*** Official*** South Africa in England 2017

[Spark]

2 in India and 2 in Bangladesh.

The Deshi pitches were probably harder to bat on though.

Yeah, absolutely. But "has got it in him to do more than just survive against good spin bowlers on turning pitches" doesn't leave much margin for error, because Ashwin in India is basically what that refers to.

 

[Scaly piscine]

You see that makes no sense to me, talented young player given an opportunity and fails after 4 Tests in INDIA... so is discarded! If he is not talented why pick him in the first place, if he is, why drop him?

That's the English selectors in a nutshell. They're useless. You may as well get rid of them all and just use PCA rankings with a filter for seamers who bowl 80mph or less.

Proper selectors can identify talent, can see glaring technical flaws that need to be worked out so that the prolific scorers like Duckett and Ballance can do the necessary work *before* being picked and then the selectors can back players to come good after a lean run because they know they have the fundamental skills to make it. The pressure Jennings is under already is absolutely ridiculous considering the quality of bowling he's gotten out to. Scores a century in his first Test and the knives are already out for him after 4 Tests. It's absurd. But the selectors have made a rod for their own back because they keep giving people half a dozen Tests, if that, and punting them. They're creating a revolving door culture because of their own cluelessness. They're creating a 1990s culture with vastly more talent at their disposal.

Over recent times the selectors have gone, oh he's scored some runs/taken some wickets, oh and he's from a London county so we'll add 20%, lets give them a go for a handful of games. That's it. Hameed is pretty much the only young talent they've gone for. And they were somewhat forced into it.

 

[Howe_zat]

dwta

 

[Moonsorrow999]

No Stoneman. Malan+Lawrence in.

 

[mackembhoy]

just typical revisionist bollocks isn't it.

Duckett won the PCA Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year awards in 2016.

cricinfo:



Here's what people had to say about him against spin at the time:





But never mind the facts, 'i know more than these idiot selectors' is just too appealing a fantasy for some people.

The best spinner in division 2 last season was his team mate.

The next best spinner in terms of wickets he faced was Briggs averaging 40 odd.

He may have been be great against rubbish spinners and average ones in white ball. But a tad different when it's being ragged square by miraz,ashwin,jadeja

 

[Xuhaib]

who cares if Haseeb Hameed cant score against county trundlers. He was first selected because he got runs at county level so its not like he is out of his depth and then on a challenging first tour he again scored runs and looked good scoring those runs. Once a player is selected at test level his omission should only be based on poor run of form at test level or injury. This excuse of failing at First class level hence he is dropped is bogus who knows maybe he has lost hunger to perform at a lower level once he tasted test cricket it happens with some fellows.

 

[grecian]

Malan ick.

Oh and can he be hipster and be the first to to say. "Westley doesn't look much cop, we need to get in the next cab off the rank, why hasn't he been giving a chance?" England selectors are of course incompetent until every half-decent bat in the country gets a game.

 

[wpdavid]

And dammitt why is the 3rd Test starting next week and not today.... stupid scheduling.

Before back-to-back tests, the 2nd test would have been starting today.

fwiw.

 

[SeamUp]

For some reason a lot of (non-subcontinental) pundits mistake "can hit sixes over mid-on" for actually being good against spin, which has led to some properly mediocre players against spin in the subcontinent being talked up as "good against spin" (see Bell, Ian). That might have a bit to do with it.

Oh yeah. He can play the sweep and reverse sweep well sort of thinking.

 

[marc71178]

From that squad I'd be picking:

Cook
Jennings (on notice to perform as not really looked up to it)
Westley
Root
Malan
Stokes
Bairstow
Ali
Roland-Jones
Broad
Anderson

 

[SeamUp]

I wonder if they felt not going to Stoneman is because they want to back younger Jennings a bit longer and if he fails they going back to Hameed. All this considering Cook's age.

 

[Jarquis]

Have been a fan of Malan for quite some time so happy to see him picked, even if I'm not convinced he'll necessarily pull up trees.

Westley getting a cap while Hildreth never did, sigh

 

[Scaly piscine]

I wonder if they felt not going to Stoneman is because they want to back younger Jennings a bit longer and if he fails they going back to Hameed. All this considering Cook's age.

I don't think Jennings is too bothered where he bats. Him opening is a fairly recent thing.

Apparently Bayliss has never seen Stoneman bat in the flesh. Awesome.

 

[Bijed]

Just to belatedly join the mini-discussion about Duckett on the previous page, I think it was fair enough that he was dropped when he was, as he seemed to be totally out of his depth in the subcontinent. However, I would have strongly considered taking a look at how he did in this current series.

Actually, totally out of his depth may be slightly unfair as he did get one half-century

 

[Pothas]

Yeah got hopes Duckett could make a return at some point.

Don't hate the Westley or Malan picks. Saw Westley make a really good hundred in a one day game at Scarborough once, not that it has any bearing on how will do as Test batsman.

 

[MW1304]

Westley does feel like a very familiar sort of pick, has to be said. Malan at least has the temperament argument, though there are no ideal choices here.

 

[Jarquis]

I kinda forgot about Westley's ton last month for the Lions - can imagine that had some weight in selection

 

[mr_mister]

Hammed will come good

He has to

 

[Black_Warrior]

And dammitt why is the 3rd Test starting next week and not today.... stupid scheduling.

I actually think this is good for the players though during a 4-5 match series. A break after the first 2 allows a team down to take a break and come back

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Hammed will come good

He has to

He will, might not be in time for the ashes though. The broken finger may have got to him a bit more than we thought given he had such a big operation on it. He has time on his side though so not a worry.