There were a few more than questionable selections made by
the England setup this winter. Generally I take the approach that the England
setup has more knowledge and inside information than me so I assume they take
the correct decision with the information they have. This winter I feel like
they have made some bad decisions.
1) Chris Tremlett should not have been selected for
the first test of the winter. Here was a player who hadn’t played a competitive
match in nigh on 6 months due to injury, had eyesight problems from an infection
and a questionable injury record in the past. Tremlett is not a must pick when
fit, and there were a number of decent alternatives who were fit and raring to
go. This decision was the worst of the winter and although it probably didn’t
have any effect on the result of the first test it was the opening incident of
a torturous tour.
2) A seemingly small thing, Alastair Cook was
rested for the second warm-up game on the Sri Lanka tour having made 163* in
the first warm-up. In hindsight this looked a misguided selection. Cook went
into the first test and struggled, failing twice and helping England to defeat.
After the UAE tour England really should have given all the batsman who were
going to be selected for the first test all the match practice they could. As
it was they weren’t sure who to play as a sixth batsman and Cook missed out. In
hindsight they should have picked their top 7 batsman for that last warm-up
game, given them the maximum batting practice available, and stuck with them
for the test match. The thinking was mixed and as a result the team suffered.
3) Samit Patel! I mean really! I thought the
England setup was finished with bits and pieces cricketers who aren’t good
enough in any of the 3 disciplines to warrant selection. For the first test in
a team with Monty Panesar he was never going to bowl much. Panesar enjoys
bowling long spells and is the better spinner. For this reason England should
have selected the better batsman. Was Samit really a better bet to score runs
than Ravi Bopara? I don’t think so. For the second game they dropped Monty and
continued to play Samit; this time as a second spinner. Needing to win the game
I also thought this was a flawed selection. Monty had had a tough time in the
first test but surely he was a better bet to take the wickets required to win
the second test. Spin wins games in the subcontinent, not seamers. As it was England
just managed to gain victory.
What we learnt
Alastair Cook is now the batting leader. Invariably if Cook
and Jonathon Trott fail, England fail. These two setup the games for England and
allow the other more attacking batsman to prosper. People talk of Kevin
Pietersen as England’s most important player. That might have been true if he’d
shown more consistency throughout his career but today Cook and to a lesser
extent Trott are the vital members of the test and ODI batting lineups. Cook
and Trott instil calmness in the team and their consistent and workmanlike approaches
are badly missed when they fall.
The batting wasn’t good enough, full stop. Whatever their
plans were facing the spinners (and even the seamers to some extent), they were
flawed and they didn’t amend this quick enough. Maybe in the year before, we as
England fans had been lucky to witness the weight of runs the English batsman
scored and as a result overestimated the ability of those batsman.
Unfortunately as good as the bowlers were (and they were
very good) their efforts will be forgotten because of the efforts of the
batting line-up. If England had won this winter people would have remembered
the brilliant bowling line-up and the skills that Jimmy Anderson and Stuart
Broad especially exhibited. Unfortunately England lost and as a result their
good efforts will be forgotten. Anderson deserves special credit for his bowling.
There have been many detractors of Anderson but in the last two winters he has
answered every one of them and deserves the respect as the 2nd best
fast bowler in the world and the best English bowler in my cricket watching
lifespan.
I’ll leave you with one thought. Maybe, just maybe, the
batting was just a little better than it appeared this winter and the bowling
was just a little worse than it appeared. Maybe the wickets weren’t quite what
everybody expected.
And as a result
Ravi Bopara looks short of faith in the England setup. If
England are not going to play him this winter when conditions were suited to
his style and considering the lack of form of the other batsman, they obviously have little
confidence in his ability. Why lose another year or two trying out a player
that England think seems destined to not make it at international level? We may
as well build to the future and bring in someone at no.6 who may make it at
international level. My pick would be one of Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes or James
Taylor.
Verdict: Bopara may feel harshly treated but I think England
should dump him and give a youngster a go. Preferably do something really bold
and go with Ben Stokes.
Andrew Strauss is highly respected by nearly everybody and
you know the England team would follow him over the top into battle their respect for him is so high, but he is
running short on runs and for the England players to dismiss the media talk
around Strauss as a ‘witchhunt’ is just wrong. The fact is that if you average
in the late 20’s over an extended run of time people are rightly going to
question your place in the team. As it was when your winning and you’re the
captain people turn a blind eye to poor form in the happiness of victory. Once
the team starts losing you look at the players in the team underperforming and
Strauss has been the poorest of the batsman for some time now. I feel his
captaincy gets an unfair reputation. Yes, he is cautious and defensive but that
approach has worked well for England in an unheard of run of success that must
be to some extent down to the captain and coach. Hopefully he comes through
this lull in form because unlike Vaughan and Hussain before him, I still think
he is skilled enough to continue and his skills have not begun to recede yet
but if he doesn’t score runs in the near future he will have to go.
Verdict: He has some time but should Strauss continue not to
score runs and England lose to South Africa it would seem inevitable that
Strauss cannot keep his job.
Monty Panesar had a decent winter on the face of it. A test
recall and 16 wickets @ 25 including two
five wicket hauls against decent players of spin is hardly a disaster. Unfortunately for him, by the
end of the winter he was back on the sidelines as some old failings returned.
In the UAE he prospered and people were talking him up as England’s premier
spin bowler once again. One test later, after a couple of disastrous drops and
being repelled by a talented Sri Lankan batting line-up and once again he was castigated
and cast aside. What now with Monty? Personally and this will appear harsh but
I would discard him. His bowling is still the same efficient, tight,
containing, but unthreatening against good players of spin that it was when he
was dropped from the team. That is no bad thing; not everybody is Shane Warne
or Muttiah Muralitharan. It would be fine if he contributed with bat or wasn’t
a complete liability in the field. His two drops were embarrassing for him and
England fans alike and had a big influence on the match. This was not an
isolated incident. For all the talk of impressive work ethic and practice in
fielding and batting he remains remarkably poor in the field with frequent
mistakes; with the bat he is as poor as ever.
If he was a better spin bowler, or he fielded and batted better he would be a
worthy adversary to Graeme Swann at home and companion away, but he isn’t and
England should accept he isn’t going to improve from this point. Panesar may
tour India this winter; it possibly will be a year too early for Simon Kerrigan
but I don’t foresee a long future for Panesar in international cricket.
Verdict: Take Monty to India this winter as the second
spinner (barring Kerrigan ripping through the county championship this summer)
then discard and go with youth.
