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Test cricket is about consistency over long periods of time. Adil Rashid looks decent at ODI level because batsmen are attacking him. He fails at Test level because the batsmen can wait for the long hop and dispatch him. Learning how to bowl over a long period is as essential for a bowler as learning how to bat for a long time is for a batsman. I was really lucky when I was 16 as my county side was in a festival where games were 60 overs with no bowling restrictions. Over that week I bowled 0 overs on Monday and then 24, 27, and nearly 20 overs across Tuesday to Thursday. For a 16 year old leggie in 34 degree heat, it was hard work and I was shagged for Friday's final and bowled utter gash for 20 overs (Chris Read whacked us all for a ton) but it taught me so much about sticking to a game plan and how to change things. I can honestly say I learnt more in that cricket week bowling those long spells than I did in all the 50 over stuff we'd played before and after. I wonder how many teenage spinners today would bowl a 27 over spell outside of 2nd XI cricket in this country.
Today's wannabe England Test players get to playan erratic schedule of first-class matches and today's current Test players are playing fewer and fewer first-class matches with the drop in tour games before an international series starts and with central contracts restricting their county appearances. It's not hard to see why we've been so bad at producing Test-standard players over the last few years:
YJB: His keeping has not been great this series and the batting has collapsed. Gets bowled far too much for a player of his ability. I'd drop him for the entire Test winter. He likes a challenge so set him the goal of playing Championship cricket early season next year, accept that he won't be keeping in Tests, and to get in that side by sheer weight of ODI and Championship runs combined.
Totally forgot to mention this marvel from Yorkshire's second finest:
"Anderson, 38, and Broad, 33, are England's leading Test wicket-takers with 575 and 467 respectively. But Vaughan says England have to be "realistic" about the pair's prospects of reaching the next Ashes in 2021-22."
"I don't think it is right both of them play now," Vaughan said."
Jesus! We get one genuinely fast guy on the scene and suddenly the old boys have to be split up. Does Vaughan have some secret stash of opening bowlers hidden away like me hiding fags from my parents as a teenager? Outside of Jimmy, Stuey, and Jofey, we have the following options:
Woakes - crap away from home
Wood - injured
Stone - injured
Finn - not coming back
Curran - currently has 19 wickets in 7 Tests at home at the lovely average of 20.94. Averages 105 in four Tests away from home.
Toby Roland-Jones - untried away from home
Craig Overton - third seamer at absolute best. Not an opening bowler.
Lewis Gregory - made some squads, bowled well for Somerset, might be useful in NZ but perhaps less so in South Africa (although Vernon Philander's continued existence shows nippy swing and seam has a place there)
Jamie Overton - maybe South Africa. Wouldn't use him in NZ.
Jamie Porter - not a Test opening bowler
It's like he's forgotten how quickly teams can fall apart after being successful. Of his 2005 Ashes squad, consider the state of them by the 2006-7 Ashes: Vaughan's knee had gone, Trescothick was flying home with his sad stress illness, Simon Jones hadn't played since Trent Bridge 2005, Ashley Giles packed up mid-tour and retired from all cricket by the end of 2007, Geraint Jones was dropped and never returned mid-series, Harmison was homesick and spraying it, and we were so desperate for quicks that we threw Saj Mahmood and a remodelled action/buggered up Jimmy at the Aussies.
We have three very good seamers who all crucially bowl a bit differently from one another. We shouldn't be splitting them up, we should be using them to our best advantage.
If England do not play their best team then it could be an embarrassment over the coming winter.
The 2 test series against NZ might be the one to really show the flaws of the team, right now NZ have a very decent bowling attack and over the last 18 months, there are 4 batsmen with averages of over 65 one of them's Steve Smith, the other 3 are Kiwis.
So unless the Kiwi team is taken seriously and unless the best English team is played which right now would include Broad, and Anderson if he is match fit, then there's a real chance they could lose the series against NZ.
Totally agree. It's idiotic to think about the next Ashes series already. Comments like this devalue the NZ tour in the winter yet some of the same commentators are happy to laud a fine English performance against the same opponents (Stokes last time they were here anyone?). New Zealand are a good side with a batting line up ahead of us, a better wicketkeeper, and some very useful seam bowlers indeed. Bit up and down in the spin department but hey ho.
A defeat to NZ over the winter would certainly put the pressure on the Root captaincy.
Oh this is good.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/27630066/the-bayliss-bolters-26-test-debutants-jury-out
Well played, Essex. You're going to beat Surrey, Somerset have been killed by a Kyle, and the weather forecast for next week's title decider at Taunton is fucking atrocious.
What about Liam PLunkett not getting a white ball central contract? I can understand the login but he's not happy "disappointment is an understatement" I still think he has enough to offer until the Twenty20 world cup.
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https://www.ecb.co.uk/england/men/news/1349647/-ecb-announces-men-s-central-contracts-for-the-2019-20-season
Test contracts: if the contracts start 1 October each year then for the 2018-19 season They ran from 1 Oct 2018 to 30 Sep 2019. In that time Sam Curran played six Tests (8 wickets at 38, 249 runs at 24), Jack Leach played eight (30 wickets at 24, 172 runs at 17 and the greatest not out in years). So why does Curran get a full contract and Leach is on the incremental? Maybe it's because SC played in a couple of ODI games.
It does say everything about the Bayliss era that we don't have a single spinner on a full Test contract.
ODI/T20: I'd be a bit miffed if I were Liam Plunkett in not getting one and seeing Joe Denly get one.
Sibley is a sure fire tip. What interests me was the Warwickshire coach Jim Troughton's words.
""If there is talk about resting certain players for that series - I think it doesn't count as part of the Test Championship - so if there's an opportunity to do it, brilliant."
That is a big indicator that we're not going to have a full strength side out there. Totally sensible given the schedule this year and the lack of TC status. So who do you rest? I see no point in resting Broad as he's a one-format player. Anderson should go to see if he's still got something to offer. I've said that I wouldn't take Archer because I'd want him fully fired up for South Africa. Perhaps he will go and play one format in NZ.
The obvious candidates for rest are Bairstow, Stokes, and Root. One is in terrible form, Stokes hasn't been fully fit bowling for a while, and Root has played a lot of cricket. Personally I'd not select all three of them and give the captaincy to either Broad or Anderson. There has been talk of Burns as a captaincy possibility. I wouldn't do it whilst he is still working out his game at Test level. With Jimmy and Broad, there's nothing to work out.
Stupid things is that Somerset have some quite decent seam bowlers. Yes they also have Leach and Bess, but Essex are the one team where that is not such a big advantage because of Harmer. They might have been better off preparing something that would suit the quicks a bit more.