England's Selectors Facing Some Interesting Posers

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

Some Interesting Posers Emerging For The Selectors

 

April 20^th 2014

 

Despite rain wiping-out more than two-thirds of the Division 2 programme, the three Division 1 games have got a full day’s play and a number of England players or pretenders have had a chance to make their mark. The biggest winners of the day are probably Gary Ballance – 117 not out in a strong Yorkshire performance against Northamptonshire – and Chris Woakes – 5-63 against Lancashire, who are showing that life in Division 1 is going to be a lot harder for them than it was in Division 2.

While Peter Moores’s supporters point to his leading Lancashire to Championship success in 2011, the detractors point out that the side was relegated the following year and, despite bouncing straight back up, look rather thin to mount a challenge in Division 1 this year. The implied criticism is that he has not been effective at reinforcing the side and that rather than turning a sow’s ear into a silk purse, took a Championship-winning side and turned it into a sow’s ear.

There is a strong suggestion that Lancashire’s chances will depend very much on how much Jimmy Anderson can galvanise them to early wins. Today, despite bowling with pace and good rhythm, his new ball spell went wicketless and Warwickshire made a strong start chasing Lancashire’s 247ao. Jos Buttler’s much-anticipated first innings of the season ended on 28, with a catch to Tim Ambrose (six in the innings, four of them off Woakes). For the first time in the last six years, Jimmy Anderson’s name is not a given in the England side after a difficult tour of Australia. He needs some wickets, just to remind the selectors that, despite the rise of rivals such as Chris Jordan, he is one of the best four seamers in the country: one assumes that Broad and Jordan are already pencilled-in.  

The stand-out performance of the day was Ballance’s 117*, with 18x4 and 1x6. Ballance has started the season with 101, 77, 5 and, now, 117* and is making a pretty powerful case to occupy the spot of either the unfortunate Jonathon Trott or KP.

In the one Division 2 game to get in nearly a full day of play, Michael Carberry has not helped his case by adding another attractive 45 to 0, 6, 27 and 100*. Carberry needs some big runs to stay in the frame, with Sam Robson and Alistair Cook already making pretty irresistible cases to open.

The one real area of doubt is the wicket-keeping spot. Jonny Bairstow and Matt Prior are injured. Jos Buttler is playing his first game and one wonders if the selectors would want to go back to someone like Steven Davies if others are either unavailable, or unconvincing. There is even a chance that the selectors could go with someone with international experience such as Craig Kieswetter if he gets into a run of form. People tend to forget that, barely 26 years old, Kieswetter is still relatively young and probably 3-4 years from reaching his peak.

Early Signs Are The Bowling Is More Of An Issue For England

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

Contenders Showing County Form

 

April 16^th 2014

 

 

With eight rounds of matches before the international season starts and almost every place in the England line-up at least potentially up for grabs, early county form is going to be unusually important. So far there have been two rounds, plus a host of matches against the students in various guises.

So far, only Sussex, Nottinghamshire and Middlesex have played two games in Division 1 and, in Division 2, only Hampshire and Worcestershire. However, already a lot of contenders have put down markers. Ian Bell, Alistair Cook, Sam Robson, Matt Prior, Jonny Bairstow (although against the students), Gary Ballance, Michael Carberry and Adil Rashid, one of England’s forgotten men, all have centuries. Robson, Bell and Cook all went well past 150. The top runscorer in the land though is an England reject: Ed Joyce has 3 centuries in 4 innings to date and 383 runs, well ahead of Alistair Cook’s 315, also in 4 innings.

It is early days, but plenty of batsmen are scoring runs. Despite Carberry’s century today, there are thoughts that maybe Sam Robson is pushing to the head of the queue to accompany Alistair Cook to the middle: one more big score and his case may become irresistible, while Carberry may be behind even Nick Compton now and wasting his time having criticised the selectors. The bowling situation though is less clear.

Steve Finn (twice), Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Meaker all have 5-fors, Meaker’s a 6-6 against some stunned students, but he also took a 4-for and bowled with fire in a lost cause against Glamorgan. Steve Finn’s 15 wickets have come at a strike rate of 25.5 in just three innings, suggesting that reports of his demise are premature. Elsewhere, Chris Jordan has impressed with pace, hostility and skill and Tymal Mills has had a powerful performance, if still painfully erratic and nowhere near ready for Test cricket.

So far we have not seen Broad, Bresnan or Stokes and spinners have been mainly surplus to requirements, so the relative claims of Borthwick, Moeen Ali, Tredwell, Monty and Rayner are somewhat on hold. Moeen and Monty have had their moments and Scott Borthwick has been Scott Borthwick: expensive, but his two wickets in two balls almost snatched a win for Durham in a match that looked a certain draw against Northants (8 wickets at 34.4 and a strike rate of 53 suggests that he has a wicket-taking knack, however many half-trackers are mixed in). If either Moeen or Borthwick want to play, they need to score plenty of runs and, so far, others have more.

Other absences are also significant. Jonathon Trott has just 71 runs in 3 innings. Nick Compton 105 runs in 3 innings, without a 50. Chris Woakes 26 and 2 wickets in 2 innings. Graeme Onions has 4 wickets @ 37.5. Joe Root is waiting, like Ben Stokes, for broken bones to heal. There is plenty of time for any or all of them to make their case, or for someone else to come through, but Trott and Woakes need to stake a claim soon, or find themselves left behind in the popular perception of who has form and who has not. Nick Compton needs big runs and, even then, it may not be enough to convince the selectors that he was dropped too soon. And those who suspect that Graeme Onions has lost a little bit of nip and would be exposed at Test level, even if he still does well for Durham, will look for signs that he is not quite the force that he was.