*Official* Pakistan in England 2010

[aussie]

I agree, in not playing in SA or UAE Cook was clearly a failure.

To be fair only scoring 64 (68), 60 (61) and 32 (43) in Bangladesh was also woeful.

Cook did play in SA, what where you watching. The 1st two T20s. Where he look totally out of depth as usual as T20 opener. Then the selectors probably caught sense & didn't pick him for any of ODIs based on those T20 performances.

But then stupidly for the SA tour IIRC Cook was named captain for the T20s in UAE & ODIs in BANG & their was clearly no improvement in his game, which was overhyped based on joke hundreds he scored againts county attacks @ the back end of last season. Are you saying you believe he should have for example still be involved in the ODI & T20 set-up based on those innings in Bangladesh??

Also, seeing as Cook was selected as an opening batsman how was his recall in place of Shah?

Thats was my point & thats what made the recall of Cook stupid. As i said Shah after the CT with the emergence of Morgan & Trott - he clearly lost his place in the best XI understandably.

So with Strauss as the main opener, Trott also would could have opened & young Denly who didn't look totally woeful yet - it was ridiculous to drop Shah totally from the ODI & T20 set-up & recall Cook on the false pretence that he had improved. Cook lack of improvement during his recall - further proves why it another one in the long legacy of dumb ENG ODI selections.

Is that based on his less-than-stellar showing in ODIs or his much-worse-than-Davies showing in County Cricket?

His less-than-stellar showing in the recent ODIs vs AUS in which his technical flaws where exposed slightly, could have happened to anyone againts that quality AUS pace-attack. But he wasn't really out of from IMO. He just needed to go back to CC & get some runs under his belt again, which he has done.

Kieswetter's technical flaw in which his feet dont go makes him a right-handed Trescothick & we all know the success Tres had in his ODI career. But he clearly the the most capable in ENG in smoking international attacks in the power-play overs. Thats has been fairly obvious to me for years & is the single reason why Kieswetter got picked ahead of Davies for the T20 WC squad (regardless of Davies having the better county stats & SR).

So as i've always said putting stats aside for a minute. My gut feeling watching Davies bat all these years is i dont think he is truly capable of smoking international attacks in the power-play overs @ that high SR he has done in CC.

Davies comes across more of the type of bat who will give you a 40/run-a-ball 50 @ internaitonal level if he gets going. While Kieswetter is the man who will give you a 30-ball 50.

Of course i could be proven wrong & Davies could surprise me. But i'm going to stick to this belief until is see Davies bat again in international cricket.

 

[Jarquis]

Bedwetter has never come close to 30 ball 50s, I'm fact his SR really is not anything flash

 

[aussie]

Bedwetter has never come close to 30 ball 50s, I'm fact his SR really is not anything flash

Yea technically not yet. But i'd certainly back him to do so once he gets going againts international bowling in the power-play overs.

 

[King Pietersen]

Kieswetter rarely scores at a good strike rate in Domestic cricket, why do you feel he's good enough to do it at International level? His innings in the T20 Cup final was a typical Kieswetter innings. Looked awful early on, could barely get it off the square, failed to rotate the strike successfully, let his strike rate drop way below 100 before getting a few fortunate boundaries away towards the end of his innings to boost his SR to just above 100. I had faith in Kieswetter and wanted to stick with him long term after his Bangladesh hundred, but it was clear after the Aussie series that we needed to move on and pick Davies. As much as you dismiss performances in Domestic Cricket aussie, Davies has been smoking County attacks for 3/4 seasons now, with strike rates over 100 in List A cricket season after season. He's looked a seriously impressive player whenever I've seen him on Sky, and even performed well in his 1 T20i against the West Indies, top scoring. Davies is far more likely to have a successful series against Pakistan I think.

 

[Jacknife]

Davies has looked good all year in county cricket but when he's played for the Lions he hasn't really performed,hence why Kieswetter got the job before him. Hopefully when he gets his chance we'll see what he's being doing all year.

 

[Uppercut]

Kieswetter rarely scores at a good strike rate in Domestic cricket, why do you feel he's good enough to do it at International level? His innings in the T20 Cup final was a typical Kieswetter innings. Looked awful early on, could barely get it off the square, failed to rotate the strike successfully, let his strike rate drop way below 100 before getting a few fortunate boundaries away towards the end of his innings to boost his SR to just above 100. I had faith in Kieswetter and wanted to stick with him long term after his Bangladesh hundred, but it was clear after the Aussie series that we needed to move on and pick Davies. As much as you dismiss performances in Domestic Cricket aussie, Davies has been smoking County attacks for 3/4 seasons now, with strike rates over 100 in List A cricket season after season. He's looked a seriously impressive player whenever I've seen him on Sky, and even performed well in his 1 T20i against the West Indies, top scoring. Davies is far more likely to have a successful series against Pakistan I think.

It's odd that Davies hasn't had more chances. But it's good at least that the England selectors have caught on that if you're going to select someone ****, select someone **** who scores quickly.

 

[Sir Alex]

Interesting interview with Zulqarnain Haider on a Pakistani TV channel. Since it’s in Urdu, I’ll summarize the main parts:

• He suffered his finger injury in practice but soon recovered. He says the injury flared up again as a result of the Broad throw.
• Question: Isn’t it normal for WK’s to play with this sort of injury? His response: Yes, WK’s do play on with these sorts of injuries. However the decision to send him back was of the PCB and since he’s an employee, he has to comply.
• Question: Do you believe you were pushed out of the team? His response: If someone digs a ditch for another, they usually fall on it themselves.

That’s a really bold interview IMO. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that he thought he was fit enough to play and was pushed out. I like his honesty, but considering he works for total ****s, he may have seriously damaged his career here.


Link to the interview

Ha ha zulki my man!

 

[aussie]

Kieswetter rarely scores at a good strike rate in Domestic cricket, why do you feel he's good enough to do it at International level? His innings in the T20 Cup final was a typical Kieswetter innings. Looked awful early on, could barely get it off the square, failed to rotate the strike successfully, let his strike rate drop way below 100 before getting a few fortunate boundaries away towards the end of his innings to boost his SR to just above 100. I had faith in Kieswetter and wanted to stick with him long term after his Bangladesh hundred, but it was clear after the Aussie series that we needed to move on and pick Davies. As much as you dismiss performances in Domestic Cricket aussie, Davies has been smoking County attacks for 3/4 seasons now, with strike rates over 100 in List A cricket season after season. He's looked a seriously impressive player whenever I've seen him on Sky, and even performed well in his 1 T20i against the West Indies, top scoring. Davies is far more likely to have a successful series against Pakistan I think.

It all about watching him bat. Like everything is domestic List A over the years you have to take SR with a pinch of salt. One of many reason since the 1992 WC England have struggled to produce quality limited overs openers @ international level outside of Trescothick & Knight - but have had manyyyyyy failures such as Brown, Loye, Maddy, Solanki, Vaughan, Bell, Atherton - is due to lack of quality 90 mph new-ball bowling on the domestic List A circuit. Theirfore while they are smoking those joke medium pacers on the county circuit, one has to look for natural hitting ability, analyze their technique to assess how they would go as ODI openers when they face 90 mph, which basically all the best teams have in ODIs & T20s.

Doing that it was always obvious to me Kieswetter had those natural skills better than anyone in ENG outside of Trescothick. I suspect the ENG selectors also saw this - which is the reason they & Flower picked him for the T20 WC squad & BANG series. Since if they went on stats & SR on domestic form - Davies should have got the nod. Do you think Davies would have been has destructive as Kieswetter if chosen for the T20WC? - I dont.

My recollection of his only T20 apperance vs WI 09, was just a ok little innings. Not much to judge based on that.

Overall i dont have a problem wih Davies being picked - just that i wouldn't have done it so soon. Would have waited until the first couple of ODIs vs PAK to see how Kieswetter fears. But as i've consistently said, given the history of many ENG players failing to translate domestic form onto the international stage - i will reserve judgement on Davies until i see him in international cricket again. Hopefully PAK does put out a strong pace-attack also BTW.

 

[tombarlow123]

Kieswetter's technical flaw in which his feet dont go makes him a right-handed Trescothick & we all know the success Tres had in his ODI career.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but i always thought Kieswetter's problem was that he moved his feet too much and swung too hard, never having a solid base. Surely that would mean he's pretty much the opposite of Trescothick?

Anyways, I hope what the selectors originally saw in Kieswetter comes to fruition.

 

[Pratters]

LOL. Bedwetter.

 

[_Ed_]

Haider fast becoming a worldwide favourite surely

Definitely. Really liked his gutsy 80-odd; now extremely impressed by the lad.

 

[aussie]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but i always thought Kieswetter's problem was that he moved his feet too much and swung too hard, never having a solid base. Surely that would mean he's pretty much the opposite of Trescothick?

Anyways, I hope what the selectors originally saw in Kieswetter comes to fruition.

Well no actually my friend.

Kieswetter does actually have a solid base when the bowler is coming into bowl. But his front foes goes nowhere & it doesn move across to cover his off-stump. His off & part of his middle-stump is left exposed, making him very vulenerable to bowlers who bowl good inswingers - which the AUS bowlers attacked well in the ODI series earlier this summer.

 

[Jayzamann]

This young guy bowling for Somerset in the tour match against Pakistan is described as RAB. Would that be just because they know he's right handed, but not actually what sort of bowling style he has?

Lewis Gregory | England Cricket | Cricket Players and Officials | Cricinfo.com

 

[Neil Pickup]

This young guy bowling for Somerset in the tour match against Pakistan is described as RAB. Would that be just because they know he's right handed, but not actually what sort of bowling style he has?

Lewis Gregory | England Cricket | Cricket Players and Officials | Cricinfo.com

I'd imagine they're just being lazy. Lewis Gregory is a right arm medium-pacer - 77/78 territory - brings it back in to the right hander if I recall properly from the limited viewings I've had of him on Sky for the U19s.

Interesting to see him make his senior debut in the same week Jack Taylor has done for Gloucs: both are lads who I've known and heard and talked about growing up through the youth systems in the counties I've coached in (Devon and Oxford respectively). Still waiting for the day when one of "my" players makes that final step...

 

[Scaly piscine]

Hmm Gregory ended up with 4-49 after taking a triple-wicket maiden in his final over.

Pakistan leaving out the three suspended players and they've still got a steroids cheat, a blatant chucker and Kamran Akral playing. And that's being generous.

 

[Jamee999]

I'd imagine they're just being lazy. Lewis Gregory is a right arm medium-pacer - 77/78 territory - brings it back in to the right hander if I recall properly from the limited viewings I've had of him on Sky for the U19s.

Interesting to see him make his senior debut in the same week Jack Taylor has done for Gloucs: both are lads who I've known and heard and talked about growing up through the youth systems in the counties I've coached in (Devon and Oxford respectively). Still waiting for the day when one of "my" players makes that final step...

Penultimate step, surely?

 

[grecian]

Really hope Buttler & Hildreth can score some runs, and push for respective tour places.

Oh and Trego, I suppose

 

[aussie]

It's fair to say Foster did struggle in the dying stages of England's innings, wouldn't necessary class him as a great choice if a side is looking for someone to clear the boundary at the death.He does have a habit of finding the boundary for Essex, but much more an innovator and a manipulator of the field with canny deflections and the ability to strike a pretty clean ball if it's in the right area.

But late order big hitting I wouldn't think is his style. His keeping was outstanding in that T20 competition and I think he was unlucky to lose his place after that.

Unlucky to a degree yes. But given the balance of the ENG team, as i said in test we really couldn't afford to bat him @ 7, given Flintoff was so injured. He is a classic test match number 8. Plus the recent improvement of Prior with the bat, would have kept him out too.

If Flintoff & Jones where 100% fit & still playing. Foster could have probably played in a test XI like this:

Strauss
Cook
Trott
KP
Colly
Bell
Flintoff
Foster
Swann
Jones
Anderson

 

[Faisal1985]

Now that the trio is not part of the squads...we may have some interesting games....

Looking forward to it.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Penultimate step, surely?

Let's walk before we run...