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We’ve watched Chris Read bat several times and we wouldn’t say he wowed us with the pristine aesthetics of his strokes. Nevertheless, he must tire of the way people talk about him like he should come into bat after Devon Malcolm, even if Devon had food poisoning and couldn’t find a bat.
Here are Chris Read’s first-class batting averages in each of the last few seasons:
- 2005 – 44.68 with one hundred
- 2006 – 27.41 with one hundred
- 2007 – 54.17 with two hundreds (second division)
- 2008 – 42.06 with one hundred
- 2009 – 73.71 with four hundreds
We’re not saying he’s Adam Gilchrist. We’re not even saying he should get picked for England. We’re just wondering at what point he’ll lose his reputation for being a ‘pure’ keeper who can’t hold a bat.
That day in 1999 when he attemtped to duck a Chris Cairns low full toss only to see his castle strewn was the day his batting career ended and with it his test career.
He always appeared to be like a rabbit startled in the headlights when batting after that. Even if he was scoring runs at will for Notts.
Fair? It’s not a fair world.
Same could be said for Shah, he always looks like a rabbit startled in the headlights.
I’d be interested to know what Foster’s county averages have been for the last 5 years. He may not be seen specifically as shit with the bat, but he is deemed a specialist gloveman rather than a batting wickie when it seems to me he has consistently scored good runs in recent seasons.
That’s in division two though.
Even Phil Hughes managed to score runs in division two.
After researching some stats about Chris Read that I was going to try and use to justify an opinion about him, i’ve discovered that I have the same birthday as him.
Bit of a belated present for me there.
Our birthday’s the same as Chris Cairns’.