AuthorRob Stephenson

England’s left-arm seamers

England’s white ball teams now have a battery of left arm seamers, and often go in with as many as three. The sudden profusion of left arm options is, however, a fairly recent development, as until recently it was a comparative rarity for England to select a left armer in their seam attack. Perhaps the best known England left armer was JK Lever, and although he predated my time as an England fan, I do have vague memories watching him late in his career for Essex. Looking at his figures, it is a...

Genuine Pace – England’s Modern Quicks

After the retirement of Bob Willis, English cricket was criticised for not producing enough genuinely quick bowlers. The standard criticism was that the heavy county workload meant that potential fast bowlers had to cut down on their pace and develop into fast-medium seamers to prolong their career. As England fans, we spent too long watching our seamers struggling in the Ashes while the Australians compiled vast totals. The standard complaint was that we lacked any genuine pace. And the same...

Is Age Just A Number?

Now the dust has settled on England’s T20 World Cup win and attention has shifted to the Test series in Pakistan, we can now give some thought to the future of England’s white ball 50 and 20 over sides. This raises some interesting issues about age and cricket, and the whole thorny issue of how to evolve a side when players need to be replaced. The fact of the matter is that the bulk of our World Cup winners are now in their 30s. Inevitably this raises some questions as to whether they should...

What next for England’s ODI side?

All eyes are obviously on the World T20 at the moment. But if England lose to Sri Lanka on Saturday, Matthew Mott and his team’s attention will immediately turn to 50-over cricket again. With that in mind, Rob Stephenson discusses how things are shaping up ahead of our World Cup defence in India next year. The side has, after all, lost both its inspirational skipper and the man-of-the-match in that memorable Lord’s final against New Zealand in 2019… Bizarrely, even for the...

Hales Back With A Bang

So after three and a half years, the prodigal son is back. Alex Hales, a brutal one-day batsman, has been recalled to give some much needed oomph to England’s top order in T20. His first T20 for 3 and a half years resulted in a welcome 53 to help England defeat Pakistan in the first match of a seven-match series. Hales used to be a bit of a pratt. He was involved in the fracas in 2017 which resulted in Ben Stokes being charged but then cleared in connection with the fight. Hales was charged...

Hildreth, Patterson & Stevens. Thank you.

The retirement of James Hildreth, and the likely enforced retirement of Steve Patterson and Darren Stevens, reminds all county fans of the contributions these fine players have made to their respective sides, and also how much the county game has changed throughout their careers. Most county players will aspire to international honours throughout their career, but of this trio only James Hildreth seemed close to selection on occasions. A record of 47 first class hundreds confirms...

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