Stuart Law seeks British citizinship

[Richard]

But he's not, and at 37 will not be worth selection.

I never said he was or would be.
I disputed that he isn't better than any batsmen in the current England line-up.

 

[Richard]

Most of those "excuses" have good records, certainly more impressive than Blewett in either discipline.

Astle, McMillan and Fleming may do, but there are a whole host of others whose ability is, in my view and mostly suggested by their records, inferior to his.
I'm not saying he's a World-beater, but neither are New Zealand's one-day side ATM.

 

[marc71178]

As with the Harmison case, the substandardness of others and a comparative purple-patch doesn't make-up for the substandardness of one.

Comparative Purple Patch?

He's been at that level for 2 years in a row now in ODI's, it's only his first 6 matches for 42 runs that drags him down (in a total of 34 dismissals, 6 is a very high percentage)

If he's so substandard, who would you put in ahead of him (and you'll need 2 or 3 names since if he's substandard, so are others)

 

[Bazza]

Since the World Cup started Vaughan has 457 at 30 with 3x50s in 18 innings (3 not outs).

In my opinion this is not great but enough to give him another year or so to push on and become more consistent and really established. Of course now he is captain that doesn't matter but as captain Vaughan has 318 runs at 31.8 from 13 games - again a reasonable return (considering our only decent one day batsman now is Trescothick, with Collingwood and Flintoff about the same standard as Vaughan). If we still had Knight, Thorpe, Stewart I would say Vaughan needed to improve but we are weak enough at he moment without dropping someone like Vaughan.

Again, it's irrelevant anyway because he's going nowhere for a year or two at the very least.

 

[Rik]

If he's so substandard, who would you put in ahead of him (and you'll need 2 or 3 names since if he's substandard, so are others)

Well, Adam Hollioake's going to retire so I can't mention him. Why not:

Ian Bell (so much ability, and finally got back to some kind of form averaging 38 in 19 List A OD games for Warwickshire), James Troughton (who deserves another chance), Chris Adams (Fantastic OD batsman for Sussex), Mal Loye (again good record in both forms, scored tons against Saqlain and Glenn McGrath before with little trouble, averaged 46 for Lancs in 23 List A OD games), Owais Shah (still batting well and was useful when given the chance to play), Graeme Hick (ok too old but he didn't actually fail in ODIs, it was in Test matches), Derek Kenway (exciting batsman keeper), Andrew Strauss (seems more of a middle order bat to me in ODIs), Darren Maddy (can bowl and is a decent batsman), Kevin Pietersen (when he becomes available in the next year and a bit, average of 45 in 19 List A OD games for Notts), Matt Windows (averaged 47 in 20 List A OD games last year, performed for Gloucestershire for a while now), David Sales (allways been promising, averaged 49 in 21 List A OD games for Northants, worth a go), Alex Gidman (matchwinning innings for Glocestershire in a OD competition last year (can't remember which but I'll look it up) and an average of 43.09 in all List A OD), Nicky Peng and Gary Pratt of Durham (both exciting if inconsistant openers).

Enough?

 

[Craig]

Pretty big list there Rik.

Kenway seems to better in the 1d game and then in 4d cricket. Troughton would of been better off picked for Tests, but lost confidence after being picked in the wrong game. But Rikki isnt up to standard in both forms of the game at international level YET.

 

[Rik]

Pretty big list there Rik.

Kenway seems to better in the 1d game and then in 4d cricket. Troughton would of been better off picked for Tests, but lost confidence after being picked in the wrong game. But Rikki isnt up to standard in both forms of the game at international level YET.

I went for players who have shown ability in the OD game. I don't see what the point of picking someone who is great at 4D but useless in OD, unless the person in question had shown ability in both forms. OD cricket is very different to 4D, requires very different skills, which is perfectly illustrated in the difference between Vaughan's Test and ODI career records.

 

[Richard]

And the likes of Slater, Bevan, Harris, Knight, Hick and many, many others.