England

England’s two seam bowlers

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The fight to be England’s third seamer is not a classic. It is a pillow fight, at best.

In the warm-up matches, Chris Tremlett has taken one wicket in 37 overs; Boyd Rankin has three wickets from 49 overs; while Steven Finn tops the wicket tally with five wickets in 55 overs. Finn also has the best average of the three, at 51, despite conceding 4.63 runs an over.

You might think: ‘warm-up matches, schwarm-up matches,’ but this does make a mockery of all that talk about competition for places. If there’s competition here, it’s in the style of Go For Broke where the players are competing to achieve the exact opposite of what you might expect.

At present, the choice seems to be between Boyd Rankin’s ineffectiveness and the occasional wicket from the run-haemorrhaging Steven Finn. We’d go for Monty Panesar. Or we’d play Jonathan Trott as an all-rounder. You can’t beat a bit of slapped-back dobble.

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12 comments

  2. With Swann likely to be a holding bowler at best and Broad still a touch hot and cold (although miles better that he was 2 or 3 years ago), this is more than a little concerning isnt it? If Australia can find a couple of players that can actually see off the new ball, the likes of Clarke and Watson could properly cash in.

    Finn is starting to look like a Mitch in waiting, he really has gone backwards.

    1. I love the pessimism. Seriously Australian cricket is in no position to seriously challenge for the top in the next few years, I wouldn’t worry.
      It’s not getting better anytime soon, James Sutherland came out with this yesterday:
      “The fundamental thing for us is Shield cricket is not about determining who the champion state team is, that is incidental, the real thing about Shield cricket is it needs to prepare cricketers for international cricket and particularly Test cricket and therefore the environment in which they’re playing should be as much like Test cricket as possible.”
      This clown’s job is apparently safe no matter how badly the national side does…

  3. Shawarma-up matches. Now those would be interesting. I can almost hear Broad asking for the organic turkey in a spinach low-carb pita wrap with a side of tabouleh.

    1. You doner what you’re talking about, DC.

      You’re trying to be funny, but the comments aren’t even faintly hummus.

    3. But be honest – Howe – you are paid to appreciate jokes…

      …that’s right…

      …you are a “buck-laugher”.

    5. Don’t get ‘buck-laugher’.

      Have a strong suspicion that this is half down to our accent and half down to us not knowing how to pronounce the name of a particular foodstuff.

    7. KC: You’re almost right. It’s also a terrible pun. I’ve heard friend of a friend would get it. In fact I think I heard from a friend’s wife who told my other mate. That’s right, Anna told Ian’s cousin would understand.

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