England seek South African Inspiration At The Oval. Again.
Well it worked last time is presumably the selectors line of thinking in handing South African Jonathan Trott a debut in England's most important match for four years.
There were essentially three names banded about in the search to replace the misfiring Bopara; Trott, Key and Ramprakash. Yes, Ramprakash. Remember him? Indeed, a surprising number of well respected journalists were championing him for a one-off recall. I'm glad their arguament fell on deaf ears. Yes he's been extremely prolific in recent county seasons, yes he knows the Oval pitch well, but his inclusion would essentially have been horses for courses - and we're talking about a flat batting pitch here. You don't need to know the pitch intimately to make runs on it.
Can't really argue with the runs Trott's been scoring this year, but his inclusion will push Bell up to three, a position in which he averages 31 with no hundreds.
The other talking point is the recall of born-again batsman Monty Panesar. Whilst there is a romantic symmetry to Monty beginning and ending the series as England's hero, I can't see it happening. Chris Adams, the Surrey manager, has suggested picking two spinners, and I was hoping they'd pick Rashid. It would have been a massive gamble, but there have been a ton of draws at the Oval this season and it's going to take something special for this Test to end differently. You never know, Rashid may have provided that - he certainly bats and fields better than Monty, and he couldn't bowl much worse than Panesar has this year.
Anyway, that should all prove academic because we've got a South African batting at four again. Happy days.
| Posted by Rich on Wed 19 Aug |  39 comments |
we have never been particularly picky about the nationality of our players.
just ask Nasser Hussain, Min Parel and Ronnie Irani!
Posted by Life On Limbrick on 2010-03-12 21:56:15
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