We saw Tim Bresnan looking out of his depth for England at Old Trafford for one of his four one-day international matches. The crowd didn’t think much of him. He took 0-58 off eight overs. Fortunately for him, Kabir Ali went for 77 off ten, so he didn’t stand out.
It was in the field that he looked worst though. He seemed insanely serious, which isn’t the worst crime, but he clearly wasn’t at all releaxed. To us, he looked like a man who was decidedly rattled by the large crowd and the occasion. Bresnan was only 21 and he hadn’t played a huge amount of cricket. He wasn’t ready.
Some people thrive on being in the spotlight from the word go. Some people need time to acclimatise. We think Bresnan’s got a lot of talent and doesn’t deserved to be judged on some stage-fright cricket during a wholly torrid one-day tournament for England.
Last year Tim Bresnan took 34 wickets at a respectable but not jaw-dropping 32.05. He also hit two hundreds and averaged 39.50. He’s 23. That’s encouraging.
He’s looking quite well-built in that photo – is Bresnan the Rob Key of the all-rounder world?
He does, doesn’t he? We remember him being quite lithe though.
That’s right: lithe.