With the announcement from South African coach Mickey Arthur that Jonathan Trott wouldn’t be good enough to get in his South African top 6 on the eve of the deciding test who needs the Aussies to start to try and undermine Trott before he makes his debut.
Although on the whole Arthur’s comments about Trott are mainly positive, the main headline that it will provoke is that Arthur doesn’t think Trott is that good and that England are welcome to him.
About getting in the South African team Arthur said “He would have been there or thereabouts. He would have been a really good franchise player. I suspect he would have been a South Africa A (2nd Team) player right now, but he would have battled to get into our top six at the minute. With the calibre of player we have in our top six, I think we’re pretty much settled for a while. I suspect he would have been there as reserve strength”.
Not exactly an insult but hardly a ringing endorsement, nevertheless the timing will probably do Trott no favours as the Aussie team are likely to pounce on the negative aspects of it and let him know all too well when he comes out to bat.
The Aussies have already sounded a warning to Trott – trying to unsettle him – with Mike Hussey’s comments over the weekend about test cricket being a big step up from what Trott is used to at county level. I would have expected a bit more psychological abuse from Australia in the build up to The Oval test match but they don’t rally need to now after Mickey Arthur’s input!
