This aint like dustin’ crops boy.
It hasn’t been the most auspicious start for Ashley Giles. England were thrashed in the first warm up game and beaten soundly by Delhi in the second. Thank heavens we weren’t playing Jaipur and Mumbai too, otherwise things might have got really ugly.
It’s all the more embarrassing because England are, if the rather bizarre ICC Championship rankings are to be believed, the best ODI team in the world. Imagine what Delhi might have done to South Africa or Australia. Gasp.
The truth is, however, that the results in England’s warm up matches haven’t come as much of a surprise. Conventional thinking dictates that England will be up against it in the forthcoming series – especially as so many key players have been rested (well, actually it’s just Trott and Swann, but why let the facts stop us from getting in our excuses early).
Furthermore, let’s not forget that England have lost their last two ODI series in India 0-5. Giles could not have had a tougher task to begin his tenure.
I can’t pretend I was enamoured with Giles’ promotion. This blog has long been suspicious of English cricket’s authorities, and part of me attributes Giles speedy rise from retired player to selector (before one could blink) and now England ODI coach and test supremo in waiting, to his ability to say the right things, play politics and endear himself to the right people more than his cricketing mind – did anybody else roll their eyes and sigh when he said ‘I’m happy to be joining the best run professional sporting organisation in the world’ (or word’s to that effect) when he was appointed. Only Ashley could have said that and kept a straight face.
But that’s water under the bridge now. Giles is the man in charge and we should all support him. His task is tough enough, and if he is still as sensitive to press criticism as he was as a player, then it’s imperative he gets off to a good start. And besides, who wouldn’t want England to give India a good ODI hiding in their own backyard?!
So what are our chances? I’m afraid they’re not good. But they could be worse. The batting, if England pick the right side in the right order, looks quite strong. Cook and Bell have established a strong partnership at the top. Root looks like he could be a like-for-like replacement for Trott (anchoring the innings) whilst a middle order of Pietersen, Morgan and the improvising Buttler (fresh from his T20 heroics) looks promising.
The problem, as usual will be Kieswetter – who is to manoeuvring the turning ball skilfully around the field what Yuvraj Singh is to playing the short ball, or Nick Clegg to keeping pre-election pledges. Personally I would just give Buttler the gloves, but it won’t happen. And by the way, am I the only one wondering why Alex Hales isn’t in the squad? He looked awesome in the big bash today.
So if the batting looks strong, why all the negativity? It’s because the bowling looks weaker than a teenage girl’s knees at a Jonas brothers gig. We will miss Swann badly. Tredwell is an admirable bowler with underestimated skills, but it’s hard to see the Indians losing sleep over him and Patel. Meanwhile Finn is returning from injury and Dernbach still oscillates wildly between cunning speedster with a devilishly disguised slower ball to stupid trundler with variations as predictable as tears in an X-Factor finale.
As for Bresnan and Woakes, let’s just say that the former is rapidly getting found out whilst the latter will probably do as well as all somewhat innocuous medium pacers do outside of English conditions: they’ll disappear into row Z.
Basically, therefore, if England are going to win this series we’ll have to bat big. Scratch that. We’ll probably have to bat huge. We’ll also have to chase in most of the games too; if the match against Delhi is anything to go by, we can’t trust our attack (in these conditions) to defend many totals.
Giles will also need to draw on his famed man management skills. We’ve all heard about his ability to take players under his wing and inspire better performances – he managed it with aplomb with the likes of Rikki Clarke and Varun Chopra at Warwickshire – so now it’s time for Ashley to prove how good he Wheelie is.
Good luck Mr Giles. I hope you don’t need it, but I suspect you will.
James Morgan
