They were going through their Headingley "horses for courses" period. In 92 they even selected the less than illustrious Neil Mallender. He took a 5-fer, so they couldn't leave him out for the next Test at the Oval, and he was innocuous and never seen again.
Mallender was definitely a horses for courses pick, but as I remembered his call up and not Lever's I guessed it must've been a bit later.
88 and 89 just about everybody who was English played at some point. In 88 we had four different captains.
I vaguely remember Chris Cowdrey being called up and made captain from seemingly nowhere (or "Kent" as the natives call it) after (fittingly for the thread) Embers had a brief go, largely at the behest of his Godfather, Peter May, who happened to be chairman of selectors at the time.
And 29 different players in the '89 Ashes series.
With Cowdrey they were perpetuating the Brearley myth that a good man manager/captain can make up for his limitations as a player. I'm not saying that Brearley didn't have both qualities, but having the second coming of Boycott, prime time Willis and Botham and the emergence of Gooch and Gower was a major factor in his success. As it transpired Cowdrey got injured so the experiment ended after one game anyway.
Not really. There should have been if Pater May, the then chairman of selectors, had been paying attention. Cairns and Chatfield had bowled NZ to victory there in 1983, with Hadlee going wicketless. And Roger Binny was a star performer there for India in the match where Lever was recalled in 1986. As LT said, we did get through a heck of a lot of players in those years, but there was precious little sign of any coherent thought, far less horses for courses. Maybe that was the thinking behind the Lever selection, but it's hard to tell during the May era. Perhaps the other possibility was Phil Newport at the start of the 1989 Ashes. But he had played in our previous test, which was at the Oval at the end of the 1988 summer. And he had done really well for Worcestershire against the Australians before the first test in 1989, so it wasn't just a case of picking him because the match was at Leeds.
Gooch wasn't really a major factor - his average under Brearley was 31. The only win where he could claim to have made a major contribution was the 1978 Oval Test against NZ (91* out of 138-3 in the 2nd innings - not a big target, but England had failed to reach a target of 137 against NZ earlier that year!)
Lawrence Booth in Wisden describes Watkin as “A classic horses for courses Headingley selection”.
Finger spinners should have lower arms. 1 or 2 'O clock positions. That will help to keep the elbow straight while spinning it hard. No wonder Emburey was an average bowler. To bowl with high arm and spin it hard, either you need wrist action or elbow help. Only off spinner I could think of had some success was Suraj Randiv, just because he has very long fingers and could give it a rip. Even Ashwin who had a very high arm, later went a little lower to flight it better and spin it more.
he is bending his front knee so perhaps that is how he is lowering his arm at release point?