was a dolly ball off the legs first up - he couldn't have wished for an easier first ball.

Average county player. No more no less. Of course its not his fault he's being picked given so little options.

Circa 94/95, I remember Boon opening for Aus Vs WI and Walsh bowling and I don’t think Boon managed to touch a single ball during that over.

I know it does not add anything to the discussion but I thought I throw it in the midst :)

That's nonsense, Worky.

I don't think so mate. If you're not anywhere near international standard, and he isn't, how can you be anything other than an average player when you have almost literally zero competition for your place.?

If there was any decent English openers about, he'd be nowhere near the team

:)


There was another Rory (can picture him but can’t remember his surname) in that bunch of boys who actually was very good, a posh lad but he failed when he stepped up the plate.

You can’t be doing schoolboy errors in Tests I suppose but there we are roll on 11 o clock and if Aussies start bashing the ball round I will just retire for the night lol

What about that opener who is a good lad in the dressing room? Surely he can be picked :)

I actually think we'll weedle them out for sub 300. Won't do is much good in the long run in this test I don't think but....

Assume they've not brought play forward because of yesterday's missed overs?

He's about as much of a test opener as me mam as well.....

Rory Burns has scored just over 1700 runs at an average of 32, including 3 hundreds and
11 fifties.

Yes, a very modest record but not hopelessly out of his depth.

I fear Australians will notch up 500ish and we get spanked again under 100 or something I do hope I am wrong as it is now hard to play for a draw unless it rains all night and day

Hamilton-Brown?

Be interesting to see where he got the runs

His technique doesn't stand up to quality bowling, as seen at 12.01 am. Nor does his mentality

Simply not good enough at this level I'm afarid

You may be right

The decision to leave out both Broad and Anderson looked a bad one at 11.30 last night. Looks a f'kin horrendous one now.

Burns is a very, very good County player - his County record supports that.

He struggles with the step up to Test cricket but all that's showing is that there is a noticeable difference between the two levels. That's understandable. It's like being a striker who bangs 'em in in the Championship but can't do it in the Premier League. That's his level. The level of competition for the place is irrelevant to his ability.

I also disagree that he's 'not anywhere near international standard' - he's hasn't fluked 3x100s (against Australia & NZ) & 11x50s in 54 innings.

I posted on here a few years ago when Burns & Sibley were the next-two-cabs-off-the-opener-rank that I thought Burns would be a stop gap. I haven't changed my mind about Burns' ability but, for me, he's still the 2nd best opener in the country, behind Hameed. It's not his fault that there's no-one better.

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