There has to be some level of performance at the FC level behind selection whether it be a year or 10 years. I cannot understand the logic of picking players because he played the innings of his life the other day as is often done by the WI selectors or as Duncan famously did with Trescothick. There is no rationale for picking players based on solely on potential because unless that potential has been churned into some level of performance at the FC level then its not going to happen at the international level any time soon either.
I agree it is not a wise thing to do, but it happens in international all the time with the many teams who have domestic structures which aren't good breathing ground for judging whether a player is going to at the higest level.
Thats not what anyone has said though.
The cases suggest by some for Ian Trott & Neil Killeen from the who should be dropped for the ENG ODI side thread..
Batting someone out of position has nothing to do with the argument that someone who has failed at the domestic level can succeed in the international level. Sehwag averages almost 50 for Delhi and nearly 50 for Leicestshire. That he succeeded at the international level is hardly a surprise because he had been a success at the domestic level. The fact that he wasnt an opener in the FC level and has still been scoring runs at the intl level is not comparable to the argument that someone who has failed at the domestic level can still succeed at the international level.
It is comparable since given alot of Indian batsmen tend to average fairly highly domestically i,e Yuvraj, Kambli, Ajay Sharma, Bhardwaj & only the special talents who aren't fazed by the challenges of batting at the highest level i.e Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly, Laxman have been able to adapt.
You can't seriously tell me watching Sehwag bat back in 01/02 when ENG where in IND that you would think he would become a such a prolific test match opener. He just took adjusted to to role at the highest level.
If Denly averages 500 runs at an average of 40+ this season then his selection would be justified. Even then I would only select him having actually watched him for myself to judge how well he actually played that season. If he puts in 2-3 years of good performances then I think he would be thoroughly deserving of a place in the side. Until then I dont think picking him would be in anyway justified. The only time I have watched him (India tour of England), he had appalling footwork and if its still as bad, I dont see him succeeding at the test match level.
Yes much preferably i would much rather Denly backed up his performances over a few seasons before selected. But my argument is simply if he can build on it and produces another spectacular innings before the season is out, given the state of the top order ENG may be forced to pick him.
About his footwork nahhhhh man not what i saw the other day. The pitch didn't have much movement but had bounce & the way Denly was playing some of his cuts & pulls againts Harmo & improving with a few shots looks a natural at opening in the shorter form of the game. Can't say much about his test match future though, i shall let his FC form speak for that.
