Ashes 2013
Something old and something new
January 18th 2014
With Steve Finn back in blighty
and protesting that his problems are nowhere near as deep as some have
suggested, Chris Jordan moves up to the T20 squad and continues his rapid rise,
with the aim now being the World T20 and then the June Test series against Sri
Lanka, in which England will surely try out several new faces. This, in turn,
leaves a hole in the Lions squad, occupied by Liam Plunkett, one of Duncan
Fletcher’s gut calls, who started well before, like so many, losing his way in the
2006/07 trainwreck and its aftermath. Plunkett has bags of talent and one,
probably final, opportunity to rebuild his international career – while Jordan,
at 25, is a bet for the future, Plunkett, at 29, comes back into the reckoning now,
or he never will.
Liam Plunkett played 9 Tests and
no fewer than 27 ODIs between 2005 and 2007 and also played single matches in
Bangladesh in 2010 and in Australia in 2011, to take his total of ODIs to 29.
His debut came in 2005, when he was added to an England squad in Pakistan that
was suffering from the loss of player after player. Figures of 3-51 in a
high-scoring game that England won, playing as super-sub for none other than
KP, was a respectable debut. Even better was his second match, this time in the
starting XI.
It was a match that I remember
with great affection because, having recorded a Sky at Night in Patrick Moore’s
study the previous day, we sat down in the Music Room to watch the match
together on Sky; this being the typical “Minder” duty for visitors to Selsey
and a pleasure to carry out. A dreadful batting performance saw England reduced
to 130-8, at which point Liam Plunkett, batting at 9, came together with
super-sub Vikram Solanki, who replaced Jimmy Anderson (Vikram Solanki batting
at 10???) and scored a magnificent 56. Together they put together 100 and
lifted England to a reasonable total although, one bowler short after making
the substitution in a desperate search for runs, 230 simply could not be
defended. During that stand though, the constant grumbling in Patrick’s study
at the miserable England batting effort, was turned to frank admiration.
Meanwhile. Chris Jordan’s career
seems to be on the up and up. After playing for the Lions last summer against
less than testing opposition in the shape of Bangladesh A, he has now played 3
ODIs, all against Australia, with a respectable 6 wickets @ 25.7, all of them
England defeats, reaching 91.8mph on the speed gun at Southampton (for
comparison, Mitch Johnson’s fastest ball was 92.7 mph). As others struggle, Chris
Jordan seems to be looking better and better in comparison.
Graeme Thorpe says that, had
Alistair Cook had a chance to replay the end of the 2nd ODI, he
would have done things differently. Translated, this means that it is
recognised that Alistair Cook’s tactical nous in letting Ben Stokes go for 37
in his last three overs while Bopara and Bresnan were stopping the runs at the
other end, was not particularly finely tuned. With Joe Root still struggling,
although he bowled a superb spell and Stuart Broad coming back, there is every
chance that England will play a specialist spinner tonight and go for a
re-vamped side.
Just about everyone has given up
this ODI series as another 5-0 defeat, at least England should try something
different for a change.
No comments:
Post a Comment