We’re all well used to hearing a commentator put the kiss of death on a batsman by saying how well he is playing, and then watching him get out with a ridiculous shot within a couple of balls.
Well today during the innings break, we were treated to the reversal of that theory with Mike Atherton, Darren Gough, Derek Pringle and Alec Stewart claiming that Andrew Strauss shouldn’t be in England’s World Cup 15 for the 50 over competition, only to see him then hit a match winning century.
In a way similar to the Kevin Pietersen issue, it never ceases to amaze me how quick ex-players are to jump on these bandwagons. The team works with Strauss in it, England are settled under his captaincy and are now up to 2nd in the ODI world rankings so why on earth do people want to change things? It’s beyond me.
I can understand perhaps not having Strauss and Trott in the same XI. But why is it that if an opener dosen’t smack the leather of the ball these days, he is not regarded as good enough for limited overs cricket?
Strauss is good enough to attack and to play a paced innings like today’s, he is one of a very limited amount of cricketers available to England who can adjust his batting to a match situation.
The man they all think should replace him as captain, Paul Collingwood, is in worse form than KP is, and no one seems to be remotely concerned about that.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the icing on the cake was Darren Gough’s view that Andrew Flintoff should be brought back into the world cup squad to bat at number 8 and just bowl the 4 or 5 overs. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but is Gough for real?
All I can say about that is thankfully Darren Gough isn’t a selector, hopefully he sticks to doing strange adverts, dancing and radio.
Brian Carpenter
Fortunately I missed that, Dean. If anything, Strauss’s form in ODIs has been better than in Tests over the last year or so.
The only thing I knew about the ‘panel’ was when Michael Vaughan tweeted that he disagreed with them (and that was at the very start of the England innings).
I assume that nobody else agreed with Gough. He must be the only preson around (including Flintoff) who doesn’t realize Freddie’s England career is over.
Cricket Betting Blog
Hi Brian,
To be honest I’m not sure who else agreed with Gough about Strauss as I got distracted after he said it, I just heard what Gough said. As they were describing themselves as a selection panel, it would have taken more than just Gough to leave him out of their imaginary squad.
It was certainly only Gough who said said that about Flintoff, Pringle disagreed but he did say a 100% fit Flintoff with form behind him, and able to bowl 10 overs should get in the side. Which I believe was Pringle’s discreet way of saying he has no chance.