I truly hope your right about these guys being Test quality players Ben, but have a fear the game over there is sliding far more quickly away from long form to short form cricket, which is going to hurt these guys ability to perfect the techniques needed to be a success at Test level.
I gather part of the reason there were no changes to the England side is because they've played no 4 day games for ages. That was from Bob Willis, so obviously their season is similar to our, with large chunks taken up with ODI's & T20. Not good if you're trying to press claims for a Test berth.
2019-09-10T10:01:33+00:00
It seems there are a bunch of new breed English cricketers in the First Class setup that we'll see in the next 12-24 months. Ben Foakes who is regarded as the best wicketkeeper in the world and a good first class batsman, Dominic Sibley, Sam Hain who has the second best List A average after Virat Kohli and some promising 19/20 year olds who have made their debuts recently. It's just the English selectors keep picking mediocrities like Bairstow and Buttler and Jason Roy in the test format when they havent showed any form for years or never earned selection in the first place.
Just as Alistair Cook was the only Test quality opener England could choose at the end of his career when he'd gone off the boil, so too is Joe Root the only candidate for the captaincy. English first class cricket appears to be in pretty bad shape at present.
Paul
Roar Guru
I truly hope your right about these guys being Test quality players Ben, but have a fear the game over there is sliding far more quickly away from long form to short form cricket, which is going to hurt these guys ability to perfect the techniques needed to be a success at Test level. I gather part of the reason there were no changes to the England side is because they've played no 4 day games for ages. That was from Bob Willis, so obviously their season is similar to our, with large chunks taken up with ODI's & T20. Not good if you're trying to press claims for a Test berth.
It seems there are a bunch of new breed English cricketers in the First Class setup that we'll see in the next 12-24 months. Ben Foakes who is regarded as the best wicketkeeper in the world and a good first class batsman, Dominic Sibley, Sam Hain who has the second best List A average after Virat Kohli and some promising 19/20 year olds who have made their debuts recently. It's just the English selectors keep picking mediocrities like Bairstow and Buttler and Jason Roy in the test format when they havent showed any form for years or never earned selection in the first place.
Paul
Roar Guru
Just as Alistair Cook was the only Test quality opener England could choose at the end of his career when he'd gone off the boil, so too is Joe Root the only candidate for the captaincy. English first class cricket appears to be in pretty bad shape at present.