England thread

[theegyptian]

Isn't Billings's List A career ave something like 43?

Suggests more than a recent bout of good form.

He made 140 or so opening in 2012 that Atherton raved about but it wasn't until mid season last year that he started to put together good performances regularly. The first time England could have even remotely conceived selecting him was right at the end of summer 2014. Bopara is rubbish but I'd back him to outperform Billings at this stage. Billings is lacking in top level cricket. His run came a year too late for this world cup.

 

[Noah]

Isn't Billings's List A career ave something like 43?

Suggests more than a recent bout of good form.

As theegyptian mentioned, before 2014 Billings was only averaging ~29 runs in List A cricket. His current average owes a lot to a great run with the bat in the 2014 summer.

 

[Furball]

What's his First Class career batting average?

 

[WalkingWicket]

What's his First Class career batting average?

33.91

 

[Furball]

In that case I most definitely wouldn't be selecting him.

 

[Pothas]

Nah **** it. He is more likely to hit 40 off 20 than Ravi is.

 

[grecian]

Nah **** it. He is more likely to hit 40 off 20 than Ravi is.

et tū Pothas

 

[Pothas]

Oh I will always love him, just having one of those 'he should not really be in the team' moments.

Billings is not even in the squad of course so I am 100% behind Ravi...

 

[grecian]

Oh I will always love him, just having one of those 'he should not really be in the team' moments.

Billings is not even in the squad of course so I am 100% behind Ravi...

We all have those moments of weakness, but we must stay strong

Just look at him

He tries so hard too

 

[cnerd123]

In that case I most definitely wouldn't be selecting him.

MSD averages 36 in FC cricket. Would you not select him for your ODI side either?

 

[Scaly piscine]

Nah **** it. He is more likely to hit 40 off 20 than Ravi is.

My mum's more likely to hit 40 off 20 than Sadsack is. Doesn't provide a compelling case to be selected though.

 

[Furball]

MSD averages 36 in FC cricket. Would you not select him for your ODI side either?

Dhoni has proven that he's one of, if not the greatest ODI finishers of all time, it's a stupid comparison.

I wouldn't be selecting a young player on a limited sample size of a season, particularly if he doesn't have First Class numbers to back it up.

 

[Cabinet96]

My mum's more likely to hit 40 off 20 than Sadsack is. Doesn't provide a compelling case to be selected though.

Bopara is in the team so of course it does.

 

[cnerd123]

Dhoni has proven that he's one of, if not the greatest ODI finishers of all time, it's a stupid comparison.

I wouldn't be selecting a young player on a limited sample size of a season, particularly if he doesn't have First Class numbers to back it up.

Nah that's silly reasoning. Even when he was picked for the ODI side MSD had a pretty ordinary Ranji record. He was picked on the back of his List-A exploits with India A and he was picked for that based on his reputation of being a big-hitter and talent scouts recognising his potential (+ good domestic List A form). His Ranji/FC performances were barely considered.

If you're picking a youngster for the ODI side requiring him to also be a competent FC batsman is silly. Look at Maxwell and Warner. It's this kind of selection reasoning that is holding back the England ODI team IMO. You have to pick specialists.

 

[Cabinet96]

The thing with Billings isn't just that his FC record alone is poor, England have shown they don't care about that with the selections of Morgan and Buttler, it's that the FC record, combined with a List A record which isn't that special, and is bloated by a purple patch of a couple of months, mean selecting him on talent™ purposes for a tournament as important as a World Cup is a huge gamble.

If England have a poor World Cup and he starts the season well I wouldn't even be that surprised to see him get a game, but it's different comparing some random ODI series with a World Cup.

 

[cnerd123]

Oh I get the point about Billings not having enough behind him. But wanting him to have an FC Ton behind him is just silly. If he has another few seasons where he is killing it in List A stuff he should be considered for the ODI side, even if he is averaging below 30 in FC without a single ton. His FC record shouldn't even be a factor.

 

[Pothas]

The thing with Billings isn't just that his FC record alone is poor, England have shown they don't care about that with the selections of Morgan and Buttler, it's that the FC record, combined with a List A record which isn't that special, and is bloated by a purple patch of a couple of months, mean selecting him on talent™ purposes for a tournament as important as a World Cup is a huge gamble.

If England have a poor World Cup and he starts the season well I wouldn't even be that surprised to see him get a game, but it's different comparing some random ODI series with a World Cup.

This is all perfectly reasonable but he was SO good this season and I think you can take that kind of gamble with someone who would be batting at 7.

 

[Flem274*]

Nah unless you have a Grant Elliott type who you know what you'll get with, stick with the devil you know. You've backed this group for four years - they're your world cup team.

After the world cup pick whoever you like. I'm all in favour of having a good team in 2019 rather than in 2016.

 

[Noah]

Nah unless you have a Grant Elliott type who you know what you'll get with, stick with the devil you know. You've backed this group for four years - they're your world cup team.

After the world cup pick whoever you like. I'm all in favour of having a good team in 2019 rather than in 2016.

But the devil you know is depressing; Ravi Bopara is going to be so underwhelming this year.

 

[Julian87]

How does a country as strong as England (yes I realise they're forever odi strugglers) end up with Ali and Talor in the top 3 for a World Cup? Mind boggling.