27 May 2008

Short Memories

It seemed like the whole of the country was under water yesterday but we were able to watch England's successful assault on what looked a very tricky target whilst we were frequently reminded that Bell and Collingwood were under pressure (I'd say from Shah and Key, rather than Bopara). What short memories some people have - not only of the past performances of the players in question but of Michael Vaughan at Lord's; he looked as out of form going into that match as these two did here and look what he achieved. I suspect that for some players (and Collingwood is certainly of that type) adversity and responsibility for a national team are the best motivators of a return to form. I'd certainly stick with a winning side (although as Mike Brearley said just because you've won your last match there's no reason why a team can't be improved).

1 comment:

Ed said...

I agree with Brearley in as much as the last result shouldn't matter in terms of selection for the next match, which is why I felt so agrieved for Hoggard when the England selectors axed him because they lost in NZ after he'd played a relatively poor match.

On TMS they were saying that Prior is the leading contender for the batting spot - not sure what stat they were going on....either aggregate runs or average. Replacing Collingwood with Shah, Key or Prior is possible, but Bopara could have the advantage as he is a good fielder and a part-time bowler - taking away our best fielder and replacing him with some pretty poor ones could be a problem.

I wonder if they'll spring a surprise and revert to Prior instead of Ambrose who had a bit of a shocking series so far.....while no-one is really making an issue of it for now, when South Africa arrive and we really need all the chances taken, no byes and some runs, he could get a lot of stick unless he improves.