England include Stokes in Ashes squad. Might he have to come back, or is Bristolian justice quick?
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Sending an offender down under? Ashes 2017-18
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I would have gone with Rashid thrown to the Lions (again). Mason Crane over Rashid? Craig Overton and Jake Ball over Liam Plunkett/Steven Finn/Mark Wood (though the latter is injured), Gary Ballance over Tom Westley, James Vince over coach Paul Collingwood (the latter has a higher first class average this year). Ok, I don't mind giving some new blood a chance, but its like the summer never happened. Of the contentious picks, Ballance I can see as he was doing ok before he broke his finger, but come on, James Vince?
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If Stokes is ruled out for injury / legal reasons, Australia will win 5-0. If Stokes plays, Australia will win 5-0.
Long winter ahead for England in any case. Ashes, some ODIs, a T20 triangular with New Zealand and then a jaunt over the Trans-Tasman for a couple of Tests which don't finish until early April.
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We're not totally screwed. We have seven top class players. Ok, so the rest don't fill me with confidence (Ball and Crane are the two I've watched most, and both of them are just good county players, not ready for the step up and at least in the former case, never will be), but I think we can make a game of it.
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I’ve seen the video (Agnew retweeted it) - there is mitigation in that one of the guys is swinging a bottle around and appears to connect with it (albeit seemingly relatively lightly) on the back of one of Stokes’ group.
After that though, Stokes goes mental and repeatedly punches a couple of guys, following them down the street when they look to be backing off until he decks one.
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I think they need to drop him for his own good as much as anything else. It's not like he doesn't have form, and he really needs to grow up a bit. At the very least they need to take the Vice Captaincy off him. I wonder if they will do that, allow them to claim they have taken action but still have him available.
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Ballance and Vince have been found out more repeatedly and in a more sustained way at Test level than Westley (five Test) has. Not that I'd necessarily have taken Westley, and it's not easy to see who should bat three. Would you have thrown in Liam Livingstone or recalled Sam Robson (who've both been in better nick this season) when they've never played Tests against Australia before? Maybe Hales even deserved a Test recall, Bristol piss-up repercussions notwithstanding. His technical deficiencies aren't more obvious than those of Vince or Ballance. Finn can consider himself unlucky too, and I'd still prefer Rashid to Crane as back-up spinner (and as I type Jack Leach completes a five-fer).
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