Are we going to retain the ashes?

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by flanflinger

Mahmood for Anderson, really Ern you have never mentioned that before

True but with Aussie 109-1 at lunch - I could be right.

[Aussie-Yank]

That is still a big call to make though Ern. If you look at the figures Anderson has not been punished any near to the extent Hoggard and Harmlessness have been.

[Ernest]

No A-Y and he has got no wickets either, Anderson needs a lot of cricket to make up for all those months as tea boy, I don't think this series is the right time to give him match practice.

[SixandOut]

Referring to the original question of this thread, when judged against the first day's play, the answer that springs to mind is "Are we bollocks".

If the question was "Can we..." the answer is yes.

Will we? Who knows. It's only day 1 and I'm not writing anybody off, but it's clearly evident that England need to get a lot better, and fast. And we haven't even seen them bat yet. I think there's a real possibility of England slipping to a 2-0 deficit, which would be exceptionally hard to come back from.

But anyway, that's all off-the-top-of-head conjecture... see how day 2 turns out!

[greg]

We messed up today with our negative team selection.Even if Monty is selected later in the series he will probably be mentally destroyed as he has comfortably out performed anything Giles has ever done and still gets dropped for him despite the fact Giles has only had 4 days of cricket in 12 months.They may as well have told Monty,whatever you do won't ever be good enough so tough.

I do know that Giles did a job in the ashes winning team but he shouldn't be playing in this match and neither should Geraint Jones.They both lost their places for differing reasons and have done nothing to deserve them back and Read and Monty have done absolutely nothing to deserve being dropped.

The only plus point is that the Aussies only have 4 bowlers so Warne will need to bowl a heck of a lot of overs.Like last summer it's all on him.

[KennyG]

I think you might be forgetting McGrath.
You know that fellow who trod on a ball last year thus allowing your narrow/lucky victory.

[Notts Exile]

Originally Posted by KennyG

You know that fellow who trod on a ball last year thus allowing your narrow/lucky victory.

Don't push it! How many injuries have England out up over the past few series? 2005 was the first time we've managed to get our first choice side out. Injuries happen, we have to get used to it. You could still have beaten us in 2005 even when McGrath was injured; at Edgbaston you won the toss and put us in for some stupid reason!

[12th Man]

To beat the aussies you need to be very strong mentally, even more so to do it at home. The supporters need to stand by the team and stop picking holes both real and imaginary !

Everyone is rooting for England.....come on guys stand by your own ! Don't panic play the side with the most match winning potential not your commom or garden county cricketers. I wish you had more Petersons and Flintoffs.

To be perfectly fair I thought the decisons that some of the key England batters got in the first innings of the first test were horrible. This effectively killed the match! Hopefully it won't happen again.