My Day at the Test

Thanks for the write-up Irish. Trent Bridge is my least favourite ground. It’s a pain to get to from the my house and the only time I’ve been was that horrendous bore draw against India a few years ago. I watched India’s lower order bat most of the day very slowly. It has undoubtedly coloured my view!

England are a shambles. I’ve said before that I find their wins difficult to fully enjoy because as a side they are just not progressing. When they win it is almost always because their swing bowlers have outperformed their counterparts in helpful conditions and then we’ve managed to scramble together enough runs thanks to our lower – middle order to build an unassailable lead.

If the opposition manage to post a score of around 300 in the first innings we buckle. If we bat first, we buckle more often than not. If it’s not swinging we can’t bowl sides out. Even when we create chances, we can’t catch. We’re as bad now as we were in the 90s. The only differences are that cricket has drifted further from the public consciousness and that Australia aren’t very good anymore and so we manage to beat them at home.

There is no silver bullet here. England have some good players but they don’t have any balance in their side. I think they could pick a marginally better side, but I do not see a Strauss or a Trott or a Collingwood waiting in the wings. The ECB have chased money to the detriment of the performance of the test team. They’ve put almost all cricket behind a paywall and the only highlights available are on a channel that no one watches. The first class game has been pushed to the margins meaning we don’t produce bowlers who can be affective outside of England. Even Sky don’t cover First Class cricket, preferring to cover the CPL and IPL instead. The decision to incentivize young English players means that good county pros have drifted out of the game which has diluted the quality of County Cricket. Smaller counties can’t compete which means they are prioritizing List A squads. This has had a positive impact on England’s One Day team but I think it’s had the opposite impact on the Test Team. The integrity of the Championship has been eroded because of the decision to split the leagues in to 8 and 10 (again – to accommodate more T20 cricket). Relegating 25% of the top division promotes short termism from the big counties.

All of this needs to be addressed, but in the short term we need to pick some boring cricketers. I have agreed with a lot of Ed Smith’s picks but Pope was a stupid, high risk selection. The guy hasn’t batted above 6 for his county and is clearly a very dynamic cricketer. He is not what we need right now. Our openers are really struggling and we desperately need some solidity to the top of the order. I know averages aren’t everything but Rory Burns has consistently averaged 10 runs per innings more than the openers we have picked. He has the right kind of aptitude and he is a leader. Surely we’d be better picking him to bat at 3 and dropping Root back down to 4? I know Joe Clarke has been mentioned a lot and he is a good player but I have seen him a lot and I also think he is cut from the same cloth as the players we have at 3-7 in the side at the moment. If it’s swinging he swings too. The player at Worcester that I would consider is Daryl Mitchell. Another proven leader, a good catcher and a consistent run scorer over a number of years. He’d be a stop-gap but I think he’s capable of averaging 35+ at the top of the order, which would be considerably better than anyone else has managed. He’d definitely help the balance of the side. Even if the top 4 batted 50 overs and scored 100 runs that would be enough to set a platform for our biffers down the order. At the moment they are being exposed to the new ball too early when bowlers are fresh and the ball is swinging.

We need to consider an insurance policy at 5 too. This would mean a difficult decision but the best sides have a Thorpe, Collingwood, Waugh type cricketer coming in at 5 that can bat time if a side lose early wickets. Stokes has to play to balance the side and Bairstow has been one of our more reliable cricketers so that would probably mean Buttler missing out. I saw James Hildrith make a class hundred in tough conditions against Worcester last month and if we are looking for a stop-gap in the middle order, I would think that he would be a better bet at 5 that Ian Bell. Perhaps unfairly though he is also perceived to not necessarily be the man you want in a crisis although that isn’t an assessment I agree with.

Can I hijack this thread with a quick comment on the T20 too? Given that the sides that Irish, Wareham, and I watch regularly are all represented in the quarters. I have genuinely got split loyalties for the Worcester – Gloucester game which surprises me. I can’t work out which side I will find myself rooting for but I am looking forward to it. I think Glos have gone off the boil so Worcester will start as favourites but perhaps that will play into Gloucester’s hands? I like the look of the Somerset team, they have got most bases covered, but Notts have a really good side and seem to be hitting form at the right time.

Glad you enjoyed the day irish. I was at the Somerset v Essex match so I didn’t see an over live just caught the highlights.i only missed the last hour on day three when I was travelling up for the Pompey match. Can’t disagree with either of your analyses. We got away with it in the first test this time we didn’t.
I agree with so much of what’s been said so there’s no need to repeat it but some other observations......
Not only do we not have any balance in the test side we have little balance in how cricket is developing in this country. We do not have many batsmen who will bat throughout a session let alone bat for the day. I quite like the idea that Ed Smith has developed regarding selection in that we have people like Marcus Trescothick, James Taylor and others who watch or play county cricket out there looking at players. If the players are there they will select them. The big problem under the current schedule is that County players do not have the opportunity to impress the selectors. We have barely played any 4 day cricket since May, just one in June, one in July and we’ve just payed our first in August. There has to be a consequence of such mis-management of the schedule. One of the consequences is that we are developing some good one day and 20/20 players who can bat very well but they cannot bat for any length of time, with any concentration or patience. Watching Championship cricket you can see the bowlers build up the pressure and see bowlers keeping the score down and batsmen are happy to be quiet for a few overs but you can actually see the frustration building and you know that they will give their wicket away which they do. We seem to have lost the ability to develop players who can build an innings and score a century in difficult circumstances. Vince can as can Hildreth esp against spin. That’s why Hildreth would be a better bet to go to Sri Lanka in the winter but tbh I think his time has gone. He will have to accept that he will probably be the best player this century not to play for England. The best batsman I’ve seen this year is James Vince. Now he always scores well against Somerset so perhaps that isn’t the best gauge but I’m happy to see him back in the test team. I know he’s like marmite and several people I watch cricket with don’t think him an England player. I do, he has occupied the crease for some very long innings this year and most of his innings have been winning ones for Hampshire. Rory Burns I agree needs to be given the chance and really needed to play before Ollie Pope.

Ed Smith needs to be given time to develop his method of selection. At least the selectors are now watching Championship cricket, what there is of it. I’m a bit worried about the situation that occurred with Rashid and the spin option and the selection of Stokes over Curran. Rashid needed to play because in the end he is the best test spinner we have. The problem was with Rashid himself, he seems to be very selfish in refusing to help Yorkshire out when they needed a spinner. It gave completely the wrong message esp when it could have been avoided with some thought. The haste with which Stokes came back was wrong and Curran was sacrificed which again gave a completely wrong message. Stokes has to play because he is a world class player in all areas, batting, bowling and fielding but after the week he went through he needed to go away and spend some time with his wife and family before coming back for the 4th Test, not that his performance was responsible for England losing. Again the wrong message esp to Sam Curran.

Apart from the lack of batsmen who can build an innings or bat us to safety from a losing position the opening batsmen, or lack of them, are a real problem. Alistair Cook has earned the right to play but im not sure he will continue beyond this season. I’d like Jennings to secure a place but I’m not convinced he has the technique to do it. Rory Burns, Hameed and a guy called Trescothick at Somerset seem the best openers indivision 1. But Hameed can’t even get in the Lancs team who are near the foot of division 1, I hope he comes good again he seemed to have the ability to build an innings and be unconcerned at the run rate.

I hope that Worcestershire avoids relegation becaus elike Somerset they are producing home grown talent who have been given the chance to develop and grow. It’s good to have them in the top division. No short termism at either of those clubs which is good for cricket imo. Surrey have a lot of youngsters coming through so I think the depth of talent is growing it’s just the lack of batsmen who are defensively minded with a mindset to bat for a day and forget about the run rate.

As to the T20, Somerset do have most bases covered but I have been astonished at how poor Notts were in the group stage and fear they will do well on Sunday. They have th players and we lost both quarter finals last year to them. If we get through to finals day I think we will do well. Gloucestershire have lost a bit of form but with Klinger playing well they always have a chance but I think Worcestershire are just a better side at the moment though I’d love Gloucestershire to win. Sussex are running into form and with their bowlers teams will need to avoid chasing too many against them.

You are right about there being more to the Rashid story than we know and the exits at Yorkshire show that all is not happy there. I wonder though if the current management there has just got fed up with providing th3 mainstays for England yet never see them put on a Yorkshire sweater. Even when they are not playing for England they rarely play for Yorkshire. Perhaps they are playing more hardball in an effort to get better value for money from them. Talking to their supporters at Taunton, they always bring a lot of very knowledgable fans, they are really jarred off seeing all their best players not do it for Yorkshire and I bet they let their committees know about their dissatisfaction. It might be a reaction to the England players not appearing to care for Yorkshire and some hide it better than others. Rashid in refusing to play the Roses match really didn’t hide his contempt did he?

I like your argument jack about the players counties go for and think you are right. Why would counties like Derbyshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Glamorgan even attempt to sign better red ball players because in Division 2 they will not do well enough to keep them, Nottinghamshire and Lancashire especially but most of the bigger counties in Division 1 treat those counties like their junior sides and wait to see if the players do well and then sign them up. Surrey, Nottinghamshire have all raided the smaller counties. So they will concentrate on one day cricket and hope they can make a success of that . Until this season Northamptonshire have been very successful in T20 and Kent until last night looked to be going strong this year. The one area I might question would be the players like Compton. I’m not sure there are many players like Compton now. Players coming in now are more attacking players who are looking to T20 as their main area. At Somerset we are bucking the trend insofar as youngsters like Byron, B*****, Bartlett, and even the captain Tom Abell are more 4 day players. But that is more about Somerset being a bit obsessed with their holy grail of th3 Championship. Our one day team is made up of many championship players and Corey Anderson and Jerome Taylor. I don’t think it’s a priority, more a pleasant by product of having some good home priduced players and being able to afford the two stars because we are profitable and well run.

As to James Vince I think his inclusion will balance the team. A genuine No.3 who will allow Root to go to 4 and although an attacking player he has accumulated lots of minutes in the middle this year. However what it won’t do is solve the openers problem and our No. 3 coming in to face the new ball. As to the problem in 4 day cricket of Gloucestershire it just comes over as a complete mess. It looks like they don’t compete for good youngsters against Somerset because the Somerset system is so far superior we don’t even take Gloucestershire’s best players like Surrey, Lancashire and Nottinghamshire do to their neighbouring counties. But they can compete in one day cricket. Get a few good players like Klinger and Higgens and Gloucestershire can compete. But it looks like they’ve given up in 4 day cricket, which is very sad.

Yes Lancashire were good bowling last night but what should have been a procession very nearly wasn’t so I’m not sure their batsmen are that good. I’m just glad we won’t have the prospect of playing Kent again, our bogey side! And if it is a spinning pitch we have that covered with Waller and de Merwe with Leach and Bess in reserve.