Shot selection all wrong

Alastair Cook said to Mark Nicholas that people were probably quite happy watching the England players hook and pull when it went between the fielders.   I wasn't!   Some were more controlled than others for sure, but there were plenty of shots played that were too risky for a Test where you've got 2 sessions to bat.   So no, at no time was I celebrating those hook and pull shots Alastair.   I had my head in my hands knowing that the inevitable would happen and unless they were more selective a wicket would fall.   Little did I know that it wouldn't be one wicket, but three!

Difficult to believe...

If I hadn't watched England get out to 3 pull/hook shots in the last 15 minutes I wouldn't have believed it possible for international batsmen to use so little brain. Cook must be fuming - his captaincy is made to look particularly poor because opposition batsmen don't obligingly hit the ball to our fielders. Yet England's do.

The writing was on the wall before Prior was out. He tennis shotted a 4 from way above his head. It was high risk but came off that time. If he carried on like that it was only a matter of time before he was out, and so it proved.   If that's Prior's last England innings it was a sad way to go.

Someone needs to tell England that it is ok to sway out of the way of the short ball!

England captaincy debate continues....

Interesting to hear the debate on TMS about who could replace Alastair Cook should he go as captain - if it happens wouldn't England have been in a so much better position had they picked James Foster from the start of the summer so that he could have stepped into the captaincy role?   What a pity they didn't go with my selection!   Having said that England would have missed out on their top Test run scorer this summer if they'd not picked Root!

Mike Selvey mentioned Chris Read as a possible keeper/captain but he's a couple of years older than Foster so for me Foster's the man.   Sounds like Jos Buttler will take the keeping slot and Cook will continue as captain but time will tell....

Cook needs to improve fast

 

All commentators and journalists repeat time and time again what a nice guy Alastair Cook is.   It goes without saying that as England supporters we want him to be successful.   But things are starting to look very worrying for him.

He's clearly not a natural tactician - I don't think even his greatest supporters would suggest that he's going to win England a Test with his tactics.   In the last couple of games it appears that James Anderson has been making quite a few of the more innovative field changes, which the likes of Nasser Hussain have picked up on in commentary (and Cook even mentioned in his post match interview at Lords).

So that leaves man management and leading by example/respect.   His man management is clearly not ideal because Paul Downton felt he had to come in and get rid of the most troublesome player Cook had to manage.   And his reasoning appeared to be that Cook wasn't able to manage him.

So that leaves leading by example by getting big scores.   He's now struggling there too.   It doesn't bode well does it?   I assume he'll get the whole summer to come good, but he's got to start getting runs asap, even if he leaves much of the man management off the pitch to Moores and much of the fielding positioning to Anderson.   If only he could also pass on bowling changes to someone else too!   Fingers crossed the England hierarchy find a way through this muddle.

Are England trying to win this game?

I assumed that England would be trying to win this game on the basis that drawing the game involves facing more balls that could take wickets than if the game is won earlier than the planned finish.   At the moment their batting doesn't suggest ambitions of winning the game, but it's still within their grasp if Ali and Prior bat normally and stay together well into the final session.

In terms of psychology it would be almost as bad to be hanging on 8 or 9 down as losing....Cook's going to be under pressure either way.   A win would buy him the rest of the summer to prove he can score runs and captain effectively.

Shaky start for Downton

By all accounts, Paul Downton is a good selection for the England Cricket MD position, but I can't say his immediately endeared himself to me in his position.   My memories of his playing days are hazey but in short I remember someone who was picked for his batting rather than his keeping, but generally failed to deliver with the bat.   Of course his playing credentials are irrelevant to his current position, so I was looking forward to seeing how things would go.

The subject that's worried me is Kevin Pietersen.   Not the decision itself, as Pietersen disgraced himself with the whole South Africa/Strauss incident and was lucky to get a second chance, but more the rationale behind the decision.

Downton has said that he went to Sydney for the final game of The Ashes and observed a player that was "disengaged".   I watched a fair bit of it myself and there were a few of Pietersen's colleagues who didn't appear to be 100% either....not a total surprise as they were getting beaten for the fifth time.   Graeme Swann couldn't even be bothered to complete the tour.   But most importantly, I thought the comments from Downton showed a misunderstanding of "ego" players and completely undermined Alastair Cook.   Apparently Pietersen was ok to play when managed by strong people around him, but this was a new team and that was no longer the case.   The inference was that Cook is or was too weak to handle him - not a great statement of confidence in your captain.

I also find it hard to believe that Downton didn't come across players of Pietersen's ilk when playing.   We've all played with them - players who when losing can't be seen to be trying their hearts out because that would imply their best wasn't good enough.   Instead, as it becomes clear they'll lose, those players start to lark about, trying to pass off the inevitable defeat that is hurting them so badly as a trivial event.   It's part of how they manage to stroll out to bat as if they own the stage - when they're at their best they win, they believe.   In club cricket, another trait of these players is their desire to integrate with the opposition after your team has been soundly beaten (and no other time)....it's all part of their attempts not to let a terrible result dent their confidence - they're a winner.

Nevertheless, the decision to sack Pietersen was made and, strangely, a non-disclosure agreement was made between both parties.   At this stage it's difficult to see why that was necessary as Downton says there was no one incident that caused a problem on the tour (it remains to be seen if anything important comes out once the NDA runs out, but Downton appears to be talking pretty candidly despite the NDA).   Pietersen himself has publicly stated that he was not disengaged and has also questioned comments from Downton that he couldn't find one supporter of Pietersen.   Of course, we don't know how the questions were asked as any player wanting an international career was unlikely to say anything that could go against the prevailing attitude and potentially threaten their future selection.   But we do know that two of the players who assumed their international career was over after the tour, Carberry and Tremlett, came out and said that Pietersen hadn't been a problem on the tour.

So while Pietersen's sacking was to a certain extent inevitable, and his performances in Australia certainly did him no favours, Downton's handling of things to date have made me concerned for his potential to be successful in his role.   And while he keeps saying things that are opinions only, Pietersen will continually respond publicly and the team won't be able to move on fully.   It's a pity he appears to be doing his media training on the job rather than before taking such an important role.

Do or die

So England have to defy history and momentum to stop Australia taking the Ashes over the next 5 days in Perth.   5 days if England are lucky many will think.   But I'm not quite as negative as many!

Yes, England have looked shocking in the first two Tests but the primary problem has been with the batting.   You look down the side and there's only Stokes who there's any doubt about.   Cook, Bell, Pietersen and Prior are class players who, apart from Bell, have been off form.   They will regain form.   Root and Carberry are inexperienced but fighting hard.   Cook needs to win the toss, bat and lead the way.   Two hundreds in the first innings of the match and the game will be England's to lose.

It's a massive if given the struggles England have had with the bat in 2013, but if they can get runs on the board the next challenge is getting 20 wickets.   Interesting to hear the side that Cricinfo have suggested is likely- they suggest one change from Adelaide which is Bresnan for Panesar.   That's the most likely team and the one I would go for, partly because of Swann's catching at second slip.   But I wonder how much thought England are giving to a side that involves Ballance and Stokes, as Alec Stewart has proposed, but no Swann.   Stokes would have to bowl a lot more overs than in Adelaide, possibly nearly as many in a day than the 25 he bowled in the match there.   But a batting line up that has Bresnan at 9 and Broad at 10 theoretically gives England a long batting line up.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall.   I'd play Swann, but it's a marginal call and I wouldn't be too disappointed if he was dropped.   I imagine England have looked at the stats of how many batsmen are caught at slip and are weighing up the dropping of one of their specialists in that position.

The main thing is the batting - the largest partnership in the first two Tests was 111 and other than that it's 62...not good enough!   A small momentum change like Cook getting a big score after being dropped, or two of England's top 4 getting big runs in the first innings of the match could turn things in England favour - Australia's batting is pretty brittle, despite the big scores in the first two Tests.

"Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torment of man" (Friedrich Nietzsche).

I haven't given up hope yet but the toss is crucial!

England struggles and Australia's capitulation

 

I've started to feel about this England cricket team like I did about the rugby team in 2002 - even when they're losing I keep thinking they'll fight back!   But for Cook getting out last night I would have been confidently predicting they'd bat day 5 out, but now I'm more than a little concerned!   Is it too much to hope for a Cardiff-esque 10th wicket stand between Anderson and Panesar?   I hope not!

 

So with that backdrop, it feels a little bit rash to criticise the Aussies, but I'm English so it's essentially my job (as it is there's to criticise us Poms).   So what is going on with their batting line up?   Only Warner (just) averages over 40 other than Michael Clarke.   It really is one of the weakest Australian batting line ups to have played in a couple of generations.  

 

Interesting then the way Australia handled (or mishandled) the older guys reaching the end of their career last year.   And that's not just the Australian selectors, it's the Australian public who were right on the backs of Ponting and Haddin prematurely.   It should never have been about whether they were as good as they once were - they didn't need to be.   As long as they were in the best Australian XI they should have been encouraged to carry on playing.

 

Ponting dominating Australia's domestic cricket this season with an average of nearly 90 is interesting.   And Haddin also had a dominant year.   Can Australia really say that they have a stronger XI without Ponting?   For one thing it's unlikely that their team ethic would have slipped with him there and Clarke wouldn't have found himself so entirely alone.

 

There's even been rumours of Hussey coming back for The Ashes, such is the current disaster.   Good luck getting that top 7 ship shape in the next few months Australia - even if England bat like they have in the 3rd NZ Test they'll still be big favourites....

England can play Patel AND Panesar

What's your views on the balance of the England side?   It's interesting to see that today, the majority of wickets fell to medium pacers, although of course that's not accounting for the "real" wickets as some that were out were given not out, and some that were not out were given out.

In retrospect I'd have picked Panesar, but I can see why England picked Bresnan given that the ball has been reverse swinging a lot in the warm up games.   The other factors to take into account is that just because England's top order look pretty inept against spin, doesn't mean that England's spinners will automatically take lots of wickets - the Indian batsmen are sadly far better at playing spin so Panesar won't necessarily run throgh them. And of course, Bresnan can bat and his batting could yet prove crucial if England are to pull off a miraculous escape on day 5.

 

Having picked the side they picked, what really disappointed me was the lack of bowling Cook gave Patel on day 1.   (Yes, I know it's not the done thing to criticise Cook, sorry!).   Patel and Swann have sometimes bowled together brilliantly for Nottinghamshire, and it would have been great to see them in tandem far more - Patel will bowl bad balls but he's proven he can also bowl some great ones.   He may be inferior to Panesar but he's still well worth a long bowl in those conditions.

 

Patel's in danger of losing his chance for England and I feel very sorry for him.   He's the right man for number 6 in India in my opinion (as he's a far better player of spin than Bairstow and Morgan) irrespective of his bowling.   But he's been unlucky on several counts - he's had some shocking LBW decisions (including one in the first innings in his favour when he should have been given), he's starting to get negative press purely because he's seen by some as keeping Panesar out of the side (compare his press with, for example Bairstow when he came into the side and the commentators raved about his classy 16 on debut), and of course Patel hasn't played a home Test yet. Readers of Cricket Burble may remember that it's been statistically proven you're less likely to succeed as a player if you make your debut away.

 

Assuming the wicket is much the same as this one for the next Test, I'd want Panesar in the side, but I wouldn't be dropping Patel.   My preference would be to drop Broad for Panesar (which means that Broad will now take 5 for because every time he's gone a few games without doing anything that seems to happen!), and England would then need to select between Anderson and Finn.   The alternative would be to bat Prior and Patel and 5 and 6 (who goes in first doesn't really matter to me but I'm not sure I agree with those wanting Prior up the order - given England's top order batting if he bats 5 he'll be in within a few overs which won't be helpful if he's been keeping for 5 sessions).   I'd like to keep Bresnan in the side in that scenario because he's an excellent reverse swing bowler, and of course he's the only bowler who tries to bat properly.

 

It will be interesting to see what happens if England can get through the first session tomorrow without a wicket falling - a huge ask, but if they could it may be an exciting Test match.   With Sehwag opening and the likes of Kohli, Yuvraj and Dhoni in the Indian side they can easily chase down 200 in a session, so it's crucial England are still batting at tea if they want to pull off a miracle draw.

 

England's batting line up

Amazingly, having gone out with a more inexperienced batting squad than usual, England seem to have a number of options with only one more warm up game to go before the 1st Test v India.   Gut feel given the squad that England took with only Joe Root as a specialist opener other than Cook, I though they'd look to move Trott up to open with Bell at 3, leaving 5 and 6 open.   But Cook has emphatically stated that Trott will bat 3, so he must be relieved that Compton made some runs opening today.

Patel and Bairstow have both made great starts to the tour with hundreds, so I'm surprised England closed off the option to have them 5 and 6, but choosing one it presumably has to be Patel given his left-arm spin (3 wickets today won't have harmed his cause).   Good luck to Patel - he's still young enough to have a very long and successful England career ahead of him if he can come good, and he'll be keen to do well enough that he can get a home test eventually!

Strauss on his team mates

A huge amount was made of Graeme Swann's comments about Kevin Pietersen's lack of leadership credentials in his recently released autobiography, and yet any tensions that those words caused were never apparent to any external observer. Perhaps the England team have found that happy blend of honesty and even taking the mickey out of each other that allows sides to build up fantastic morale?

It's a near impossible thing to get right because it's rare that all players can give as good as they get, so invariably "banter" between team mates is something that is enjoyed rather more by some than by others. And if the team aren't careful, one or two players all too easily become the target for the majority of "banter", leaving them feeling a little ostracised.

Interesting then to hear Andrew Strauss - in relatively unguarded mood - make a few comments about his team mates and Chairman of Selectors, tongue in cheek. The whole video is about an hour and twenty minutes so here's a few of his comments I thought were interesting....

Simon Hughes asked Dusty Miller about how Strauss had come to be captain of England and Miller explained how he originally didn't see Strauss as a one day player and he thought at the time England needed the same captain for ODIs and Tests. His view that Strauss couldn't play ODIs changed and that opened things up for Strauss to become captain. Strauss' view (paraphrased): "What Dusty's is really trying to say is that after the Kevin Pietersen / Peter Moores fallout, there weren't many other options".

Simon Hughes also asked if Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott were really as boring as it appeared. Answer, "yes"! Strauss then clarified when asked if Trott participated in the changing room banter or if he was a loner....no, he's not a loner, "but don't let anyone tell you he's a normal bloke because he isn't". Apparently Trott has a habit of walking off to the next tee on the golf course before his opponent has finished the previous hole as he's so wrapped up in his own game, so it's not just batting where he's self-obsessed.

And what of the team comedian Graeme Swann? Strauss likens him to a Mars bar - the first one tastes great and the first time you meet Graeme Swann it's a very enjoyable experience. By the 15th Mars bar you're feeling sick, and continually spending time with Swann makes you feel that way too apparently.

Nice to know the England captain feels comfortable ribbing his team mates a little without fear of admonishment.

Spanish footballers striking

Last summer something Alastair Cook said got exagerated and quoted out of context, and there was talk about England cricketers striking. That wasn't really going to happen though. Apparently, Spanish footballers are striking though - some people don't know how lucky they are. If they aren't paid when a club goes into administration so be it....the vast majority are already millionaires.

Getting out of the way of the ball

Listening to the TMS commentary and Cook has just got hit fielding at silly point. On the backside as he turned around. Why do players do that? Gambhir got hit on the elbow doing that yesterday.

I've fielded close in quite a lot and I try not to turn at all. It of course takes a bit of nerve not to flinch but whatever you do you're just as likely to get hit and I'd prefer to be watching the batsman in case the ball isn't middled and you can react.

I'm told by people that have been professionally coached on this that the advice is to simply hunch down facing the batsman if you're at short-leg, and jump up if you're at silly point (as the ball is likely to go low on the off-side, but may go at any height on the leg-side), but not sure I totally agree with that. Any move that takes your eye off the ball or just moves your eyes, makes it less likely you'll catch a chance.

England's ODI team

Interesting to see that Mike Atherton has had a dig at Alastair Cook before the ODIs start. If Bresnan is fit I'd like to see him playing ahead of Bopara - with Bell at 6 Bresnan's bowling should be more important than his batting at 7.

The alternative to Strauss - Stuart Broad???

As I said in a previous post, I think Strauss should carry on as England captain. And that's irrespective of whether he wants to try to carry on to the 2015 World Cup - even if he doesn't there's no ideal candidate to replace him right now.

Michael Vaughan has suggested that if England were to look past Alastair Cook, he thinks Stuart Broad should be considered. I struggle with that - a guy who is so petulant clearly has problems remaining emotionally detached as the skipper needs to. The old Bob Woolmer saying "Your heart's in the oven, your brain's in the fridge" is something completely alien to Broad. He may have captaincy potential eventually but, dare I say it, he's got a bit of maturing to do before he reaches that point.

You can see how Vaughan has ended up considering Broad though - who else is there exactly other than Cook, who currently doesn't get in the side? It's difficult to be able to tell from outside the changing room who has the respect of the other players and who is tactically astute. My guess is that they'd go to Ian Bell. I don't know if Graeme Swann has any captaincy credentials but it would be interesting to know if he even gets a thought given his care free attitude.

I hope for England's sake it doesn't become an issue and Strauss continues.

Ashes Highlights

If you're struggling for time to watch Ashes highlights, or you don't have Sky or ITV4 then try the ECB highlights....they're only a couple of minutes per session! Long way to go in the series but after day 1, I think it's going to be a thriller. Siddle's day to remember got England 8 down but personally I was a bit disappointed the way England gave their last 2 wickets away - if we lose by twenty runs they may regret that. Especially Anderson who - despite successfully pulling off a reverse sweep before his dismissal - was choosing a risky shot against the spin instead of playing the percentages.

(That's not to say Bell didn't play brilliantly apart from the occassional swish when batting with the tailenders, including the shot he got out to, but I don't understand why the established batsman is so often the man to get out).

The good news is the starts that a number of England players got - Cook, Trott, Pietersen and Bell will hope to convert starts to centuries in future. It's possible that the Aussies will bat England out of the game tomorrow - and yesterday certainly wasn't a good start(!) - but it wouldn't surprise me if this turns out to be a very close Test completed on the 4th day....

Wetting your appetite

A good piece in the FT from Matthew Engel about The Ashes and the England/Australia rivalry.

And good to see Cook got a hundred today....

Jaguar and cricket

It's always good to see company's backing cricket so it's good to see Jaguar's involvement, although they perhaps need to think about the wording of press releases in this cynical age. They've signed up to be the "naming rights partner" for the premium hospitality lounge at Edgbaston over the next 3 years, for use by their premium Jaguar Club of which there are only 100 members.

They may need to rethink their press release copy though, if they want us to believe what the England captain is meant to have said about the Jaguar XJ having test driven it for the brand along with Alastair Cook and Eoin Morgan, while getting tips from Martin Brundle. Apparently he said:

“Taking the cars out today has been great fun and it was really useful to pick up a few tips from Martin and the boys. Professional cricketers do a lot of driving during the summer going from venue to venue, so after a hard day play it’s very reassuring to jump into a car as comfortable as the Jaguar XJ. It’s got everything I need: superb performance, a luxury interior, sleek design and with all that boot space, I can fit my cricket bag in without any problems too!”

Ignoring the typo (hard day play), I can just see the Jaguar client telling their PR agency that they want to get in some comments about the car's selling points, which sadly led to that completely unbelievable last sentence. Of course we know he didn't say any of it, but best to keep it at least vaguely sincere Jaguar, so that cricket fans think he could have said it!!

Cook's decisions

Interesting to see that the first LBW shout to Alastair Cook was shown to have hit the inside edge within seconds by hotspot - I thought one of the objections to using that to help umpires was that it took too long.

Then he was given out by one that looked at first glance on TV to be going over the top and so Hawkeye thought too. No UDRS - more wrong decisions than is necessary.

Trott will no doubt get out now but he's looking quality early in his innings!

Alastair Cook's facial hair

Hmmmm, not sure what I think about an England captain who's still experimenting with facial hair. He's 25 now, you would have thought he's past that stage....to be fair he's probably been influenced by Kevin Pietersen's terrible attempts at facial hair. But look what happened to his captaincy stint - it doesn't bode well!