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By Mark Tilley last year, mid-January Add your comment below
Shane Warne – never short of an opinion or two, especially regarding English cricket. In the wake of the depressing England captain saga, Warne has suggested that official replacement Andrew Strauss would be better suited to the vice-captaincy position and that he would have chosen Kent captain Rob Key as skipper for all three formats of the game.
Key, who hasn’t played a Test for England since 2005, has impressed in recent years through his one-day captaincy and was an outside contender for the England position before Kevin Pietersen was appointed.
Warne said, “He has flair and imagination, a good temperament and is well liked within the game. Ideally, you should look to appoint one captain for all forms and I don’t think that Strauss deserves a place in the one-day side on merit.”
He has a point. Strauss last played a one day game for England back at the 2007 World Cup (in the West Indies, ironically) and hardly deserves a guaranteed place in the limited overs side. He lacks the firepower neccessary for an opener in one day cricket and to have him coming in down the order may get in the way of the established players like Andrew Flintoff and Owais Shah.
However, the support for Key may be misguided. He is a fine player, yes, and definately has the potential to play for England again but captaincy seems a tad premature for Key. His success with Kent was mainly in the Twenty20 format of the game however, as impressive as that was, his side’s performances in the four day game left much to be desired. It would say a huge deal for the state of the game if England were to pick a captain on the strength of his Twenty20 skills.
Where does Strauss fit in to the one day squad then? Thoughts and comments, please.
Tags: andrew-strauss, captaincy, england, rob-key, shane-warne |
“He lacks the firepower necessary for an opener in one-day cricket”
I’m not sure I agree with that. His SR of 75 is very respectable, and his average of 31 is decent too. I can’t remember why he was dropped, but he’s certainly a better option for an opener than plenty of others who’ve had their chance in the last couple of years.
Rob Key is a good player and can serve England again, but I can not see him as a captain of England team at this moment. In fact, he has been out of national team at this moment. Andrew Strauss, I think, is perhaps the best player current available to lead England. If selectors do not think that Strauss has enough in him to play ODI cricket, then they can give the ODI captaincy to someone else.
“Strauss hardly deserves a guaranteed place in the limited overs side. He lacks the firepower neccessary for an opener in one day cricket and to have him coming in down the order may get in the way of the established players like Andrew Flintoff and Owais Shah.”
Leaving aside whether captaincy is premature for him, you could say that even more forcefully about Robert Key. He has played ODIs and looked way out of his depth – apart from anything else, he seemed to have no idea of how to run quick singles or to fling himself about in the field. None of that would have mattered if he had been blest with the raw power of Flintoff or Sehwag, but…
I think this is Mr. Warne making mischief. You have to hand it to him, he’s almost as good at this as he was at bowling.
Think the Australians would listen to Andrew Flintoff advising them on who should take over from Ponting when he quits after they lose in South Africa?
Thought not!
Nothing to see here – non story.
Marcus
I had pretty much the same conversation with one of my cricket loving friends last night. But I think the talk of him as an opener in ODI’s is missing the point. We both agreed that the one thing Strauss should resist the temptation to do is open the batting.
Even throughout his ODI career he has been more effective as a nudger and nurdler a la Thorpe and, actually I see him as the ideal batsman to knit a middle order of Shah, KP and Flintoff.
FWIW, I have come up with the following:
Bopara
Davies (wkt)
Shah
KP
Strauss
Flintoff
Collingwood
Broad
Swann
Sidebottom
Anderson
Tough on Samit Patel but he could force Collingwood out in the long run. I also think the batting powerplay requires five specialist bowlers – although that ol’ pie chucker Yuvraj did ok in India – 
otherwise I’d play both Collingwood and Patel.
I do think Key is an excellent captain and a Test class batsman; I just think he’s missed the boat.
RE:Reverse Swing
Good One.LOL.
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