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***Official England in India***

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
England are a ****ing joke. Not that I actually care that much about ODIs, but this a ****ing embarrasment.
Is it? I care greatly about England having a good ODI team (not about them winning games outside WCs, but about them getting a good team so that they do win games in WCs) yet I'm not remotely embarrassed by this. The worse the scoreline with such mediocre players, the better the chances of them being never seen again.
 

Langeveldt

Soutie
Is it? I care greatly about England having a good ODI team (not about them winning games outside WCs, but about them getting a good team so that they do win games in WCs) yet I'm not remotely embarrassed by this. The worse the scoreline with such mediocre players, the better the chances of them being never seen again.
To be replaced by another bunch of mediocre players..

The only embaressed people here should be the SA fans.. How on earth did we lose to this bunch?
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
If Sehwag has been "mostly" abysmal and "occasionally" superlative, he wouldn't have a similar record to Yuvraj. Elementary. You're harping on something that isn't borne out by the facts.
It is though. As I say, Sehwag as an opener averaged less than 30 (and let's not even talk about his average as a middle-order batsman, I'm being generous and only including the innings' in the position he's any use at) between January 2003 and May 2008. This is the facts of the matter. Yuvraj since March 2002 averages 38.5, and since November 2005 averages 48.

Sehwag can only dream of such lengthy spells of scoring. An overall average is irrelevant. The reason these are relatively similar is because, as I say, Sehwag when he has scored (which has been damn rare) has scored phenomenally. However, Sehwag has occasionally been brilliant and mostly been poor. I think he's been poor for something like 4\5ths of his career or so. Yuvraj Singh, on the other hand, has been excellent becoming brilliant for pretty well all his career (and I think we can forgive him his first 25 games, given he was only 18 when he debuted, which is far too young).

An overall average is a poor indicator of a batsman's ability, because it allows short peaks to disguise long troughs. In Yuvraj's case, such peaks and troughs don't really exist. In Sehwag's case, they spectacularly do, and judging both via the same method will lead to misjudgement of the true calibre of their play.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
To be replaced by another bunch of mediocre players..
Nah, to be hopefully replaced by some of the few good OD players in this country.
The only embaressed people here should be the SA fans.. How on earth did we lose to this bunch?
Because your batsmen performed woefully and your bowling-attack is even worse than ours.

I've said it before - I'm very worried for SA's ODI bowling-attack at the moment.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
We have some fantastically talented players that are brilliant when they play well.
Like?

James Anderson and Stephen Harmison?

Just no.

England's current team contains one hell of a lot of mediocre to outright poor players. And the reserves selected in this squad (the Luke Wrights etc.) are even worse.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
England is really inconsistent but they can't be dismissed as a crap ODI team. In the last couple of years they have beaten Australia in Australia, SL in SL and both SA and India at home.
The victory in the CB Series was a fluke. If you take the head-to-head Aus-vs-Eng games in that tournament, Aus come out on top easily. England didn't actually beat Australia in Australia, they just won the games where the trophy happened to be at stake.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
I simply don't believe this.

I've always said selectors are usually a brainless bunch, but rarely do I actually think selections are sackable offences. However, the continued selection of Sajid Mahmood for England really is. Those responsible must be held accountable, IMO.

And as I say, I pretty much never say that. But this is the extreme end of the extreme.

How can anyone think such a terrible bowler has anything going for him?
 

FBU

International Debutant
I simply don't believe this.

I've always said selectors are usually a brainless bunch, but rarely do I actually think selections are sackable offences. However, the continued selection of Sajid Mahmood for England really is. Those responsible must be held accountable, IMO.

And as I say, I pretty much never say that. But this is the extreme end of the extreme.

How can anyone think such a terrible bowler has anything going for him?
Probably chosen by Giles who is out there with the EPP squad, who knew that Fletcher loved Mahmood.
 

gettingbetter

State Vice-Captain
Shah now averaging 56 in his last 13 games (10 innings').

Pietersen is the first England ODI captain to score a century outside Lord's and The Oval. Says a fair bit about how often England have picked mediocre one-day batsmen as one-day captains. Last decent one was Graham Gooch, and he played mostly in the old era of ODIs rather than the new.
Thought this would be a stat you would hide.
 

gettingbetter

State Vice-Captain
Saj is gonna bowl so well that he'll actually win us this series yet
Haha. I'm somewhat of a fan of Saj, so I'm hoping he can have a few good games and entrench himself in the team. I know what about every other poster on here is going to say about that.

In saying that though, you guys must admit that the bloke has been unlucky not to play an ODI after the WC, where he was England's best bowler.
 

Richard

Cricket Web Staff Member
Thought this would be a stat you would hide.
Why? As I've said, I don't shy from giving credit where it's due, and this is far beyond anything Shah had ever achieved before.

I don't expect it to last, any more than any shorter spell of good form of his has done, but that's how things are. Right now, for the first time in his career, Shah actually merits a place in the England ODI side.
 

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