The worst selections and non-selections in Test history

[Second Spitter]

Dave Gilbert for Glenn Trimble was a selection masterstroke

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[marc71178]

Still think not picking Bicknell because he got no success against the 93 Aussie side was a huge mistake and probably the biggest of many big ones England have made over the years. The guy was bowling on a flat Oval pitch year in year out and was one of the leading bowlers in county cricket throughout his career. When you looked at some of the crap we selected instead over the years it beggars belief he was ignored.

We'll never know. I still have a suspicion that there were a number of successful county bowlers who wouldn't transfer those numbers to Test cricket. We've tried a number over the years who have got great numbers in county because that style of bowling is far too good for that level of batsmen but you put them into Tests and they look innocuous.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

It was a shame Botham was sacked as captain. He shoehorned his buddies Rose and Marks into the team and would probably have followed suit with Colin Dredge.

 

[Stapel]

Darren Pattinson comes to mind.

 

[wpdavid]

It was a shame Botham was sacked as captain. He shoehorned his buddies Rose and Marks into the team and would probably have followed suit with Colin Dredge.

Nice try, but he didn't really. Rose played most of his tests before Botham's captaincy and actually did pretty well under Beefy until his eyes failed in the WI. Marks only played a single odi under Botham and only made the test team under Willis.

 

[fredfertang]

Nice try, but he didn't really. Rose played most of his tests before Botham's captaincy and actually did pretty well under Beefy until his eyes failed in the WI. Marks only played a single odi under Botham and only made the test team under Willis.

From what I recall of him it's difficult to imagine the Demon of Frome changing the course of Test match history, but I suppose you never know

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Nice try, but he didn't really. Rose played most of his tests before Botham's captaincy and actually did pretty well under Beefy until his eyes failed in the WI. Marks only played a single odi under Botham and only made the test team under Willis.

Rose went on a tour but was out of the side and came back at Botham’s insistence. He did okay it’s true, but there’s no disputing the circumstances of his selection. Same with Marks. He played again after Botham but was not in contention until Botham became captain.

 

[Burgey]

Dave Gilbert for Glenn Trimble was a selection masterstroke

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Poor bloke. Nerves just completely got the better of him. Similar to Chris Matthews.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

We'll never know. I still have a suspicion that there were a number of successful county bowlers who wouldn't transfer those numbers to Test cricket. We've tried a number over the years who have got great numbers in county because that style of bowling is far too good for that level of batsmen but you put them into Tests and they look innocuous.

He didn't do bad when he was past it and won a recall against South Africa.

 

[Adders]

Doug Bollinger being picked for the Adelaide test in 2010 when he was obviously too fat and unfit to play any grade of cricket. Guy was fecked after bowling one over.

Well he did manage to remove Andrew Strauss's off stump during that over tbf.

 

[jcas0167]

Australia - given Hussey's ODI record at the time was 300-odd runs at 100 at a strike rate close to 100, I always thought the Aussie selectors shot themselves in the foot by not just adding him to the test party for the 2005 Ashes. Maybe would have been harsh on Katich, but the guy was in incredible form..

England - too many choices, but I think the worst in my time was picking Stewart to keep and leaving out Russell. Just so they could play some combination of Lewis-deFreitas-Emburey-Pringle or Cork-Croft at 7 and 8, while giving a dozen tests (combined) to the likes of Morris, James, Lathwell and Gallian and another 15 to Nick Knight.....

In the 1993 loss to Australia, England picked 24 players.. They picked TEN seam bowlers in a 6-match series - Bicknell, Caddick, de Freitas, Foster, Fraser, Illott, Lewis, Malcolm, McCague, Watkin. Maybe none quite rank as the worst selection, but clearly they were the worst selectors...

NZ - picking Lee Germon as keeper and forcing Parore to bat at 3... never giving Andre Adams a second test match somewhere.... and picking a test side in that awful 1990's period that I think had Dipak Patel at 5 and Chris Harris at 6....

Graeme Hick being dropped after scoring 64 in the second test of that 93 Ashes series still rankles. Also, Hick's non-selection in the 97 Ashes. Warne always rated Hick as one of England's best during that period.

NZ's non-selection of Wagner until the 5th test in Australia in 2015/16 (on the return leg in NZ).

 

[Starfighter]

Stuart Broad a possibility for the England test side? Seems to be much better at ODIs, not sure if tests are going to be his forte.

Good call lol.

 

[wpdavid]

England have had a few more recently; Ansari touring India, Roy opening in the Ashes, the continuing selection of Crawley.

 

[wpdavid]

Good call lol.

In the name of transparency, perhaps we should list our own worst calls. Mine, iirc, was suggesting around 2014 that Anderson was past it and we should look for younger alternatives.

 

[kevinw]

England have had a few more recently; Ansari touring India, Roy opening in the Ashes, the continuing selection of Crawley.

India tours are usually a WTF selection for England. Ian Blackwell played as a spinner. And then didn't they go with four quicks in one of the 92 tests and then India's three spinners won the game?

Also, the Ashes series where both Mason Crane and Tom Curran played.

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

Another recent England debacle was after they (impressively) won away in Sri Lanka but then decided to keep the same team for the next series and picked one specialist quick in Barbados. (WIndies picked 4 and won by 380 runs.)

 

[Blenkinsop]

Criminal that England never picked David Sales, Glen Chapple or James Hildreth. Also Jason Brown, did he play maybe one Test or something?

Equally criminal that England did repeatedly pick people like Derek Pringle.

 

[SteveNZ]

A lot of examples involving Neil Wagner in the last couple of years.

 

[kevinw]

Criminal that England never picked David Sales, Glen Chapple or James Hildreth. Also Jason Brown, did he play maybe one Test or something?

Equally criminal that England did repeatedly pick people like Derek Pringle.

Or say, John Emburey, after two Apartheid tours (all of those guys should have been banned for life, Gooch included).

 

[grecian]

Pringle is a fascinating case, but in the end he was pretty dominant in county Cricket so you can understand in a poor time for england that he was picked again and again.

There were a few things about him that generated a bit too much hate for me. Being a Posho with an earring, who jumped from his University Team by fellow Posho May to England. being always compared to Botham who shadowed most of his career, and really never being anything like as good as him.

Yet I think the thing that was so annoying was he was pretty tall for a seamer themadays, yet his preferred way of bowling was to run in with the general rush of a Pensioner queing at the Co_op and delivering medium pace trundles, that were hugely effective in County Cricket, but unless it was on exactly the right pitch utterly ineffective in tests.

His batting too, when he played for Essex he seemed to attack use his strength to bully bowlers, in Test he just occupied, waiting for the good ball to get him out, again in such contrast to Botham, it was torturous. A player seemingly designed to stick in the craw of most English cricket fans.

Yet was he that bad a selection, compared to the horrors of 80s/90s cricket, Chris cowdrey, David Capel, Ian Greig, Ronnie Irani, Dermot Reeve of terrible Beefy imitators he wasn't the worse.