Oh yes, I’ve seen this one today too..

“I never doubted the bloke’s quality, simply his approach to test cricket. A player of his ability should not be giving his wicket away when he has scored over 60.”

First point, I’d rather him give his wicket away over 60, than give it away in the early part of his innings. Obviously I’d rather he not got out at all. However, beggars can’t be choosers. However, the inference is that KP does not go on once he is in, and gives it away. Is this borne out by the numbers – converting 50s into tons is a good start.

KP has passed 50 on 31 occasions in his test career of 54 matches (and given one of those was the aborted St John’s test, it really is 53). So he averages a half century every 3 in 5 tests, which is pretty good going. Ponting, for example, has 84 in 133, so that ratio is comparable.

On the occasions KP has passed 50 he has gone on to make a century sixteen times. More than 1 in 2 convertability, which is exceptional. Three of the half centuries were also “not out” so of the 31 times he has got past 50, he’s been dimissed 12 times. Giving it away my backside! I don’t like that 25% of his centuries are between 100 and 102, nor that he doesn’t have unbeaten centuries to his name, but that’s not the knock on him. The knock is he gets out playing aggressive shots. Amazing!

13 of his 97 innings have been in the 40s, and that’s a concern. He has ten scores of 1 or 0 too, indicating he can be an iffy starter, and 21 single figure scores. The knock on him should be he is an iffy starter, which means he shouldn’t be an opener. I think we knew that.

Look at other conversion rates in this England team.

Strauss is the best – Passing 50 on 32 occasions, with 18 tons. He has had 21 more innings than KP.

Vaughan was also good – 36 times passing 50, half of them hundreds.

Cook has passed 50 on 29 occasions, and just nine times gone to a ton.

Collingwood has passed 50 on 25 occasions in 4 less tests than KP, and scored 9 centuries.

So it seems KP isn’t as guilty of “giving it away” as some may think…

Perception can often defeat reality, and high profile idiocy can supplant the other dismissals just as easily.