What to make of the England test selection?
On a purely competitive note, this selection has made a few more likely to get question 17 correct because, as it is almost certain, Onions and Bresnan make their debuts, we’ll have three debutants in the England team this year (Amjad Khan the other) and every chance that one more may get the call in the 9 tests remaining this year (I think that is how many we have…)
However, on a making sense note, I’m struggling….
The batting is probably more understandable. Matt Prior is being given the responsibility at number six which he probably deserves a lot more than Flintoff at the moment. Sure, Prior’s ton may have come on an easy paced pitch in Trinidad, but at least he’s nabbed one, which Freddie has not done in an England test line-up since Nottingham in 2005. However, throwing your least experienced batsman to the wolves at number 3 isn’t as logical – Bopara may impress everyone with his temperament, but his last knock in an England shirt was made on a shirtfront and he still looked a little susceptible to the short pitched ball. At number three he is going to be exposed should we lose an early wicket. Shouldn’t KP or Collingwood man up and go there instead while we wait for Bell or Vaughan to make a compelling case with runs, or for Bopara to build up a career at number 5 or 6? Robert Key was the answer to three until a couple of years ago, but he’s clearly cheesed enough people off not to be welcome. So who looks likely, or worthy, of a go? James Hildreth may have a triple century this season, but he copped a duck yesterday on a pitch Durham got 500 on. Jim Troughton made a big double, but he’s also been in the wilderness for an age too. I am not exactly bringing up many names here, but that’s the selectors jobs…
The selection of Tim Bresnan baffles me. England have picked this sort of player over the years and it is mystifying. You are either a test class batsman or a test class bowler. Flintoff gets into the team because of his bowling; he has tried to be selected at test level as a batsman only and England told him to clear off. At the moment you would be hard pressed to say Flintoff deserves to bat above Stuart Broad in the England team. Now we bring in Bresnan, a man who isn’t a test class batsman and unless I’m totally missing out here, is hardly up there as bowler either. He’s a decent scorer on the fantasy cricket scene where his handy mix of lower order runs and the odd 3 or 4 for pick up points. That isn’t test class. It seems England want to put Prior at six, but don’t have the faith in him to see it through so get some “bowlers who can bat” in behind him. I don’t expect this to last.
Graham Onions is a different case, because he’s been mooted for a while and had taken wickets. As if to illustrate the worthiness of his selection, he destroyed Somerset at Taunton yesterday. This chap has been injured a lot in the past season or two, but his name has always been on the radar. He now replaces his Durham colleague Steve Harmison who may have supped his last drink at the England saloon, but somehow, like the way we turned to Tufnell when we were fed up with our spinners, I fear we’ll go back to the greatest waster of a talent I’ve seen for a while when we are desperate hoping for a miracle. I’m a bit concerned that we are going in with quite a raw pace attack, but that’s how Simon Jones and Steve Harmison learned. I’m not sure of Onions’ pace but it isn’t always about this at the end of the day. With Jimmy Anderson well deserving of his slot, and Stuart Broad’s necessary development for a man who may turn out to be our leading wicket taker in tests when all is said and done, the bowling, while still a worry, is being addressed.
Graeme Swann will have to take the spinners’ slot because, quite frankly, he deserves it over Panesar at the moment. I’m not sure Swann will get the Aussies quivering but I’m afraid the pessimism I have for that series now is all pervading. England have taken mighty steps backwards and have lost the plot. There hasn’t been a development of talent as under Fletcher, rather an expectation that you have peaked when you get selected at test level. I fear for the end of this summer, and England’s cupboard behind looks bare. Good luck, Andy Flower…
