He did kick off at one point. He got 3 consecutive hundreds (against Windies, yes). But that didn't stop him crashing back to earth when he came up against Australia's not brilliant attack. His technical problems are just too much considering he doesn't have much of a temperament to go with it, and I think pretty much all English supporters have given up on him by now.
He had Daren Powell bowling to him.
Three centuries in a row against West Indies, on lifeless wickets, where he was dropped/missed at least half a dozen times (hell it was 3-4 times in one innings alone). The feats of county cricket bashing he managed have a similar ring - both were against a godawful Leicester side. The pitch looks like a minefield when you half-decent bowlers against largely useless batsmen, then Essex bat and it's half-decent batsmen against one of the most atrocious bowling lineups ever to grace county cricket. They won one match at the start of the season and haven't won since (4 day stuff I mean).
So he's a decent batsman against poor bowling. Is that all we ask to get in the best team in the world?
Obviously England aren't going to pick some trundler averaging over 35. But what has he ever done against a good bowling attack? You're supposed to look the part or against players that are that little bit below. With Bopara we make the leap from an occasional exceptional performance against a pub team to being an international cricketer. You see someone like Taylor, he's consistently a cut above against division 2, he moves onto playing against Sri Lanka A and so on, performs really well against them. There's a logical progression there. Bopara is a just a southern wideboy who was skipped through a lot of that on a hunch (which is fair enough to some degree) and since then he's play over 80 games for England and been not just mediocre but absolutely downright awful. He was given way too many games and he seems to have been fast-tracked once again because there's no way he's ahead of Taylor on merit.
Did you read the rest of my post? There's no way he should be playing.
I wish people would stop talking about dropping Swann. It won't happen, it can't happen, and it shouldn't happen. One bad Test doesn't ruin two awesome years.
I think we shoulds drop Swann.
But he's not a genuine bowling option in Test cricket. He'd be a 'partnership breaker' because he bowls too much filth, he can bowl the odd decent ball but it shouldn't dismiss decent Test batsmen. If you're not quick enough (like Bopara and Collingwood before him) then your main role is containment. Stokes is a genuine bowling option because he's quick enough to run through a few batsmen cheaply, he can take a clutch of wickets, he's done it a few times this season for Durham. Taylor and Stokes have one main thing over Bopara, they're far more likely to perform. That's all that matters.
