Zimbabwe just beat Bangladesh in Bangladesh. Their first test win in 5 years and their first overseas test win in 13!

Well done Zimbo's!

Ben Foakes long awaited test debut for England has also gone swimmingly  against SL as he and Sam Curran (yes him again - 48 this time) salvaged the England innings to a respectable 8/320 odd. He is on 80 odd and not out. He got the opportunity because Bairstow was injured in the warm up. 

Foakes is reputed to be the best gloveman in England. So Bairstow may have to finally give up the gloves when he returns.

Have a chuckle when I have a look at the Pom lineup.. Stokes, Woakes and Foakes.

I am always of the opinion you play your best keeper for Tests.

Foakes is a quality bat as well.

But that will give them Rory Burns opening (who is a keeper), Buttler, Bairstow and Foakes now. 

Having tried Pope earlier in the year (also a keeper). It is positively Sri Lankan!

Foakes with a century on debut. 

Really pleased for the lad. I called for his inclusion ahead of Pope during the English summer - well this is a magnificent debut for a young wicket keeper.

Ben Stokes will need to do something in this match if Bairstow is fit for the next test.

Anderson with a wicket in his first over. England is on top here! SL 7/1 - England all out for 342.

Curran and Anderson are swinging the new ball in SL

SL 14/2 one wicket each to the swingers.

SL will be hoping that the keys run out of the bowl in this soon in this swinger's party.

SL 40/4 - England havn't been this on top in SL since they sent missionaries there.

England declare 6 down, 461 runs in front, with Sri Lanka needing to make this many runs to win in their last innings.

Good to read about Zimbabwe winning in Bangladesh! Australia must be the worst team in Asia with current results.

England beat Sri lanka in Galle by 211 runs.

England 9-274, with Curran 59 not out.

Last wicket stand of 50 plus from Curran and Anderson.

Black Caps are holding their own in the UAE. Well done cuzzies.

I was told the Poms won the second test against  Sri Lanka !

Two away wins in a row!

Ha ha!

Paddles will be beeming this morning after his Black Caps snatched victory from defeat from the Paks overnite. Now win the second and series BCs.

Very happy with Ajaz showing the way to the team as to how to bowl in Asia. Bowls like a carbon copy of Ravindra Jadeja. Flat, fast, accurate, lots of side spin from the seam, not much in the way of over spin, just drives the ball into the pitch. Not sure he'll be much chop outside of Asia - but its brilliant to have him around for touring there. 

NZ has massive injury problems with Santner and Tastle out injured. And Sodhi has to be dropped. I doubt NZ will win the next one if Sodhi is retained. He took 3 wickets in this test, 2 were from full tosses, and the third was from a overpitched half volley that the batsman pushed out to and lollipoped up to a cover fieldman. Terrible test bowling. Just too many short and full balls, and all these endless full tosses are inexcusable. Sure - he got two wickets with them, but he also gave up a lot of runs. He is not a test level bowler, he is a limited overs bowler.

Fortunately Wagner bowled beautifully. Did 13 overs on the trot at full steam in the desert. Damn impressive. And his E/R over 30 overs in this test - less than 2 runs an over. Not bad for a guy who bowls so many bouncers. 

KW's captaincy was excellent. He used in out fields to great effect - attacking and cutting off runs. He pulled Sodhi from the attack on a dustbowl because he was leaking runs and let Wagner bowl through to the end despite having Boult who excelled in the first innings. I think he's going to be a better captain than McCullum. And what's more - he leads from the front with own batting. Now if the selectors could just give him the right team...

England team for the third test appears to be

1 Jennings 2 Burns 3 Bairstow 4 Root 5 Stokes 6 Buttler 7 Foakes+ 8 Ali 9 Rashid 10 Leach 11 Broad

Curran is injured and Anderson rotated out. England seems to have some real selection headaches now of who to leave out. Leach appears to be the premier spinner. Ali has bowled well against India and SL. And Woakes will return when fit one would think.

Still pretty amazing Curran is not able to secure his spot when he turns so many losing position into game winning chances for England, so so often. He has the happy knack of making runs when the batsmen on both teams are struggling.

Good read, mate.

Pak A beat the England Lions in their unofficial test match.

New Pak paceman who has been doiminating ODI  and T20i already, Shaheen Afridi just blew England away with 7 cheap wickets. This is some serious pace stocks Pakistan now have. It is like an arsenal. Anyway - he will he in the test team soon I am sure. Look out for him, he's tall, left arm, 140+ and skilled.  This was a desert pitch. Caused the NZ ODI batsmen no end of trouble.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/19019/scorecard/1165040/england-lions-vs-pakistan-a-only-unofficial-test-eng-lions-in-uae-2018-19

Just imagine Abbas, Amir, Ali, Afridi vs Rabada, Steyn and Ngidi in a few months time. Juicy! The two best seam attacks in the world going at it on sporty Safrican pitches.  Pak are still short on new batting talent, though. But their allrounders they needed for limited overs have already come through.

NZA with some spirited tail end hitting had the better of Ind A in their first drawn unofficial test match.

The second A test is underway now, and it is official that Will Young having moved to opener just for this series, is now the next best batsman not in the NZ test team currently for any and every position.

Hitting 49 in the first "A test" he is currently 70* with the team collapsing around him from the get-go.

http://scoring.nzc.nz/livescoring/match38a9345b-4b88-4c4f-a3a0-cac8e4bcfd7e/scorecard.aspx

Don't know why Aus is not selecting their replacements from A games and relies on Shield cricket. Seems a tad silly to me. Nevermind, NZ gets the benefit of the A tour that Aus did not want.

England 7-300 against Sri Lanka.

Stumps 7-312.

Bairstow made a century.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/18602/scorecard/1140387/sri-lanka-vs-england-3rd-test-eng-in-sl-2018-19

England well on top in a dustbowl it would appear. Bairstow with a hundred, but then in the press conference says he wants the wicket keeping back. 

His candor is great and all - but he's basically saying to Foakes - I do not want you in the team...England needs a number 3, they already have 3 quality wicket keepers.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/25353977/jonny-bairstow-hits-back-critics-emotional-hundred-wants-gloves-back-too



The English guys need to get used to this - they have too many players who now have claims to a spot:

This year - S Curran, Foakes, Buttler and Leech have squeezed into Ali, Stokes, Woakes, That's 7 people. Now 2 openers. And Root. Bairstow. Anderson. Broad. That's 13 not including Rashid. The simple truth is people will often now be left out.  Curran has been an incredible match winner for England... 

Leech, Woakes, Stokes, Curran and Ali are in competition for 2 spots I think. 1 Jennings 2 Burns 3 Bairstow 4 Root 5 Stokes 6 Buttler 7 Foakes+ 8 Ali/Curran/Woakes 9 Leech 10 Broad 11 Anderson.
England has a selection squeeze big time

I have far more idea of what the Australian test team will look like for the next Ashes than what the English team is going to look like in the West Indies. And I don't believe Stokes is a certainty any more, nor Ali... 5 Buttler 6 Foakes 7 Curran 8 Woakes  9 Leach 10 Broad 11 Anderson

Okay as I observed recently, 2018 ha been a year for the bowlers. But try this for size, right now the average per wicket for the year is 25.94!!!!!!

This is the lowest it has been for 50 years right now.

It will climb a bit I imagine with the Aus v India tests  likely to be played on roads, and NZ will be slaughtering Sri Lanka before the end of the year most likely on roads as well. But this is a drastic drop as bowlers have cashed in, especially in SA, Eng, UAE, WI, SL, Bangla, IND...

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2015/engine/records/averages/batting_bowling_by_team.html?class=1;id=2018;type=year

Of course CA is going to choose our national side on the basis of superior Shield performances. We always have and should always do so. In addition strong A performances lead to national selection. That was how Steve Smith was returned to test cricket if memory serves.  

So OZ should have been playing India A at present?  I wanna see an A tri series sometime. matter of arranging the schedule. Will have to be in Oz's off season as CA will never allow our S Shield  to be compromised. Nor should it. It remains the strongest domestic comp in world cricket.. or does that honor belong to India's Ranji Trophy.

Imo, noone should invite Australia into the A series world if Australia is not prepared to reciprocate and host at appropriate venues and times itself. It is just not in the interests of England et al to do so. It would simply give Australia an unfair advantage. Who wants to give that away for nothing back? Pakistan, England, India, NZ, WI are all prepared to sacrifice something at domestic level to let the A system work. If Aus just wants the benefit and not the burden of A tour tests, they'd all be fools to let CA participate in a meaningful way as a "free rider". I mean CA would be rational to try for it, but I'd be disappointed if the Boards acquiesced to that selfishness. Let Australia select from domestic and shield as they always have and always should  do so, and everyone else who has left domestic cricket to feed the A teams may make international test selections based on the basis of A games - that all seems fair to me.

A tours are about mutual reciprocity for mutual advantage. People sacrifice their domestic scene and let foerigners play in typical conditions which will help them in the future should they make the test teams. It is not about 'free riding' and taking the benefit of a tour but not hosting in real season. 

As for the strongest domestic comp? That's a very bold claim given Australia's away record of late (Bangladesh, England, SL, SA, UAE and Ind all spring to mind). But if you think so - sure make this claim. But Ranji? India also has the Duleep and IPL as well which are at a much higher level than the Ranji... India without a doubt has the most international quality cricketers of any single nation right now. Their squad of intl ready talent is huuuuge. Their A captain has a test tripple century scored against England...(Perhaps he fluked it - and he's a long way from ever getting a recall as I count 12 current intl Indian batsmen ahead of him). They're not all Kohli standard, but they have people on the sidelines much better than are wearing intl shirts for the members of other full member test nations in many formats... Why? Number 1 in tests, number 2 in ODI and t20i - what are they getting right if the Ranji is so wrong?

The only position India is weak in right now is seam AR - H Pandya is the only one they have. They have 3 spin allrounders, another 3 spinners, and 5 seamers not including the pie chucking Ahmed that somehow has started appearing in their teams - Idk why.

You're entitled to defend the Shield from A level cricket. Like I said earlier - I believe this is why CA has not been integrated into the A world - because it prefers the Shield.... So hopefully the Shield delivers for you guys...

This is what I count just off the top of my head:

Spinners: Chahal, Kuldeep, Mishra, 
Seamers: Yadav,  Kumar, Bumrah, Shami and the intl joke I Sharma bowled beautifully in SA and England this year with a 21 average for the year thus far
Batsmen: Shaw, Vijay, Dhawan, Sharma, Rahul, Kohli, Vijay, Pujara, Rayudu, Rahane, K Jedhav (handy spin too) with Vihari knocking the door down.
Keepers: Karthik, Pant, Saha, Dhoni (though I really think he is finished)
Spin AR: K Pandya, Jadeja, Ashwin,
Seam AR: H Pandya

Not even including the likes of Nair, Ahmed, Raina nor Pandey... It is easy to see why Kohli so often gets selection wrong...

CA may well defend its home bastion again this year in tests (not ODI), but I don't see how on picking random Shield player Australia will chase this team down globally to number 1 for quite some time... Labuschange, Harris, Bancroft - who are these guys? They just appear to be randoms drawn out of a hat... Pakistan (both formats) and England (tests) look to be on the up and up, though. The latter is remarkable since they only have 3 batsmen, of which are 2 noobs, 1 sucks at home, and then there's Joe Root... They're hilarious!

Let Australia select from domestic and shield as they always have and always should  do so, and everyone else who has left domestic cricket to feed the A teams may make international test selections based on the basis of A games - that all seems fair to me. [quote]
Players who have left domestic cricket would be far too inferior for what was needed at A level imho. Too old for a start. Some blokes going around in the second tier domestic red ball comp.. we call the Futures League.. could at a pinch make a fair A side. But CA chooses our A side to play India from our best performed Shield players outside of the Test side. We could cobble together our best Under 19 players and one or two older blokes that have left the Shield or having trouble breaking into it. In additrion, our CAX1 squads, made up mostly of NPS scholars have been competitive against touring teams so they should acquit themselves ok against an A side. Question is will the other A nations accept this?

You misinterpreted me - by everyone else i meant Eng, Pak, Ind, WI, NZ et al... You would hardly choose those who left domestic cricket into the international team now :P

Your suggestion is why tour games have been cut back to a bare minimum and just treated like a outdoor net session. :P

Just imagine how you'd feel if CA sent an A team to England and they gave you a Lancashire League team to play against... "Sorry - clashed with the NatWest Blast and County schedule this weekend".. It just defeats the purpose and the entire point of it all...

Buggar A comps bring on the real thing.. Test cricket.. 10 tests annually is nowhere near sufficient to sate this purist's appetite.

Your suggestion is why tour games have been cut back to a bare minimum and just treated like a outdoor net session. 
Just imagine how you'd feel if CA sent an A team to England and they gave you a Lancashire League team to play against...[quote]

In another lifetime the touring side played the strongest Shield sides. A week must have been put a side from the SS to accomodate this very popular fixture. There were three if memory serves prior to the First Test.. or was it two prior and one during. How about the Poms tours way back when our tourists played every county side before and during the tour. That was about 30 sides. That was in Bradman's time. Over the intervening years the matches declined to the ludicrous situation we have today with our blokes playing two second division sides.. usually minus their best players. At least we provide  touring teams with players that have the potential play for Australia one day. Talented and hungry.. not stale like has been county pros.

Not that I am putting these blokes in the same category as those greats.. but you could well ask who were Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist when they were first chosen for a Baggy Green cap. Unless you were an avid cricket tragic in those days you did not have much idea who was making a name for themselves at domestic level. I was familiar with the Waugh brothers as I wrote for the Bankstown Torch..their local paper. They were streets ahead of anyone their own age and when they were chosen to play for Bankstown in Sydney Premier Cricket they were also too good for seasoned pros. As for the three you alluded to.. Labu I knew nothing about until late last year.. Bancroft played in the under19 WC in 2012.. Harris may have attended the Academy.