Fleming has been tried opening before and done a hell of a lot better than papps/cumming and would continue to do so if he was kept there. Mccullum, the only time he was given the no 3 spot in test played a great knock vs a quality attack- papps and cumming will never play an innings like that. Papps if he settles in may average 33-35, maybe even more.
But not cumming. And in the rare occassion that both of our openers do well we will be batting at 2 runs an over, put pressure on the middle order to increase rate if we want to force a test win and fail again.
I don't think cumming is completely useless or he wouldn't have made it this far, but I just don't think he is a test class opener by today's standards. I hope he proves me wrong this season.
Its a real shame jesse Ryder has attitude problems because his domestic first class record sh*ts on most of the top order batsmen we have
1. Fleming was tried as an opener and it worked for a year because he was in the form of his life. He then receded a little and his weakness against the new ball was easier to exploit. he is not an opener, never has been, never will be, end of story
2. McCullum has only played one good innings at number three. Don't judge players based on one score.
3. Papps and Cumming will be better openers than Fleming. There is a reason they're specialist openers you know, its because they're good at it and have less technical weaknesses to get exploited. Sadly they have less talent. Without a massive technical restructure, Fleming or any other middle order player will never be an opener and it takes time to build a new technique so there's no point using Fleming. I know you think technique is over-rated but it is a very very important part of opening. if your technique has big fat gaping weaknesses in it then any half decent bowler is going to kill you, regardless of your talent.
4. I'd rather tick along at two an over and get to lunch than have Fulton and Fleming out there after 30 minutes of the innings with a new ball directed at them. And yes Cumming and Papps are getting out anyway but I beileve they aren't achieving their full potential yet and if they do then we will have an adequite opening combination.
5. Cumming is borderline test class, the coming season or two will show us whether he is or isn't.
6. I hate Jesse Ryder. We need extremely talented batsman and God had to go and give someone like him the required talent. Big stuff up IMO. (This comment is not very serious BTW)
at Pollock being dropped. Could understand it in Pakistan but makes no sense at home. None at all.
