{"id":143542,"date":"2021-10-13T04:06:46","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T04:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=143542"},"modified":"2021-10-13T05:59:18","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T05:59:18","slug":"england-great-flabbergasted-by-ashes-selection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=143542","title":{"rendered":"England great 'flabbergasted' by Ashes selection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former England batter David Lloyd says he was "absolutely flabbergasted" by the 17-man squad picked for the upcoming Ashes tour<\/a> of Australia.<\/p>\n

England named a near full strength side earlier this week, with fast bowler Jofra Archer and all-rounder Ben Stokes<\/a> the notable omissions. Both are injured, while Stokes is also taking a break from the game for mental health reasons.<\/p>\n

Writing for the Daily Mail, Lloyd, who toured Australia in the 1970s and later coached England, expressed amazement at the makeup of the squad.<\/p>\n

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"To say that I was surprised when I saw the squad England had picked to go to Australia would be an understatement \u2014 I was absolutely flabbergasted," he said.<\/p>\n

"They've picked a team of blockers, medium-pacers and short finger-spinners. You don't exactly need to be a student of the game to know how that ends in Australia. Good luck, lads."<\/p>\n

Former Australian skipper Mark Taylor noted earlier this week that England's batting is likely to be a problem, and Lloyd, an opening batter himself, explained that he would have left out both openers, Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed.<\/p>\n

"You don't win in Australia with blockers at the top of the order, such as Haseeb Hameed, or openers who don't stand properly, such as Rory Burns," he said.<\/p>\n

"Burns' first movement \u2014 wherever the ball pitches \u2014 is to push his right foot towards extra cover. If that technique works in Australia, I'm a Dutchman."<\/p>\n

\"Rory<\/p>\n

The bowling attack is once again headed up by James Anderson, who recently turned 39, and Stuart Broad, who is 35 and missed much of the English summer with a calf injury.<\/p>\n

"As for (coach) Chris Silverwood saying we're going to bore them out with line and length, I'm sorry, but you won't," Lloyd said.<\/p>\n

"You need fire and pace. Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson scared the hell out of England.<\/p>\n

"England have got some decent bowlers, and Ollie Robinson looks class.<\/p>\n

"But Stuart Broad is recovering from injury and Jimmy Anderson is having his last hurrah."<\/p>\n

Lloyd says Saqib Mahmood can feel particularly aggrieved to have missed out.<\/p>\n

"Your bowling attack needs pace and, because the Kookaburra ball offers you so little, reverse swing," he said.<\/p>\n

"Mahmood has both, so what did England do? Left him out."<\/p>\n

\"Stuart<\/p>\n

England's spin attack is particularly thin, with off-spinner Dom Bess and Jack Leach expected to provide an answer to Nathan Lyon.<\/p>\n

"You need a leggie \u2014 not a left-arm spinner who just carries the drinks and an off-spinner who was dropped in India."<\/p>\n

Lloyd was part of the England side that was mauled 4-1 by Ian Chappell's Australian team in 1974-75, and he fears this year's tourists might endure the same pain.<\/p>\n

"I always used to chuckle when Glenn McGrath came out like clockwork with his Ashes prediction of 5-0. But this time I agree with him."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former England batter David Lloyd says he was "absolutely flabbergasted" by the 17-man squad picked for the upcoming Ashes tour of Australia. England named a […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143542"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=143542"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143544,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143542\/revisions\/143544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}