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Jos (short for Joseph) replaces Ian Bell in the squad. Bell actually had a pretty good one-day tour of India compared to most of his team mates. However, this was largely because he only played in one of the matches. Sadly for him, neither of the runs he scored on that occasion could persuade the selectors to retain him.
Jos though? Jos’s one-day record is mental. Jos’s one-day record makes life easy for selectors. If someone averages 70.57 in one-day cricket and scores 128 runs per 100 balls then he’s probably worth a look.
However, if you’re not sure, you can always send him on an A-tour. England Lions have just played five matches against Sri Lanka A (Lions? Unicorns? Why are the English so fond of naming their teams after animals that don’t live there? It’s disrespectful to otters, chaffinches etc). During that series, Buttler scored 102 off 56 balls, 40 off 34 balls, 119 off 130 balls, 1 off 3 balls and 64 off 31 balls.
Being a selector in this situation is like fancying a pint and having to choose between two doorways. One is open and leads to your favourite pub. The other is bricked-up and you suspect the building used to be an abbattoir.
He’s got one ‘eph’ too few and one ‘t’ too many.
This guy was BORN in the 90s. This will happen increasingly often over the next few years and it frightens me just a little bit.
That is the most depressing thing I have heard all day.
Born in the 90s.
Jesus wept.
We’re still coming to terms with cricketers being born in the Eighties.
I haven’t got over the fact that Beefy, Viv Richards, Lamby, etc all retired 20 years ago or so.
Lamby’s RETIRED?
Yup. He wrote a book so the TCCB decided his playing day were over. They were more civilised, more humane days.
His international career to date is spectacular – four T20Is, thirteen runs. This has largely been achieved by avoiding batting, which he has managed to do in three of his four matches. There are only two possible inferences from this. One, that he is a wonderful motivator of the batsmen above him in the batting order, and two, that he has a terrible personal hygiene problem that makes his teammates prefer to be elsewhere.
Apart from these four matches his only other experience is playing for the England Koalas and in county matches. His experience of the spectator numbers at these matches will have been perfect preparation for an ODI series in UAE.
So you would much rather pick a man who exposes all three stumps showing no technique and executes a lame swat shot?
http://www.espncricinfo.com/county-cricket-2011/content/image/532764.html?object=308967
in lieu of a man who shows tremendous skill and executes a compact forward defense?
http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2010-11/content/image/498856.html?object=9062
If you are wondering what’s wrong with the world, it is people like you, KC.
A teammate pointed out a yardstick for feeling old is when none of the England side is older than you…. for me I realised I was past it when Thorpe was dropped in 2005… I was only 33…. And so began the slide towards the grave
Don’t think you’ve commented before, Singe, but with that bleak outlook, you’ll fit in well.
Welcome Singe. A perfect debut.
Most kind…. although maintaining high standards after a perfect debut is always going to be tricky…. I fear any future posts will resemble a succession of ugly cross batted swipes, rank long hops and dollies slipping through despairing malco-ordinated fingers…. followed by a polite request to umpire at square leg for the rest of the day