Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Not especially. I'm from logic's school of picking the best batsmen for each role in the team. Obviously if someone fails regularly, picking them again doesn't make as much sense, but sometimes you have to look beyond the numbers and consider that someone might be worth another go if you think they have what it takes.
I don't particularly buy into the captaincy point; I'd be extremely surprised if he was ever in the frame for that during his career. Regardless of which, as I said, this innings has changed my mind on him a bit. And changing my mind on a player based on one innings isn't something I generally do, especially an innings on a flattering pitch against an attack dropping like flies in which he got dropped early. But as I said before, he seems to be improving his technique every series. When I first saw him, he flicked his wrists through all his offside shots inviting chances of any small mistiming and looked completely all at see to the shorter ball (even just short of a length!), not to mention his ridiculous whirlwind backlift. I don't think his temperament, eye or domestic record was ever much in question; more just his technique against high class bowling. Slowly but surely though, he seems to be fixing that technique up; he now plays with the full face of the blade on the off side more often than not and waits for the balls on his pads which he murders. His back defence is solid (despite getting out in the first innings playing it, he didn't really do a lot wrong..) and he leaves the really short ball well now also. He also seems to have developed an effective pull. It seems to get better with every series, even though he hasn't been scoring that many.
I was strongly in favour of his dropping for a more technically sound player like Dippenaar or McKenzie before this test, but now, providing he could be moved down the order a bit, I actually don't mind him being picked. He's younger than the other two and has improved his technique immensely since his debut to a point where it is passable now and could well be very good by the series we see him play.
I don't buy the best batsman diatribe either either, but I don't particularly mind if an inexperienced player bats there. Regardless of overall batsmanship and experience, the player most suited to batting #3 should bat there. And while Amla seems to be a much better batsman than I gave him credit for as well as an ever-improving one, he does still struggle against the swinging and seaming ball. Even when he was on 100+ he struggled against the second new ball when it moved a bit and he struggled in both innings early on in this match. He seems a good player of spin and even a good player of pace and bounce now providing it isn't moving too much, so I'd really like to see him bat at 5 or 6. I'd love to see Kallis and Prince bat at 3 and 4 respectively but I don't see it happening - Kallis doesn't like batting three and Prince simply isn't suited to it.
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