Nice try.You're missing the point - all he's interested in is doing a hatchet job on the pair. He has nothing constructive to offer, merely a rant full of selective arguments.
I've mentioned a couple of names in earlier posts: Hildreth and Taylor. I've seen some other names mentioned by others who are more knowledgeable about the county scene than me, but haven't added those as I haven't seen them play enough.
The point is you've got to try them when they are young. Not too young, like poor Lathwell, but when they're young enough to still be on an upward curve and capable of improving as they learn about Test match cricket.
The reality is you never can predict how good they are going to be until you give them a try, and I've never believed for one second that bollocks about someone having to blow the selectors' doors down with "consistent weight of runs" in county cricket. That's just a self-serving argument used by fanboys to keep their favourite under-performers in the team.
Sometimes you just get a hunch, perhaps by the way someone moves their feet, or seems to have more time than his peers to play his shots, even if he hasn't put it all together and turned it into a consistent series of high scores in the county game. Vaughn was averaging in the 30s in county cricket when he was initially called up, yet he immediately took to Tests like a duck to water. There have been other examples, like Gower(?)
For me it's not "who can replace these guys?"; it's "these guys (KP and Bell) have shown their limitations at the highest level, so let's try and blood some youngsters who will someday be able to face the likes of Ajmal and Rehman without completely embarrassing themselves".
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