Some Ramblings

The Lions are off to UAE to face Pakistan soon. As I said here I'd have liked to see more fc cricket and no t20 cricket. It's probably some reciprocal deal between the boards and a result there is just the one fc game. Pity the few who are just going out for the one first class game before returning home. I haven't seen the schedule for the tour to India after christmas but if it's another one off test then it really seems farcical.

Four-Day Squad
Dom Bess, Sam Billings(c), Joe Clarke, Nick Gubbins, Max Holden, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Liam Livingstone, Craig Overton, Jamie Overton, Jamie Porter, Jason Roy, Josh Tongue, Amar Virdi and Mark Wood.

50-over and T20 Squad
Dom Bess, Joe Clarke, Alex Davies, Lewis Gregory, Nick Gubbins, Sam Hain, Max Holden, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood, Craig Overton, Jamie Overton, Jamie Porter and Mark Wood.

On the squad selected and I think Kohler-Cadmore is lucky to gain selection. He's someone I liked at Worcestershire but his game has stalled at Yorkshire and his batting looks increasingly mechanical. I don't mind the selection of Roy, Billings or Wood for the fc stuff. Wood they need to keep ticking over when fit. Billings and Roy are good quality players who don't play enough fc cricket. It's hard to see how Billings will play test cricket for England given the keepers and middle order options they have. I don't feel Billings has quite done justice to his talents over the last few years and his game has rather stalled, so hopefully he can start dominating domestic cricket at some point and pushing for international selection in ODI and T20s - Morgan will likely retire after this WC so there is a position possibly open. Roy has his supporters at 3 for England in test cricket but I just don't see it.

I'd have liked to have seen Tom Abell in the 4 day squad. I think he sets up well against spin, getting well forward and back, and sweeps excellently. Against pace he's more suspect and needs to work on his technique. Bowls some useful medium pacers these days too, plus an excellent fielder. He's also county captain at Somerset at the age of 24 which is young these days and suggests a good character and leadership qualities. He also apparently tops the fitness ranks at Somerset. Keaton Jennings with his 146* showed excellent fitness in sprinting twos at the end of his innings whilst batting with Ben Foakes. These are the kind of 1% that get you in the team when it's tight. Jennings also apparently rates excellently in the loughborough testing on personality and leadership. These additional reasons are why I'm surprised that Abell hasn't been selected for a lions four day tour to this point.

Lancs fast bowler Tom Bailey is someone I've been impressed. Runs in and hits the pitch hard looking for seam in the early 80s mph. To be honest I'd pigeonholed him initially as just some random second team medium pacer they were given a few games to but he's shown real quality over the last couple of years. I'd have liked to have seen him given a chance with the lions to work on his game and see how he does in different conditions.

Harry Brook looks a player of immense promise but struggled a bit with what was an unkind promotion at Yorkshire to the top of the order. He's playing grade cricket in Sydney this winter which is probably right but is someone I could see making rapid progress. There's a few good young batsmen out in Australia currently playing grade cricket who I will eagerly follow their progress. Joining Brook and all ages 21 or younger are Tom Banton, Will Jacks, James Bracey, Ollie Robinson (the kent one) and Zac Crawley. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if there are a few international cricketers of the future from that group.

On the subject of the lions I'd like to talk about Rory Burns. He had two unfortunate dismissals on debut but I feel like he may have problems ahead. Against spin and in particular off-spin he really struggled. He tends to play from the crease too much, rather like Ben Duckett did on debut. The trend with most of the English players is to look to get right back or right forward - I assume that's the best method. Jennings his partner tends to get a large stride forward which has worked well for him. Jennings credited the work he'd done with Graeme Thorpe and Andrew Flower on Lions tours for his play against spin. Duckett nor Burns had been on a lions tour when selected. Certainly with Burns this seems a mistake. He put together 3 or 4 consistent seasons before this last standout season, and with a scarcity of openers it seems to be an error in their scouting that he was overlooked. I think that we can gleam that he certainly wasn't someone they considered even last year as a possibility for selection. It seems strange with this in mind that again the Lions squad is lacking in fc openers. Gubbins is the only realistic option for next years ashes from the squad. Max Holden is included and is a good young player but has had most of his limited success in the middle order. Will Rhodes is someone they might have considered having scored 4 hundreds in the championship this summer (as did his opening partner Dom Sibley) who seems to be starting to put it together. I think the fact that no-one at the top of the order has kept a position for long with England has meant they've fast forwarded through the progression of some young batsmen into the England test team when they haven't been quite ready. Ben Duckett and Haseeb Hameed are obvious examples. Rory Burns, slightly older but without lions cricket, may be the next.

An update on the previous paragraph and Burns has come on massively in his second test. Now using the sweep and looks entirely more decisive and convincing against spin. If he learns that quickly on the job then England could have a good player on the cards. 

Ollie Pope may well have benefited going on the Lions trip this winter. Maybe he could transfer over now seeing as he is very unlikely to play in the second or third test. Pope looks a very talented bat in the same vain as a young Joe Root, possibly with greater options. He uses his hands well when batting to find gaps in the field and is always on the lookout for runs. He shouldn't have debuted at 4 for England given he hadn't batted higher than 6 at Surrey. He's way too loose and undisciplined to bat 4 in test cricket at present. The main concerns are the lack of discipline outside the offstump and he seems to be a happy puller/hooker, which tends to be fine against guys bowling 80mph at county level but soon found out when they are bowling 7-10mph quicker at international  lever. His biggest stumbling block to international selection now is the logjam of batsmen wanting to bat 6-8 for England.

And the day after I wrote the previous paragraph it was announced that Pope would be joining up with the lions. Good thinking.