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Surely this is the end for Harmison
By Will last year, mid-October, 3 Comments »
Well what an odd feeling it was reading (as opposed to doing, but I digress entirely) the England selection today. No Ravi Bopara, whose cocksure waves to the pavilion against West Indies to acknowledge his hundreds were greeted with initial surprise, followed by widespread admission that England had on their hands a great talent. His arrogance should therefore be embraced. We did, but he regressed without so much as a whimper.
And no Steve Harmison, presumably for the last time. He himself gave England a ridiculous ultimatum at the end of the Ashes that he didn’t want to be a part-time England player. Right – so, that’s full-time then Steve, except you don’t tour very well, you’re as consistent as a bowl of porridge with a sausage stuck in it, and you retired yourself from ODIs. And then you unretired. For his and his family’s sake, if not the media’s – it’s incredibly frustrating writing about players whose belief in their ability is so at odds with their results – let this be the last time we speak of Harmison in an England shirt.
His replacement is hardly a shining example of consistency himself, but at least he has youth on his side. For now. Liam Plunkett has had a fairly decent season, but more a surprise – and a pleasant one too – is the name Luke Wright. He’s quick with the ball and potentially a powerful hitter, with plenty of bottom-hand, and undeniably quick in the field, but Tests will stretch him to the absolute limit. I’ve always thought he has a bit of ticker about him, but his technique could be cruelly exposed by South Africa’s seamers.
England weren’t finished there with the giggles. Saj Mahmood – ha! – and Alastair Cook – honk! – were called up to the ODI side. In fairness, as much as it genuinely pains me to say, Cook went bonkers a couple of times this season for Essex in domestic ODIs. But, still, you can’t help feeling he might not fare quite as well against a side of South Africa’s quality. I hope he does. As for Mahmood, well, who honestly knows where the ball’s going to go, but at least we can enjoy his befuddled facial expressions as a result.
3 Comments »Not England’s number 3
By Richard Seeckts last year, mid-August, 2 Comments »
Apropos of nothing, while Ian Bell waits five hours to go in at 260-1 tomorrow he can ponder some anagrams of the chaps he sneaked past to get the job:
Under rated Ramps is Darn! Purest dream
Robert Key is OK, try beer
and of course Ravi Bopara is Bravo! A pair
2 Comments »Hot to Trott
By Will last year, mid-August, 9 Comments »
I can’t help feeling this is a poor, muddled decision by the selectors to call up Jonathan Trott. It’s exceptionally unfair on him to expect a serious score, on debut, in the biggest England match for four years. The blame, of course, should be laid squarely at England’s faltering and feeble middle-order, whose failures have prompted such drastic change. But there’s almost a sense of covering their arses; “he’s a debutant, so if he fails, don’t blame us”. Flower must understand Ravi Bopara better than anyone, though, and realised he’s a lost cause for the time being.
Only seen him play once or twice, but by all accounts he’s a very, very passionate South African-turned-Englishman. Like Pietersen. And others. And our future wicketkeeper, Kieswetter. Er, and Strauss. And some others.
9 Comments »
Trouble at t’mill
By Jonathan Liew 2 years ago, mid-February, 9 Comments »
It’s hard to pick just one scapegoat out of the wreckage of England’s latest one-day catastrophe, but let’s start with Ravi Bopara.
Clearly Bopara’s poor series in Sri Lanka has knocked the stuffing out of him. His one-day career, one sparkling innings aside, has been mediocre, and his suicidal run-out of Alastair Cook smacked of a crucial deficit of confidence.
Which raises a valuable question – what on earth is he doing batting at seven? Like most of the England batsmen, he bats in the top three for his county. But seven is possibly the hardest position in which to make your mark – you’ve generally either got three overs to hit out, or thirty to save an innings in crisis. In both situations, Bopara tends to freeze.
So here’s an idea: instead of ringing desperate changes, as the selectors will probably be pressured into doing, how’s about swapping Bopara and Mustard around? Mustard may ultimately be England’s pinch-hitter, but at the moment he doesn’t look like hanging around much longer than the first Powerplay. What’s he like in the middle overs? How will he play spin? This is how you find out.
He’s also the kind of guy you want at the death, unlike Bopara, who for all his hustle has never hit a six in an ODI. It’s worth remembering that even Gilchrist started his one-day career down the order before moving up later.
A top three of Cook, Bopara and Bell might seem a bit stodgy, but it’ll provide some much needed platforms for the likes of Pietersen and Shah to have a blaze later. And all three can score at a fair lick when they’re set, whereas Mustard’s inimitable brand of haru-kiri currently means they’re constantly having to rebuild.
Having said all that, listening to England’s capitulation made me pine for one player in particular – Super Ramps. He’d put that upstart Styris into Row V.
9 Comments »Ravi the Fokker
By Will 3 years ago, mid-December, 1 Comment »
Ravi Bopara does his best impersonation of a Fokker:
Neeeeeeeeyow neeeeeeeyow.
1 Comment »Bopara or Shah?
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of November, 8 Comments »
Before meeting the bumbling Boris just now, I was reading Christopher Martin-Jenkins’ piece in The Times on the selection dilemma England are faced with. Will they opt for the greater experience (and age) of Owais Shah, or plump for Ravi Bopara’s allround nous and youthful potential? CMJ reckons the decision is as much down to the selectors’ own opinion – stats and figures can only tell us so much – but, like me, would pick Bopara for the first Test against Sri Lanka in Kandy on Saturday.
It’s tough luck on Shah, who I have followed since he was captain of England Under-19s a decade ago, but now is the time for Bopara.
Who would you go for and why?
8 Comments »Update: Shah cuts loose!
By Jonathan Liew 3 years ago, at the end of November, No Comments; be the first!
Our Owais has started to throw caution to the wind, slashing ten runs in just 27 balls, including a four. Which, I think, shows he’s an entertainer at heart. Sod the Test place, he’s going to give the crowd their money’s worth.
And look who’s at the other end… a certain RS Bopara. I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing quite a few yes-no-maybes out in the middle quite soon. That is, if they manage to hit the ball hard enough to consider a run. Run rate toddling along at 2.44… it’s like watching an England one-dayer.
No Comments »OA Shah (rhb) Runs 0, B 33, 4s 0 6s 0
By Jonathan Liew 3 years ago, at the end of November, 1 Comment »
As I write, Owais Shah is 0 not out off 33 balls in England’s tour match.
Clearly Shah’s so keen to secure a Test spot he’s formulated a plan: bat for two days and make sure Bopara doesn’t even get in.
1 Comment »Thanks, Fred, and goodnight
By Jonathan Liew 3 years ago, mid-September, 5 Comments »
So that’s probably it for Freddie, then. Whatever drivel the ECB can try and spin about his ankle needing time “to settle and recover before the process of further strengthening and assessment is intensified†– medico-speak for “he’s done it in again†– it’s probably safe to assume that a man on the wrong side of 30 who has played just one of his team’s last four Test series isn’t really one for the future. It’s time to look beyond.
Probably most likely to step into the breach in the short-term is Ravi Bopara. But he’s untried at Test level and despite knocking Mike Hussey over on his ODI debut, it’s hard to imagine him knocking over Test sides with his gentle trundlers off a short run. Similarly Paul Collingwood, who encouragingly hasn’t let snaffling Sourav Ganguly on a lucky LBW shout go to his head.
So let’s look to the current crop of youngsters. There’s Adil Rashid, who scored his first Championship century this season, and team-mate Tim Bresnan, who has fought back well from being Jayasuriya’s bitch last summer. Younger still, there’s Alex Wakely at Northants and James Harris at Glamorgan. For some of these it looks like the next Ashes in 2009 will come a bit soon (Harris was born in 1990, for heaven’s sake), while none of them really looks like a potential Test number six. But then again, nor does Freddie at the moment.
Who does everyone think will end up filling Fred’s specially-modified boots? A batsman? A bowler? Or is it time David Graveney got Mark Ealham back on the phone?
5 Comments »Video of Bopara and Broad’s match-winning partnership
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of August, 7 Comments »
What a performance from Ravi Bopara and Stuart Broad last night. I missed it, naturally, but have found a video of their brilliant partnership courtesy of crickethighlights.info – do give it a watch. They are the future, and are ridiculously level-headed for their age.
Incidentally, apparently you might need Firefox to watch it.
Bopara and Broad enthrall Manchester
By Alex Bowden 3 years ago, at the end of August, 2 Comments »
Why am I writing a piece for The Corridor when I’ve got a site of my own? Because I’m still ridiculously overexcited about England’s run-chase yesterday, that’s why.
I went to the fourth one-day international at Old Trafford yesterday and having been pretty comprehensively wowed by Stuart Broad’s and Ravi Bopara’s fightback, I made a point of watching the highlights on Channel 5. As is so often the case, the truncated version didn’t give the full effect. England were down and out. Wickets had fallen fairly regularly all day and with even more haste during England’s run chase. England had scored 114 when the seventh wicket fell, but that seventh wicket had been Paul Collingwood who’d scored the bulk of England’s total. The crowd knew that the game was up, so they did what they always do at times like this: Mexican waves, beer snakes and general merriment. In short, anything but watching the cricket.
So having lost seven wickets inside 24 overs, England then lost none in the next 24. The performance of Broad and Bopara was so impressive that drunk England fans, at the end of the day, when they’d been drinking for the longest, actually put down their beer snakes and watched the cricket in near-silence.
I’ve never seen a crowd do that before.
2 Comments »England’s forgotten man
By Jonathan Liew 3 years ago, at the end of August, 7 Comments »
In times past, England selectors could generally be relied on to make at least one howler a summer. Alan Wells, Aftab Habib and Alan Igglesden are all examples of county makeweights plunged without warning into the limelight and shunted mercilessly and remorselessly back out of it soon after.
Since the central contract era, however, we like to think that the more erratic selectorial decisions have rather been purged; there’s been the odd hunch that’s gone wrong (step to the front of the class, Anthony McGrath), but by and large the new slim-line committee has unearthed some cracking talent. Vaughan, Trescothick and Sidebottom certainly wouldn’t have got a look in had they been around a decade earlier. None of this, however, will be much comfort to Ed Joyce.
Joyce’s performances during the CB Series in Australia were solid, excellent in places, and he was by no means the most culpable of England’s World Cup donkeys. But he fell victim to the general call for cull after the Caribbean debacle and hasn’t been mentioned in the same breath as the England team since. Joyce wasn’t even selected for the England Lions teams to face Pakistan and India, a privilege granted to such stellar young talent as Alex Gidman. He appears to have fallen silently but ruthlessly from view, like the myriad Mike Smiths and Warren Heggs before him.
Fair enough, you might say. Ed Joyce is no PowerPlay demon, still less middle-overs innovator. But a man who scored two fifties on the biggest one-day stage really deserved better than to be lumped in with the likes of Andrew Strauss (who really did have a stinker in the West Indies, by the way). And besides, Joyce has always been more of a five-day cricketer. He was selected as Marcus Trescothick’s replacement on the Ashes tour, but didn’t get a chance. Now, incomprehensibly, he has been leapfrogged by Owais Shah, Ravi Bopara and, very possibly, Rob Key. Perhaps Joyce might soon be lugging his kit bag back to Dublin in search of an international game.
Joyce hasn’t exactly helped his case with some ho-hum county performances this summer. But his anonymity speaks of a more worrying trend – the tendency to judge Test potential on the basis of one-day form. It happened to Chris Read, Kabir Ali and even Jonathan Trott, who may never be seen in England colours again. Joyce deserves a better fate than these, for on his day he can be one of the most effective batsmen in the country. A bumper start for Middlesex next season might swing him back into contention; on the other hand, perhaps he’d be better off perfecting his reverse sweep this winter instead.
7 Comments »‘I want to be England’s Tendulkar’
By Will 3 years ago, at the end of August, 1 Comment »
Not my words, but those of Ravi Bopara, the Essex and England batsman (oh alright: he’s an allrounder. Just). My miniature magazine colleague, Daniel Brigham, did an excellent interview with the future Tendulkar in a recent issue of The Wisden Cricketer, and Bopara’s claims are nothing if not ambitious.
“Sachin’s my ultimate hero. He’s the one who I learnt all my batting off, just watching him constantly. I always tried to copy his batting and put it in my own style. I want to be a top-four Test batter – similar to Tendulkar. I don’t think anyone’s going to score as many runs as him but I want to have a career close to his – do everything he did but do it for England.”
He’s got drive, I’ll give him that. But has he got Tendulkar’s drive? Patrick Kidd, who has championed Bopara’s talents since the lad was about 10, will hopefully tell us more…
1 Comment »Strauss off Key?
By Ian 3 years ago, mid-August, 23 Comments »
Sorry about the contrived headline, but it is fairly self-explanatory. Has Andrew Strauss failed to deliver for too long? It’s been forever since he last scored a Test hundred, while his one good knock this summer was gifted by Dinesh Karthik’s appalling drop. All the other batsmen have scored tons, while he has struggled to convert, despite getting a few starts.
There’s no doubting his class, but is it time to try someone else? Robert Key would jump at the chance, as would Ravi Bopara. Or does Andrew Flintoff bat six when he returns, with Ian Bell going to three? Perhaps Strauss should get yet another chance, given he has managed to get to 30 regularly and is possibly one big score from finding top form.
For what it’s worth, I’d go with Rob Key.
23 Comments »World Cup squads announced
By Scott 3 years ago, mid-February, 10 Comments »
My tooth is out, and I’m all doped up. Who said drugs are bad?
The World Cup squads have been announced. For Australia, the main surprise was the inclusion of Shaun Tait who was preferred over Stuart Clark. As Tait is from my home town, I’m personally delighted, although I doubt he will play much, at least after the first group games. Scotland might be facing a new ball attack of Tait and Lee, which would be a rough initiation for them. Clark is not happy about being omitted but has vowed to come back next season as a better bowler.
Meanwhile, Australia’s cheif medical officer has come out to warn injured Andrew Symonds about rushing his come-back. The Australian dressing room is full of half-fit players, and given the lack of fitness and form of so many players, I do not think Australia can really be favourites for this tournament anymore. Even a player of Symonds ability can’t just be rushed back into the side and perform at top level.
England on the other hand have a fairly predictable World Cup squad, the only major changes are the return of Pieterson and the omission of Mal Loye. It’s tough on Loye given the job he has done in Australia, but the other alternative of dropping Bopara would not have made much sense, and would have left England’s squad top-heavy with openers.
I still can’t understand why Alastair Cook hasn’t appeared in the frame at all in coloured clothes though.
Meanwhile, as I write, Pakistan are in awful trouble against South Africa in the 5th ODI in Johannesburg. Pollock, South Africa’s ‘old man river’ has defied the years and ripped the Pakistani top order apart by taking 5 for 23.
10 Comments »