We have all heard of batsmen who can bowl or bowlers who can bat. Allow me introduce you to a new phenomenon in world cricket: the batsman who cannot bat.
More popularly known as Ed Cowan, he is the rarest of breeds.
What did we expect? The Australian Test selectors pick a near-30-year-old journeyman to debut for Australia and expect that he’ll solve the team’s top order woes?
Wrong.
We have now tolerated Ed Cowan through two full Test series and seven Test matches, and his performances with the bat would barely have impressed his mother. Everybody else is still trying to figure out the difference between him and a nightwatchman.
Cowan’s fighting qualities are not in question. His ability against Test attacks is. When he strides to the crease, adopts his upright stance and wobbles the toe of his bat near two o’clock, people around Australia take up their preferred viewing position. Huddled behind the sofa.
Against bowling that can best be described as impotent, he has failed miserably. In four Tests versus India, Cowan was confronted with a raw Yadav, an aching Zaheer, a wayward Sharma, an ineffective Ashwin and flat pitches.
The result? 206 tooth-pulling runs at an average of 34.
Soon after, in three Tests against an even more pedestrian and inexperienced bowling line-up in the Caribbean, our soporific opener managed to peel off 152 runs at a wholly unspectacular average of 25.
When an opener places a high value on his wicket and digs in when wickets are falling around him, they earn respect. When an opener makes a start and gets to 20 or 30 off 100 balls, he is expected to go on with it more often than not.
Cowan has reached 20 seven times in his Test career and has never gone on with it. Not once.
Players who reach Test level often need to tweak their game to survive. Cowan, in contrast, has stuck with the same awkward technique that he has used against Shield fodder during the sunniest 18 months of his career.
This approach has simply not been up to Test standard. He clearly has neither the range of shots nor the resources to adapt his game to prosper at the higher level.
What is disturbing is that in getting to 20 or 30, Cowan often looks scratchy. His catalogue of near misses has to be seen to be believed, whether it is dropped catches or clumsy run-out attempts.
His slow reaction times and propensity to edge to the cordon will not have gone unnoticed.
Of greater concern however is his judgment outside off-stump. In just seven Test appearances, the Australian cricket public has already lost count of the number of times he has shouldered arms only to see the ball clatter into his pads. He has been dismissed LBW a staggering 50 percent of the time.
His refusal to play a shot to a Ravi Rampaul inswinger in the second over of last week’s Dominica Test is just the latest example. Is this the pedigree of a Test class opener?
It is little wonder the English have fallen in love with Cowan. With a Test average of below 30, England would be delighted to see him walking out on a Lord’s green top for the opening Test of the 2013 Ashes series. Who wouldn’t?
Cowan has won plaudits for writing books and articles on cricket. For his efforts, one wag on Twitter has labelled him our very own Pulitzer Prize winner.
It seems writing self-congratulatory material for Cricinfo may help get you into the Test team, but it is your cricket ability that keeps you there.
If you are still wavering on Cowan, here is what Michael Holding had to say: “I don’t think the Australian openers are that hot, I think they have a lot of work to do, a lot of learning to do.”
He went on to add, “I do not think these two [Cowan and Warner] will be good enough to do a good job in England for the Ashes.”
Warner has shown he can adapt and has time to improve further. Cowan has reached his potential and it is well below Test level. His time has come.
Congratulations Ed Cowan on a very mediocre Test career. Thanks for the memories.
MrKistic
Roar Rookie
Or perhaps now that he's been moved to 3 he should talk to the media for months about how he much prefers opening, agitate within the team, have a falling out with the captain and the coach and wait until he gets moved back to the opening position for some insane reason, only to keep getting out in the same way he always has? If only he could bowl hey?
Dieter
Guest
spot on ... christ they've got to bloody drop him now
Richard d
Guest
By your own poorly argued standards Shane Watson should also be dropped.
Rugby Diehard
Guest
Ain't sport grand!!
Anthony
Guest
Mate you Obviously know very little about the sport. In the days of Media driven hype about the short form, people forget about the real qualities of a test match opening batsmen. His job is to stay there mate. Not score 100 off 50 balls. That approach isnt work for crickets "poster boy" Dave warner. He is the joke! so mate don't go off putting a bloke down if you dont know what your talking about. Cowan has a heart the size of the land hes from. Something our team doesnt have alot of at the moment.
Rugby Diehard
Guest
Charles - "Mickey won’t care cause it’s Ed and we won" - ahhhmm yes we did win and last time I looked it was a team game?!?!?
Vic
Guest
Cowan's stats after seven tests are indeed comparble or better than those illustrious names you mentioned. What you deliberately have neglected to mention is that those players were overwhelmingly young players in their early twenties who were being blooded with one eye on the future. Cowan is thirty years old and there can be no eye on the future as what you get is what you see. If Cowan is still opening the Australian innings this time next year, we may as well forfeit the Ashes series as we will have no hope. I would rather punt on Nic Maddinson.
Rosco
Guest
Good chat none the less guys and thanks for the conversation. Thats why its the greatest game of all. I look forward to looping back in on this discussion in 6 months Fire up for the Ashes ! What a series it'll be !
Bill Larkin
Guest
Pity former Under 19 captain Michael Hill got injured before the start of the last season. Hasn't set the world on fire just yet, but has the style and temperament to be a top class opener. And he does know how to attack.
ross
Guest
If Cowan's so rubbish then clearly we need to import a few South Africans to qualify as Aussies because nobody else in the Shield ranks is doing any better than Cowan is. First rule of dropping a player is that the guy you pick to replace him needs to be presenting a compelling case for selection. Sadly for the depth of Australian cricket, that's not happening. Stick with Cowan, as Jason said, plenty of pretty decent Australian test batsmen have got to their eigth test with a worse record than Cowan's.
Charles
Guest
Well said James
jameswm
Guest
Problem is, Rosco, our top 6, and especially our top 3, are NOT scoring runs. Here are his scores and the top 3-6s, going from the most recent test and working backwards. 3rd test in WI 1st innings 1, rest of top 6 all survived and got decent starts, apart from Hussey 2nd innings 55 off 123, good knock but we still had Warner and Watson in the sheds with the score on 25. Then did well and added 90-odd with Punter, but got out when we needed him to push on 2nd test in WI 1st innings 28, out in 25th over, we slumped to 3 for 83 2nd innings 20 off 78, out in 25th over, we had Warner and Watson in the sheds with the score on 26 this time, then put on 31 with Ponting and we slumped to 5 for 95 1st test in WI 1st innings 14, out in 13th over, Ponting fails, Warner and Watson 40-odd each, Aust 4 for 133 2nd innings 34 off 100, out in 34th over, Aust 5 for 140 Before that, 4th test against India's ordinary bowlers, he managed 30 (out in 26th over) in the first dig, which I guess took some shine off the ball so Clarke could score a double ton, and 10 in the 2nd innings under no pressure (Aust 3 for 40). I'm sorry Rosco - I have higher standards than that. I don't see how the other two in our top 3 really benefited from Cowan's work that much. We weren't posting any decent scores. He only survived the 34th over once - it's just not good enough. That 25th over you mention - maybe Ed should watch out for that - it's been his downfall a couple of times.
Bob
Guest
Another comment on here re Ed Cowan says: 10 innings do not define a career. But in Copeland's case, it was far less although he did nothing wrong. Copeland got his chance on the back of 2 awesome shield seasons, he earned his place through bloody hard work and yet isn't extended the same opportunities as others. He was good enough to be given the chance in the first place, then suddenly he can't play good cricket anymore, sorry but I don't get it. Mickey has double standards for who he likes affording them more opportunities, look what they did to Khawaja and people wonder why he went missing on return to the Shield comp.
Bob
Guest
You must be his manager with that amount of spin, sounds like one of his own, is that you Ed. He's a master of talking up his own efforts! "10 innings do not define a career " far less have defined others, why is Ed an exception when he's 30 yo. Hopefully 2012/13 will find someone younger to develop rather than another player over 30.
ManInBlack
Guest
these guys all make Brad Hodge look like a technical master. What's a bit annoying is that there was this notion that we couldn't have too many 34 year olds. That we need to 'blood' these new guys. But - that flies in the face of history telling us that players who have donw 5-10 years in the Shield system, and scored 3000, 5000, or in M.Hussey's case, 10,000 1st class runs - had by then worked out their game pretty well. I still wonder why a guy like Chris Rogers might now consider himself to be no chance of a return to Test cricket. To me, he's a better bet than anyone else going around and fits the historic profile of success. Sadly - this faith in our 1st class system was lost?? And a whole bunch of unworthy but talented youngsters have been clogging the system and the sum result is that we haven't really progressed - - well, harsh reality is that our batting standards have slipped drastically. Granted that last summer the pitches did seem to tend towards the bowler MORE than in the past - so, flawed techniques/temperaments were exposed more than ever. (and this is a key point in judging someone such as a Chris Rogers, he had a pretty good shield summer - granted, not a Hayden-esque summer, but, perhaps the pitches have been a little more 'fair' than some going back 10 years ago??).
ManInBlack
Guest
so what your saying is the selectors and team had a seriously close look at Copeland over a 3 test international tour and have decided others are ahead of him at the minute. What's wrong with that??
Rosco
Guest
Junior, Rubbish article buddy. Ed Cowan would be the first to admit he would have enjoyed contributing a few more runs after his 7 Tests, however we mustnt underestimate what the overall contribution he is currently having on the Australian circket team. With a player like Warner at the other end, Cowan has taken on the perfect role. A selfless one, and one that is proving instrumental in the team being able to establish big scores for our country. Cowan isnt Warner. Cowan is a classic Test pening batsmen. Yes a few players ( Warner, Glichrist ) have modernised Test Cricket with thier run rates of 80+ however this is not acheivable without stability at the other end. Ed Cowan plays test cricket like its a 5 day game. You cannot blame him for that, its our sport. If it bores you, go invest your time in 20/20. What a rush ! If half a game of baseball is more your vibe. We havent had stability at the top of the order since Langer and Hayden, Cowans ability to be there in the 25th over each innings ( bar a couple ), regardless of his score, takes untold pressure of our more prolific batsmen and hence we have seen our top 6 enjoy more runs as a result of Cowan's determination and concentraion. Not just runs but test match winning scores. Tell us, what else would you like to see there? Being realistic about the talent currently sitting at state level ? Phil hughes was an absolute disaster. Exposing Ponting in the 2nd or 3d over more often then not? And look at the flow on affect it even had on Ricky when there wasnt stability at the top. Look how well Punter bats with Cowan at the helm, and even with him ! The same goes for Clarke etc. SCG, Clarke 300, Punter 200 etc, scores that we havent seen for a long time in Aus cricket with vulnerability at the top order. Runs could not have been harder to come bye in the Windies. Anyone that knows anything about cricket would admit that. Cowan failed once, and i do not think we will see him shoulldering arms again. Cowan will need to go on with it now and will. South Africa will be the ultimate test for him but do not write him off yet. 10 innings do not define a career. Ed Cowan, good luck to you. Head down, use Junior's bias as motivation and show him and the rest of Australia that you deserve to be where you are. Cheers all, Rosco.
lolly
Guest
Well, i don't like watching him bat either, but our choices are rather limited. Hopefully as others mentioned, more batsmen will manage decent seasons next Shield season. I just hope that the Shaun Marsh 'test batsman' experiment isn't tried again. Lovely to watch but not the head for that format.
Charles
Guest
Bit like Cowan, LBW 6 times in 12 bats? Do I note a technical flaw...me thinks so, but Mickey won't care cause it's Ed and we won.
Charles
Guest
NSW did not come last in the Shield last season and a finalist the year before! Sorry but that fallacy is long gone if you check out who's from where nowadays. Do the names Bollinger, Copeland, Khawaja and Hughes ring any bells in regard to any favours or inside running from the selectors? I don't think so, move on, old argument.