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Old March 10, 2015, 07:38 PM
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Rifat Rifat is offline
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Join Date: March 30, 2007
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England has very quality players: Bell, Root, James Taylor, Jos Buttler these are quality batsmen.

Their biggest disappointment/tactical blunder this world cup: picking Gary Ballance and that too at #3 who clearly doesn't wasn't ready for this challenge, Morgan off-form(BIG_TIME) at #5. Apart from the New Zealand game(I can't say they played poorly that match because Southee had a once in a lifetime type spell and McCullum not much you can do), and leaving aside the Bangladesh game, England screwed up big time against Sri Lanka and Australia....

Moeen Ali impressed in patches, but there were a couple of times where better judgement(including the Bangladesh game where his needless run out helped Bangladesh) would have helped his cause to a substantial score rather than the quickfire odd 20s. Bell was looking good, solid. England has quality bowlers too, but nothing exceptional. Stuart Broad needs to be dropped. Steven Finn impressed but unluckily dropped. Woakes is ok. I mean their bowling has serious limitations(very one-dimensional)...If the pitch does not assist seamers, then England Bowling lineup is not that scary anymore despite playing with four promising seamers.

What impressed me most about Bangladesh is that the guys showed a lot of heart and a lot of character. I LOVED how Mortaza and team management planned for every single batsmen, we did our homework, this was a totally professional display of cricket. Taskin got a little nervous at the end, but he is still very young. The seamers bowled in the right areas especially in the middle overs. Ma Man Arafat Sunny impressed except the last two overs. overall, the most impressive aspect of Bangladesh's game was even though they were 10/2, they showed enough patience, application and grit to hold on and push England at the back foot. I loved how Mortaza rotates bowlers and I personally do not mind the over rate because this was such a clutch game that you can see Mortaza advising our pacers and you see guys like Shakib and Sabbir constantly engaging and supporting the bowlers. One of the best aspects of Mortaza'a captaincy is how is constantly aware of the match situation and how he is very proactive. It makes sense that as a captain, you constantly have to create new plans and constantly have to move guys around the field, which was really encouraging to see. Shakib took a brilliant catch to dismiss Morgan. You can clearly see that the guys did their Homework which largely contributed towards defending an okish total on a completely placid track.
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