Evening - the current non-competitive debacle calling itself an Ashes 'contest' has got me pondering this one.
My take is that you can't be knocking people for the simple 'offence' of not being good enough to stand up to the rigours of Test cricket. England have been picking some very ordinary batsmen in particular for the best part of five years and the real worry is the shortage of talent behind them. The domestic game simply does not appear to be producing the volume of players to have a pool of 15-20 capable of competing at international level and there will be all sorts of theories offered as to why.
So...keeping it from the modern era I thought a list of players who you'd slot into the England side right now and improve it might be of interest.
Limiting it to five names I'll run with the following as you'll all have your own...
Graham Gooch - for his combination of opening bat and leadership.
Jonathan Trott - a resilient specialist #3 would be a godsend right now.
Alec Stewart - probably as a batter and keeper, he'd improve the side although he specialised as an opener.
Andrew Flintoff - for obvious reasons.
Graeme Swann - as a world class slow bowler who would also improve England's tail.
Honourable mentions to Graham Thorpe, Kevin Pietersen and Angus Fraser. Over and out.
My take is that you can't be knocking people for the simple 'offence' of not being good enough to stand up to the rigours of Test cricket. England have been picking some very ordinary batsmen in particular for the best part of five years and the real worry is the shortage of talent behind them. The domestic game simply does not appear to be producing the volume of players to have a pool of 15-20 capable of competing at international level and there will be all sorts of theories offered as to why.
So...keeping it from the modern era I thought a list of players who you'd slot into the England side right now and improve it might be of interest.
Limiting it to five names I'll run with the following as you'll all have your own...
Graham Gooch - for his combination of opening bat and leadership.
Jonathan Trott - a resilient specialist #3 would be a godsend right now.
Alec Stewart - probably as a batter and keeper, he'd improve the side although he specialised as an opener.
Andrew Flintoff - for obvious reasons.
Graeme Swann - as a world class slow bowler who would also improve England's tail.
Honourable mentions to Graham Thorpe, Kevin Pietersen and Angus Fraser. Over and out.
