It is always great (and previously rare) to see England players want to improve themselves and add more string to their bows, I’m never going to criticise anyone for that.
It shows great attitude and a great commitment to both the player himself and the team, it shows an attitude that says ‘I want to stay in this team for the long term, I really want it, it means a lot too me.’
In short it makes Samit Patel’s efforts look poor next too Audley Harrison’s commitment to throw punches.
Thats why I commend Jonathan Trott’s attitude in saying that he wants to take over Paul Collingwood’s role as the batting all rounder in the team. Apparently he has already had a chat with David Saker about working on his bowling, to try and make it good enough for 50 over cricket.
It is a commendable attitude to have, if we had more sportsmen with that committment we would have won far more gold medals, word titles, etc, over the years. It is probably one of the reasons why we have such a strong unit of guys in the England cricket team these days.
To just be there and be complacent about your place in the team is no longer an option.
It is probably why Trott is now a fixture in the England team, I have to admit even after his Ashes century at the Oval, I still only saw him as a short term fix in the side. I never imagined he would go on to have the success he has.
Personally I can’t see Trott’s bowling getting good enough to regularly bowl 5-8 overs in 50 over cricket, no matter how much he works on it. While I commend his attitude, I hope England leave him to concentrate on his batting.
Trott could yet prove me wrong though, and as I have stated above, it wouldn’t be the first time.
