Interesting choice to bat first, considering the weather and recent rain, also every other side who won the toss this week chose to bowl.
Both Robinson and Farbrace have mentioned first innings runs this week, so I wonder if this was a decision that was more about making a statement than the conditions.

Andy wrote:

It's not the XI I'd have picked, but we move...

I suspect you like I would have gone with the extra batsman?
I can only think they see Bresnan as a genuine contributor with the bat at 7. And that Burgess is able to keep and bat at 6.
I’d like to see what Bresnan does end up contributing with the bat over the season, but also how many other keepers around the counties bat at 6 or higher. All our opposition so far have the keeper at 7.

The wonky camera is awful. Also, this live stream makes the one at Edgbaston look like sky sports.

Sibley comes in for Lamb. Interesting that Sibley opens with Rhodes, rather than Yates. Thought Rhodes could do with dropping down to 3 or 4.

So no Woakes for us, as apparently ECB said no to all players coming back from the IPL. But Billings is in Kent’s squad.......
Interesting.

It’s an odd situation, no one has performed awfully, everyone has contributed in some way. Yet you’d say very few have performed so well as to have guaranteed a place.
I think you’ve got 6 guaranteed players, not all for performance reasons either. Both Yates and Burgess for recent centuries, plus being wicket keeper. Sibley because of his ability. Malan as overseas. Stone as the out and out best bowler. And Rhodes as captain. The other 5 spots are a free for all, of players that have done ok but not great.
I’m sure Robinson sees it differently, but that’s how it appears from a distance.

How foolish we all were to think that we might see Woakes actually play for his county.
Got to assume Sibley comes in, so do they drop a batsman or a bowler? If it were me, I’d drop Miles, give yourself an extra batsman against Harmer. But I suspect it will be one of Hain or Lamb.

Interesting no Pollock this time, but Alex Thomson is back. The new keeper, seems to have not scored runs anywhere. Suggests the end for Dan Lincolns trial I suspect.

He wanted teams to bat longer, have players to be able to bat long test match style innings.
Which a lot of the time means a draw is most likely.
But also forgets that bowling is a rather large part of the sport too.

I’d drop Lamb if Sibley is fit. I think it would be very harsh, but in my opinion he needs to do more. He seems to do ok without doing great. A couple of 50’s are nice, but at 5 he needs to be putting pressure on the opposition, and making big match winning contributions. Hain is also a much better fielder.
I suspect Woakes will come in for Stone, even after the weeks rest, the ECB will be protective of him. They won’t want him injured just before the series.
I think we risk undervaluing Bresnan too. I think he’s a bit off the pace bowling wise at the moment. But it’s his attitude that is most important. He knows how to win matches, without him and his leadership (let alone his work on scoreboard) we don’t beat Essex or Notts.

GerryShedd wrote:

I'm assuming that both sides will be accepting that it's going to be a draw today and are just playing for the points available - no declarations or joke bowling to set up a target as in the "good" old days.

I think the 8 points for a draw has killed all that. Which is a shame. And also deeply annoying as at the end of this we’ll be on almost identical points with Worcestershire despite us winning 2 and them none.
Bonus points also badly effecting us. We don’t score enough runs and we let other sides score too many. This morning being a prime example, got a couple of wickets, took the new ball and then bowled very poorly.

I suspect he’d come in for one of Norwell or Stone depending on fitness and ECB orders.

I’m expecting a wash out tomorrow, which is a shame because I suspect with 4 days we could get a positive result. Got very unlucky today with the ball passing the outside edge so often.

Very well batted by Burgess. I liked the way he battled, he earned every run. He hit some lovely looking shots too and managed the tail really well.
One thing I think we might have overlooked is the influence of Malan in this innings. We didn’t immediately go from 20-1 to 30-2 like we’ve seen a lot recently. Getting to 100-2 even with the mini collapse of Hain and Lamb afterwards means there’s a platform for the rest that we haven’t seen too often for this season or last.

I’ve got the Bears slightly ahead. If you win the toss and bowl you want the side out for under 250 at the end of the day, which obviously isn’t the case. But it’s not a huge score either. Yates was excellent, Malan looked good, Burgess looked excellent as well.

This is how to build an innings. Don’t lose lots of wickets early. Stay in, take the shine off the ball, put overs in the bowlers legs and build a platform.
Apart from the 4th innings against Essex that must be our best start to an innings all year.
Just do the same after lunch. They can’t let this turn from 95-1 to 150-5. Because of the weather, looks like we’ll lose a whole day, you’ve got to think the best chance of forcing a win is batting once, put up a huge score and try to force the follow on.

I do hate the rotation policy. I could slightly understand it with the bubbles. 12+ months living in a bubble must have been very tough.
But then some imposed it on themselves going to the IPL.
Also, with rotation now everyone loses. England lose because they don’t get their best side, counties lose because they don’t get their best players even if they’re not playing, and the players lose because they risk losing their place to someone else even if they’ve been playing well.
The test side has very little cross over with the T20 squad so I hope it stops this summer.

I just saw a report that both Woakes and Billings have left India and will be back in the UK today or tomorrow to begin 10 days of quarantine. Which, assuming he's allowed to play, would mean he'd be available against Essex on May 20th.

You'd have thought it would be in the ECB's interests to let him play. The match would finish a week before the New Zealand series, if he was selected, and he'd get some red ball cricket in. As they won't be in bubbles this summer, I'm assuming players could return to their counties too unlike last year.

I do also wonder if he's slipped down the red ball pecking order for England, and Warwickshire might have him during the test series. Archer, Anderson, Broad will all start if they're fit which it seems they will be. Then Curran was preferred to Woakes over the winter, plus you've now got Robinson at Sussex who was in the squad last summer, he's getting a lot of wickets again with the England coaches watching him twice this season already, so it's tight for the 4th seamers spot.

Agree. Put out the strongest batting line up. Play Stone. Trust the 4 bowlers plus Rhodes will take the wickets.

Don’t forget the good steps that they made against Notts and Essex. Just fine tune it to get some consistency.

Andy wrote:

There's been some pretty brutish deliveries. We know Wood is rapid but this Carse is bloomin sharp too. Extra pace seems to have been key on this deck. This has been an education, onto the next one.

I'm still more annoyed about the way we bowled as opposed to how we batted, odd as that sounds looking at the scorecard.

I can definitely understand this. But I feel like being able to bowl 85+mph is a real asset on this pitch. Apart from maybe Norwell, all our bowlers are more 75-80mph. You need a Stone or a Brookes to change it up. It wasn’t an 87 all out pitch but it wasn’t a 400 pitch either.