James Taylor et al

There has been a clamour in recent months for an injection of youth into the England teams and that’s all very well and it’s always interesting to see young players fare at international level but there is also the need to make sure that these players are good enough and to make sure they are better than the players they are replacing.

Take for instance the current England ODI setup. James Taylor is in direct competition with Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell for a spot in the England ODI squad. Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott are secure in their positions in the team you would think with Cook as captain and Trott as chief run scorer. Ian Bell is the player with which Taylor has most chance of replacing, Bell has performed poorly for England in ODI cricket but continues to demonstrate his brilliant quality in test cricket which seems to have got him another chance at breaking ODI cricket.

Bell so far in his ODI career has been moved all around the order- in fact the only two positions he hasn’t batted is 8 and 10. This could be an indicator of mixed thinking of the England set up or it could be more down to the failings of Bell the player. He has spent most of the career at positions 1-3, 73 out of 98 appearances and yet this season he is back at no.6 as he has yet to nail down the top order position. His top 4 batting stats are as follows – 35.51 avg @ 72.46 sr, contrast that to Cook (38.53 avg @ 76.55sr) or Trott (53.03 avg @ 77.70sr) and you can see why he is no longer batting in the top 4. The problem is his game isn’t meant for batting any lower than 4 given his technically correct batting and lack of power and to have more than two accumulators in the top 4 leaves England a bit one paced.

James Taylor’s problem is that he is a similar play to Bell, Trott and Cook as an accumulator who really needs to bat in the top 4 to be most useful to the team. He can bat well through an innings but I’m yet to be convinced that he can dominate and really accelerate an innings towards the end and thus has similar failings to the three mentioned. He does have quite a varied range of shots; sweeps both conventional and reverse, scoop shots and both conventional driving and pulling and is probably a more varied player than Trott or Cook.  

The problem is both Cook and Trott are heavy run scorers when they get in and although they struggle to accelerate they are so good conventionally that they tend to score at a good pace throughout without really accelerating in the way that the great one day players do.

For this reason it is going to be easier for a Jonny Bairstow or Ben Stokes who hit the ball cleanly and who can accelerate an innings to make their way into the ODI team rather than Taylor. Stokes has been included in the England squad ahead of Taylor which may be unfair on form or career statistics but England have to look at what is needed by the team at present.

A few times in recent weeks I have read or heard people decreeing the virtues of Taylor and talking him up as a very special player who is incredibly talented and destined for greatness and asking why he hasn’t been selected by England yet. I wasn’t born when either Graham Hick or Mark Ramprakash made their first class debuts but I can only guess that they had to deal with similar talk and the subsequent pressure from early in their career; both in the end didn’t do justice to their potential.  James Taylor may be a brilliantly talented player who works exceptionally hard but I think people should lay of the plaudits and hyping of Taylor for the time being and let him develop at his own pace without too much pressure being put on him, otherwise we may well run the risk of another Hick or Ramprakash.

Young Guns for T20

It is an interesting England T20 squad that they have selected for the one off game against India tomorrow. Three new players have made their way into the squad in Alex Hales, Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes and it will be exciting to see how each of these performs.

Hales was the leading English run scorer in 2020 cricket this season and hits the ball very cleanly and will almost certainly open the batting tomorrow and look to attack from the first ball. Some have been pushing for Hales inclusion in ODI and test squads of recent times but in my eyes although uniquely he hits the ball very cleanly especially against fast bowling his technique is the weakest of the young English prospects. He seems susceptible to full straight bowling early where he doesn’t get forward, struggles against quick short bowling and is limited in his play of spinners. He may well be found out early in his career and may have to return to county cricket and work hard on his game but he does have the unique quality of being a clean hitter. 

Jos Buttler has performed brilliantly in one day cricket for Somerset and is exactly the kind of player that England need to look at long term for the ODI and T20 teams. Buttler bats in the middle order and is a clean hitter but also unorthodox in his style and unlike many of the others who have been tried at 5-7 for England he plays there for his club and is used to coming in near the death and playing expansively. He is also an excellent fielder to go as well as reserve wicketkeeper, and at 20 is a tremendously exciting prospect. 

Ben Stokes has been called up to both the t20 and ODI squads and as such will be the first of the young brigade to get a real chance at making his way into the England squad. Unfortunately for Stokes since he returned from a bad break of a finger he is yet to find much form with the bat and hasn’t bowled since returning. Before the injury he was flying, scoring runs in all forms of the game and also taking wickets. Stokes is another very clean hitter and is very strong on attacking spinners – he may well have to first start at no.6 in ODI cricket but he is better suited to batting at 4 where he can build an innings and then really explode but let’s hope he finds some form in this series and shows everyone what he is capable off.

Last chance saloon for Ravi? Maybe

You have to feel a bit for Ravi Bopara. He came in at 596-4 at Edgbaston and there really was nothing to gain. Make a score and it’s typical Bopara – scoring easy runs with no pressure; Get out cheaply and he’s not good enough. The way he was out LBW missing a straight ball defending kind of sums up Ravi though. It was all set up for him to play positively, show that he had changed, was a more confident relaxed individual; instead he played in his normal introverted way and duly got out playing defensively.

Luckily for Bopara, Jonathon Trott has been ruled out of the Oval test and Bopara will get another chance. The problem being at present is Bopara is batting at 6 and is unlikely to get in when the game is any kind of crucial point. India’s bowling since Zaheer Khan broke down has been poor and it’s unlikely now that Strauss and Cook have returned to form that Bopara will get in before there is a big score on the board. He’s not going to convince the selectors of anything batting at 400-4; from a purely selfish position you would assume he would prefer England to be in a modicum of pressure at 120-4 for instance where he can influence the game.

I do think Andrew Strauss missed a trick in the third test by not bowling Bopara. On day 1 there was a perfect opportunity to give Bopara a few overs as he rotated the quicks in what were good conditions for swing bowling. Bopara this season has improved his bowling and averages around the 76-80mph mark whilst getting some decent away swing. In county cricket he is used regularly as a third seamer and has useful figures this season (24 wickets @ 33.45) yet Strauss just doesn’t seem to trust him. Surely it was a great opportunity to get him involved on the first day and ease his nerves having been away from the test arena for a couple of years but obviously not.

Personally I think there is a misconception about Bopara – the feeling early in his career was that he was overconfident. Personally I never saw anything to suggest this- in fact he seemed to be fidgety and nervous especially at the start of his innings – a trait that is still with him today. For that reason I couldn’t understand why Strauss didn’t give him the opportunity to bowl in that first innings. Boost his confidence by giving him a few overs early and hopefully he gets you a wicket; if not, well there’s no harm done. I assumed England had selected Bopara because they thought he could bowl a few overs like Paul Collingwood did because in terms of batsmen in county cricket there are better players at present( James Taylor), but this doesn’t seem to be the case. Either England or Strauss himself doesn’t seem to fancy Ravi’s bowling at all. 

This past test was not just a once off. In the last 6 tests he has bowled in one innings and averages less than 5 overs per test since the start of his test career. In one day cricket he has bowled in only 22/59 innings in those he averages only 3.7 overs per innings or 1.4 overs in every ODI he has played. Compare that to Paul Collingwood who has been used less in county cricket- in test cricket his statistics are similar bowling just less than 5 overs per tests but in ODI cricket he has bowled in 151/197 innings and averaged 5.7 overs in the games in which he bowled and 4.4 overs in his whole career. 

As it happened Collingwood improved greatly over the span of his one day international cricket career and by the end was a skilled bowler who did well in most conditions; Bopara in ODI cricket is not as skilled at present and is somewhat of a risk. In Test cricket Collingwood rarely made much of a contribution and was distinctly limited in his ability; Bopara on the other hand is a useful bowler who swings the ball at good pace but has been utilised in a similar style to Collingwood. 

In summary, to give Ravi Bopara any chance of making it at test level I feel Strauss needs to make more of an effort to get Bopara involved in the game, boost his confidence, and make him feel part of the team. At present he feels like something of a stopgap between times with England just biding their time before a James Taylor, Ben Stokes or Jonny Bairstow is deemed good enough, when then Bopara will fall by the wayside. It’s up to England and most importantly Bopara to show that this isn’t the case; Bopara needs to force himself to make that big contribution, to show the intensity that the rest of the team has or he may well see his chance go, but he will need that help.

Lack of depth uptop

Jonathon Trott’s recent injury brought up a few discussions on the makeup of the team and what would happen if certain players were injured. The position most susceptible to injury would seem to be the openers spot given the lack of consistent runs being scored in county cricket by English openers. As it is at the moment both of England’s openers in Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss are relatively comfortable in their positions, although Strauss maybe glad that at present no-one is putting pressure on him given his lean spell with the bat.

There are two categories of openers on the circuit that warrant consideration 

·         the middle age batsmen coming into their peak 

·         or the youngster making his way in the game

England will almost certainly if there is a player of 22 and a player of 30 putting in similar performances go with the younger player. Given the strength and stability of the current team it wouldn’t make sense to be conservative in their selection, and there is a lot of experience to help the younger player adjust in the game. For this reason the older pro has to score a lot more runs than the younger player in first class cricket to be recognised. The fact is at the moment none of the older pros are scoring that many runs this season.

Ed Joyce (32) – 931 runs @ 49

Chris Nash (28) – 821 runs @ 39.09

Stephen Moore (30) – 652 runs @ 34.31

James Adams (30) – 553runs @ 30.72

Will Jefferson (31) – 809 runs @ 38.52

Stephen Peters (32) – 739 runs @ 46.18

Rob Key (32) – 619 runs @ 34.38

Joyce has been impressive but none of the others have particularly shone and given the current England top 7 all average 40+ they are doing little to put pressure on the openers. It simply isn’t beneficial for England to pick one of these guys if Strauss or Cook was injured given the work they will probably be needed to do improve will be wasted when at best they have 5 years of test cricket left to play at best. A much better option is to try and select a younger player who looks promising who they can mould and improve and hopefully turn into a quality player. Here’s a list of a few of the younger openers in English cricket who have been performing well.

Varun Chopra (24) – 962 runs @ 50.63

Liam Dawson (21) – 626 runs @ 39.12

Joe Root (20) – 604 runs @ 31.78

Rory Hamilton-Brown (23) 777 runs @ 38.85

Gareth Rees (26) – 749 runs @ 32.56

Chopra aside, none of these stats are particularly impressive either. Chopra after being initially heralded as a player with good qualities struggled in county cricket up until the start of the season where back to back double centuries under difficult circumstances have been the peak of his career so far. He has had as good a season as any other English opener (aside from Trescothick but that’s a moot point). Chopra’s two double hundred albeit brilliant have so far been anomalies on an average first class career. If it’s a sign for the future then he may well push Strauss hard in the next few years but otherwise there is a distinct lack of competition at the moment.

If either Cook or Strauss was injured I don’t think you could select any of the listed players at current because they simply aren’t good enough at present or in good enough form. For that reason you would probably have to look for a makeshift opener. From within the current line-up I feel England will be reticent to change the order too much given its current success. Jonathon Trott and Ian Bell are the only two who would have a chance at opening as both have batted at 3 during their career and if it was for only one test Bell would likely be the best choice, as he seems the unlikeliest of the two to be unsettled by having to open. From outside the current England setup, James Taylor of Leicestershire is probably the only possibility from county cricket. He seems to be quite close to selection to the team already as a middle order batsmen but he did open in the Lion’s game earlier in the season against Sri Lanka and seems technically competent and mentally tough. 

So in summary let’s hope for the time being that Strauss and Cook remain injury free and in form because at present there is no-one around capable of stepping up to their positions, and it seems to be the one area where there is a lack of cover for the current England team. If England were forced to change the team around due to injury or lack of form either Ian Bell or James Taylor would likely be the replacement openers but it’s hard to see either being long term specialists in the openers position.