He isn't 'scoring well' though. He averaged 101.30 in the last season - that is incredible. He is soon eradicating ways for people to get him out. His technique is quite remarkably refined to the point where you can occasionally wonder just how people get him out.
Thing is, though, little has changed between his last Test and now. The same risks which would be involved in his selection remain.
It is a good point, no doubt, and temperament cannot truly be tested when you boss your level, but I feel that there comes a point where semantical (for lack of a real word) arguements go out the window and you realise that the person outscoring others in a season by 700 runs should earn selection for England.
The four you mentioned cannot compare to the five I mentioned. But, as I said, I feel he has improved, so it becomes slightly irrelevant. Tie him up and throw in the wide one? How low do you think County level is. They analyse players, nevermind the best player out there and Ramprakash must have had countless simple plans like the one you suggested tried against him.
Yet;
The fact is that the level of Division One County Cricket has increased vastly since the 1990s, Shane Warne said that the good players have become concentrated toward Division One in an interview last year and I concurr.
The English selectors perhaps? Those concerned with the long term welfare of the team? You don't pick a bunch of individuals, you pick a team. Runs or not, his selection won't amount to much if he's not going to be there in two years which is highly likely.
You're assuming he won't get terrorised by a new bunch of bowlers.
So we pick a bloke for one last hurrah, the future of the Test team be damned? That's a luxury reserved for those on the sidelines. His selection lacks long-term potential and if there's something the side really doesn't need right now, it's a stop-gap selection which has no guarantee of succeeding anyway.
I always look at the way the team they're playing for is doing when it comes to gun performances. The reason the Kat is up for selection again is because NSW also won the Pura Cup. Surrey finished mid-table. That 2026 runs in a season really had no consequences for the team's fortune tells you many things about what's important in a successful team besides sheer weight of runs. Unless Ramps' selection will significantly alter the course of the English side as it stands, there's no point in picking a bloke near 40 who won't last long anyway.
I think there's simply a difference in approaches here between Aus and England. Interestingly, the one time England approached a series with an attitude similar to ours and with a positive apporach they beat us quite convincingly. Since then it's been a massive backward step.
It did, but we had to win to draw the series and keep the Ashes. I thought England looked the better team for most of the series. It would have been a lucky result for us to draw the series and would have been an unfitting end given we were outplayed. We had one player who stood up (Warne) while England played strongly as a team (if we forget the first test). Once England worked out how to put the foot on the throat we were totally outplayed.
Yep, exactly. If not for the rain, the series would likely have been over before the Oval.
Long term potential? Each Test is important and if England continue to faff around and ignore the undoubted best County performer, they will continue to lose Tests.
