If I had a quid for every fan who thinks England should drop a couple of batsmen after the debacle against Pakistan, I’d have enough money to set up my own television channel, re-employ Tony Lewis and Jack Bannister, and put live test cricket back on terrestrial TV. In a way, I can understand where these people are coming from: they see Bell and Pietersen struggling to pick Saeed Ajmal’s doosra and they want blood.
There’s just one problem with this rather knee jerk response. Who exactly do they want to replace these stalwarts who have served England so well? Perhaps they’d prefer someone from the England Lions – the next generation of batsmen who are allegedly poised to conquer the world.
Well, I’ll you a little bit about these up and coming superstars. With the exception of Somerset’s Jos Buttler, none of them are any good. Why else do you think England are persevering with the likes of Ravi Bopara – a batsman similar to Mark Ramprakash and Graeme Hick in temperament, but with approximately half their talent. I’m afraid, ladies and gentlemen, the cupboard is bare. That’s why Eoin Morgan, a guy who was elevated to the test team despite averaging just 36 in first class cricket, can’t seem to get dropped.
If you don’t believe what I’m saying, look up the scorecard from the recent warm up match between the Lions and the senior side. Strauss’ men hadn’t played limited overs cricket since September. The Lions, on the other hand, had been playing 50 over cricket for a few weeks – so the young guns had a distinct advantage. Or so you would have thought …
What actually happened is this: the Lions batted first were routed for under a hundred. In fact, their efforts were so dismal that the senior side set themselves an artificial score in excess of 230 to chase, just so they’d get a little more practice in the middle. How utterly humiliating.
I’m not denying that there are some talented young batsmen in England. The likes of Johnny Bairstow and Ben Stokes undoubtedly have great hand-eye coordination – and one day they might make class batsmen. But those days are in the distant future.
Let’s look a little closer at Lions line-up. First of all there’s Joe Root, the 21 year old from Yorkshire that everyone seems to rave about. The reality is that he’s scored just one hundred in 18 first class matches and averages 35. That’s hardly England material.
Then there’s Craig Kieswetter, or ‘Mr Biffer’ as I call him. Kieswetter possibly has a future in the one-day arena (maybe) but he hardly possesses the technical prowess capable of withstanding top class spin. If the bowling is good, biffers usually get found out.
The next cab off the rank is Alex Hales, the 23 year old from Notts who has already played T20 cricket for England. Many judges consider Hales to be the best legitimate prospect from the Lion’s line-up. Again the statistics suggest otherwise. He has scored a pretty measly four hundreds in 35 first class games. The Aussies must be shaking in their boots.
Finally there’s James Taylor, who has just left Leicestershire to enhance his England prospects. Of all the young batsmen in the country, Taylor is the most highly rated. He also has by far the most impressive first class record. Despite being just 22 years old, Taylor has scored ten hundreds and averages almost fifty. Sounds promising eh? Well, unfortunately he’s not quite there yet. Taylor had a miserably 2011 for this county (scoring just one hundred). Now is not the time to promote him.
The truth of the matter is that whilst England have quality backup seam bowlers coming out of their ears – Onions, Tremlett, Dernbach and Shahzad have all done a decent job for England – the batting reserves are as thin as they’ve been in perhaps twenty or thirty years.
We might laugh at Usman Khawaja and Sean Marsh’s recent struggles, and scoff at David Warner’s recent achievements (he does, after all, makes Craig KIeswetter’s style of batting look sophisticated), but the truth of the matter is that England aren’t any better off.
I suppose our message to the boo boys who want Bell and Pietersen thrown to the lions is this: the England Lions simply aren’t very good. They lost last month’s ODI series against Bangladesh ‘A’ 3-2. Anyone who thinks they might have done well against Saeed Ajmal and Pakistan – when they couldn’t even master Bangladesh’s reserves – is living in fantasy land.
James Morgan
Have to agree but is the Lions Xi too young this year? From a Hampshire point of view I can only assume Carberry is unable to travel as he should still be a shoe in for the Lions, more so than Vince who had a difficult season. Have the likes of Gale dropped out of the reckoning?
It seems to me that a couple of good seasons is qualifying batsmen for a Lions tour, I’m not sure if its a sympton or a part of the problem. Too little quality or over promotion.
Gale and lyth had poor seasons and their form had a lot to do with yorks getting relegated. Carberry is a decent player but a bit of a journeyman. Has been around a long time and never really torn up trees. Got a big double / triple ton for hants last year, but that was a rare career highlight. He’s also the wrong side of 30 now. I agree we are short of real batting talent coming through the ranks. The lions were indeed very young this time, which partly explains their indifferent results, but I’m not sure their are other alternatives around – which is why the likes of hales and bairstow have already earned caps ahead of their time
Broadly agree, but worth noting that Michael Vaughan was only averaging mid-thirties when he debuted for England, and seem to remember Tresco was similar. Stats don’t tell the whole story. The very best players – such as Gower, for instance – seem to need the bigger stage to show their true talent, and average higher in Tests than in county.
Good point Bear. But they can’t all be diamonds in the rough, surely?!
No, of course not, but it’s notable that some of the best Test players had pretty ordinary looking county records (KP’s worth a mention at this point) and a number of guys who had record breaking domestic records – Hick, Ramps, Crawley – never got more than the odd MID in Tests.