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Understudy tourists

By Ian 3 years ago, mid-August Add your comment below

England will soon have to pick its squad for the winter tours and the three understudy roles up for grabs are those of top-three batsman, wicketkeeper and spinner. My calls for Bob Key were largely dismissed, so I’ll move on to the ‘keeper, who will start as Matt Prior’s back-up, but may get a crack if the Sussex man drops Sangakkara on 0 and becomes Murali’s latest bunny.

It seems England now have an embarrassment of riches at keeper with several stumpers scoring regular runs this season. Foster, Ambrose, Mustard, Read, Jones, Batty have all scored well. Read and Jones have likely had their turn, but Foster may be due another one? Ambrose has been excellent too. Tricky. Mustard must be in line for ODIs, because he’s brilliant at the top of the order for Durham. It’s a shame for Steven Davies that Worcestershire have hardly played this season.

Spinners are more of a quandary. I don’t agree that Pietersen and Vaughan can fill in the gaps. We need a genuine spinner to support Monty, especially in Sri Lanka. The problem is that, as ever, there are no English spinners topping the charts, although I can’t see what Graeme Swann has done to upset the selectors. He would do alright. Adil Rashid has great potential and can bat too. As can Alex Loudon. But would any of them bowl out Sri Lanka? I’m at a loss.

Bring back Shaggy?!

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5 Responses to “Understudy tourists”

  • Sean wrote:
    August 16th, 2007 at 10.30 am

    Like the post Ian, as a Kentish Man I too hear your calls for Rob Key but I fear the next Kent batsman to play for England will be his opening partner, Joe Denly who must be nailed on for a A tour or whatever they call it nowadays.

    We have a slight difference of opinion on the spinners, Ian; had Vaughan focused only a bit more more on his bowling, I think he would have 30 or 40 test wickets by now, he spins the ball and has a great loop. However he has not and so we have to look for other candidates.

    In Sean’s not very scientific order of excitingness, I would look at:

    Rashid (too young)
    Udal
    Swann
    Keedy (can’t bat)
    Brown (ditto)

    and my wild card, James Tredwell, solid county spinner, good flight, handy enough with the bat to bat at number 4 for Kent, including a FC century.

    The key to my side is Flintoff’s ankle because in the Sub-continent he needs to be opening the bowling to allow two spinners to play, unless you think his batting is good enough for him to oust Bell at six, which I don’t. Assuming he is fit enough I would play him, leaving Collingwood as the 3rd seamer.

    Strauss
    Cook
    Vaughan
    Pietersen
    Collingwood
    Bell
    Flintoff
    Prior
    Udal
    Sidebottom
    Panesar

    To that 11 I would add, Shah and Bopara as batsmen, Harmison and Hoggard as bowlers and Chris Read as the spare stumper.

    Rob Key would again be the standby batsman.

  • King Cricket wrote:
    August 16th, 2007 at 12.40 pm

    England don’t have an embarrassment of riches in the wicketkeeping department. They have a whole host of players of much the same standard with no standout candidate.

    Tredwell’s not a bad call, Sean.

  • Rohan wrote:
    August 16th, 2007 at 2.27 pm

    I haven’t seen Tredwell bowl in the championship so can’t comment on that. But I don’t see Udal as an option – he barely plays in 4 day cricket now? Rashid needs more development and a baptism of fire (Dawson style), or a winter on the sidelines (Brown style) is not what’s needed. I’d hope they take Graham Swann as back up and play:

    Strauss
    Cook
    Vaughan
    Pietersen
    Collingwood
    Bell
    Flintoff
    Prior/Ambrose/Foster
    Sidebottom
    Harmison
    Panesar

  • Innocent Abroad wrote:
    August 18th, 2007 at 11.22 pm

    Well, if we’re all agreed on the first seven, perhaps someone can explain why Chris Read isn’t a #8 bat – he’s certainly better than the ones we’ve had this summer :)

  • Tim wrote:
    August 19th, 2007 at 12.26 am

    Key has a good case, though so does Shah and, especially as he can bowl, Bopara.

    In terms of the spinners, I’d take Swann and Rashid along with Monty. I wrote a similar piece analysing the spin options: http://third-umpire.blogspot.com/2007/07/who-is-englands-second-best-spinner.html

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