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Monty Monty Panesar!
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
This first day alone should finally end wheeliebin's test career and prove that Flintoff is just not captain material for refusing to pick him in the first two tests. I'm not saying the first two results would definately have been different, but we might have given a bit more fight, specially the first test when the bowlers were at fault and we couldn't get any wickets...
Post edited by JustV on
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5-92 in your first Ashes test? That'll do nicely!
How can you say he's not captain material either?? stop bin a muppet.
He's made a mistake (it happens) and now they as a selection comittee have now gone with Panesar.
I would personally have had Panesar in from the start but I can see why the chose Giles, mainly because of experience and experience does go a long way when you are put into pressure situations like the Ashes. Maybe after all the press etc. about Panesar receiving counselling etc. and how the Aussies were going to exploit that they thought best not to throw him into the firingline because if he cracked it would have destroyed him as a player and a person.
Right back to the point, WOOOHOOOO, go on Panesar. Doubt he will be the saviour but fingers crossed he will.
If we win this test, which is still unlikely, hopefully it will put some pressure on the Aussies o maybe get something from the series. Remember a drawn series and the Ashes remain with England.
54-2 makes me think that its a bowler's wicket.
Yeah, i'm not saying we're suddenly gonna start thrashing 'em, i'm just saying Monty has proved in a day that he's already a better option than wheeliebin...
I'm not disputing that Freddie is a great player. I'm disputing that he's a good captain. His body language is not good when the pressure is on, at time's he's panicked and been tactically inept when the pressure is on and I think being our best player and one of our key match winners, he has enough to do batting and bowling at his best without the added responsibility of being captain. It was the same when they made Botham captain. Plus I think Strauss did a Vaughn-esque job as captain in the summer...
We lost the first test because everyone in the side was crap, we bowled poor and we batted poor.
We lost the second test because of an hour or so of madness from the batters.
How Freddies captaincy can be blamed for either is a mystery to me.
My point is not that the losses are solely his fault. My point is that he is not the best captain in the team. Strauss is. My other point is that he is to important a player to burden with the captaincy...
Freddie can handle the workload and the pressure, he loves it and you can tell. He loves being the guy everyone turns to, it inspires him. I certainly haven't seen any signs (so far) of the pressure being too much for him or the workload being too much, apart from his dodgy ankle but that has nothing to do with captaincy.
The captaincy adds to the mental workload and to the pressure, as far as I can see he's handling both perfectly. Not saying Strauss wouldn't be a better captain, nobody knows but to say he has too much on is just guessing really cos I haven't seen evidence of that.
He's experimenting with strange field settings and I think he's loving every minute of being England captain. He also in the perfect position being an all rounder that he can inspire the team with big performances both with the bat and the ball.
I bet if England win the series 3-2 (unlikely I know) you won't be saying he shouldn't be captain, give the lad a chance, he certainly wants it and is an excellent character in my opinion to have as captain.
WTF??
Well lets talk about Flintoffs captaincy in the first day shall we?? And when you think about it the pressure really is on at the moment being 2-0 down and he lost the toss.
Harmisons not being at his best so Flintoff opened the bowling himself and brought Harmi on first change, Harmi finished with 4 wickets.
Panesar got smashed all over in 1 over, 2 sixes and 2 fours, a lot of captains would have taking him out of the firing line, Freddie left him on and was re-paid with a wicket in the next over.
There was some more good pieces of captaincy aswell but they've slipped my mind.
All these points people are making about Flintoff and his workload/pressure are all just peoples assumptions, the proof is in the pudding and he's certainly doing a decent job at the moment. If the players as individuals fail with the bat/ball it has nothing to do with Freddie.
Anyway hopefully Vaughan will be back soon and I'd be happy for him to take the captains armband back.
The way He got out today was poor, edging a nothing ball traveling at 60mph.
He's got the Athertons.
557 to win? I'm happy.
What makes Fletcher look less foolish Panesar runs or wickets??
Why would You be happy about England chasing a masive target, are You an Aussie or did the England team come round and gang bang You or something??
Anyone can be a flash in the pan.
Born in Oz, mate.
Agreed. Sure, Panesar is no Shane Warne, but he's definately in a different league to wheeliebin. He proved that in the summer...
Nah, I think that he's just part of the team - thing is that he's better than Giles. Whilst that hasn't meant much in this test it could have done in either of the others.
Fletcher said that he wasn't good enough with the bat even though Giles hasn't been much cop and hasn't played for ages. Monty should have started, we all know that. Would it have meant that we won? I don't know, but we'd have had a fighting chance. You have to get 20 wickets to win a test - Monty got eight in this one alone....
Still, Monty is a grand example of why Loughborough is awesome.