Carberry is another plodder. If he can't hit it for four then it's a dot ball. He builds pressure when he's at the crease.
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I'm not sure how you accommodate Trott and Balance in the same side. It makes us very one dimensional. Personally I'd rather have trotty. Of course, Balance could move down the order, he bats at 5 for Yorkshire, doesn't he?Originally posted by Shaggy View PostComment
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Move someone like Root up? Maybe in at 3, then Bell and Ballance in at 5. Can fit them all in that way and it doesnt mess with too much. Its basically swapping Root for Ballance.*Except Michael, who died.Comment
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Root really struggled when he last had a go batting there. Dunno. I think our batting lineup is a bit of a mess, so many square pegs in round holes.Originally posted by Alex View PostComment
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If the batting is a mess then the bowling is no better.
Same old seamers and no decent spinner.Comment
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Colin Graves pushes for Kevin Pietersen talks despite England denials
• Incoming ECB chairman ready to meet Pietersen over Test recall
• News comes as England insist that outcast is not in their plans
• Pietersen says he will do anything for return
• England captain Alastair Cook hits out at his one-day sacking
The incoming England and Wales Cricket board chairman, Colin Graves, has spoken directly to Kevin Pietersen and intends to meet him when the exiled batsman returns to the country after his commentary stint at the Cricket World Cup.
The Guardian understands the duo have already held at least one telephone conversation, with the 34-year-old Pietersen seeking assurances as to how genuine his chances of an England recall would be if he were to sign a deal to play county cricket for Surrey this summer.
That Pietersen and Surrey have been negotiating a return to The Oval already, in light of this news, suggests that stumbling blocks over whether it would be worth his while could be about to be removed.
Contrary to reports, however, the deal is yet to be signed off and, as it stands, may not go through until a scheduled meeting between Graves and Pietersen following the World Cup final on 29 March.
This latest revelation of open dialogue between the new man in charge of English cricket and the national team’s pariah came on a day when both the Test captain, Alastair Cook, and the national selector, James Whitaker, had insisted there was no way back for Pietersen.
“I think it’s very unlikely,” said Cook. “There’s been a hell of a lot of stuff happened with his book and all that kind of stuff. It’s a long way back from that.”
Speaking to the BBC, Whitaker added: “Kevin is not part of our plans and we have not discussed Kevin being in our team.” What it means for their future and that of the ECB managing director, Paul Downton, the man who oversaw Pietersen’s removal, remains to be seen.
Graves got the ball rolling on Pietersen’s return when, in a radio interview on 1 March, he hinted at a softening of the stance towards him and insisted a deal to play county cricket could bring about a recall, only for an ECB statement that night to insist “nothing had changed”.
But Pietersen, emboldened by the interview, sought a route out of his £205,000 deal to play in the Indian Premier League for Sunrisers Hyderabad. The franchise are comfortable with his release but the Board of Control for Cricket in India are yet to sign it off and could yet hold him to it.
“If I can do anything that can help me get back into it for England then it’s something I want to do. I love playing for England,” Pietersen told BBC’s Test Match Special, for whom he is a summariser during the knockout stages of the ongoing World Cup.
Cook, who has been furnished with a 16-man Test squad for next month’s tour of the Caribbean that includes the recalled Jonathan Trott and six Yorkshire players, went on to tell the Cricket Badger website that a lack of leadership, following the decision to remove him as 50-over captain, was a reason for England’s failed World Cup campaign.
“I think you saw in Australia the dangers of making such a big decision so close to the tournament,” he said. “I don’t know what’s gone on on that tour, and I can only speak from watching a little bit from afar, but it did look like the lads were shell-shocked from the first two games. That’s when you need real leadership to help steer you through that. Whether I would have made a difference, I don’t know. But I was fully confident we would get out of our group, and from there, you’ve got to win three games in a row - that’s how this World Cup has worked.”
Cook, who is preparing for the Caribbean tour with a four-day match for MCC against Yorkshire in Abu Dhabi, starting this Sunday, believes he must rebuild the confidence of the side, with the return of an experienced batsman such as Trott, after 16 months out of the squad due to a stress-related illness, a timely boost.
Cook’s own disappointment at missing out on the World Cup due to a personal battle for form has clearly not diminished during an enforced three-month break from cricket. “As any captain will tell you, leading your country in a World Cup is a huge honour and one that can never be taken lightly. I was very much looking forward to that,” he added. “I understand the pressure I was under. I wasn’t scoring the runs I should, or could, have been scoring, so I understand that my position was in jeopardy. I said at the end of [the ODI series in] Sri Lanka that if there was a change, I couldn’t complain because I hadn’t scored the runs.
“I can’t speak about what’s gone on there in depth, but you always back yourself, and I would have loved to have had the opportunity that was taken away from me. The selectors made that decision because they thought it was the best for English cricket. Hindsight has probably proved them wrong, but now it’s very easy to say that.
“We have a repairing job to do, and the only way of doing that is by playing some good cricket and to start winning. We built that momentum a little bit after the Ashes 14 or 15 months ago with a slightly younger side, including the likes of Gary Ballance and Joe Root. There was a good feelgood factor about the English game in the middle of August after the Test matches. Since then, it’s been tough going. We’ve got to rebuild again.”
The news that Graves, who replaces Giles Clarke as chairman in May, has been in open dialogue with Pietersen will only make that rebuilding more complicated.
England squad
AN Cook (capt), IJL Trott, A Lyth, GS Ballance, IR Bell, JE Root, JC Buttler (wkt), JM Bairstow (wkt), BA Stokes, AU Rashid, JC Tredwell, LE Plunkett, SCJ Broad, CJ Jordan, JM Anderson, MA Wood.Comment
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What a shambles the ECB are.
As for Cooks claims that he shouldn't have been dropped
Modifying post.Comment
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Broad's not fit and it's causing him to be a liability. I would have told him to go away and bowl in the nets and for his county and get his pace back up to the high 80's. At the moment it seems most of his deliveries just lollipop down at 84mph. That's hopeless. You have to be a pretty exceptional talent to be a front line bowler in international cricket and get away with that pace and he's not. He's effective when he's bowling around 87/88mph, certainly when he's been at his wicket taking best that's where he's been. He's not even contributing to the bat now he's scared of the ball. He got hurt and it's understandable that it shook his confidence, but he's got to get that back too if he's going to continue to be an automatic pick.Originally posted by Chazza View Post
Jimmy's pace is down too, but I reckon that's due to his age and no amount of rest is going to bring that back. He is an exceptional bowler though and it's worth giving him the game time to prepare for the Ashes. If he's bowling with swing and accuracy with the new ball then he can be just as deadly bowling at 85mph as a Mitch Johnson bowling at 90+.
Go back around 3 or 4 years ago and we were talking up what a great production line of bowling talent we had waiting in the wings. As well as Jimmy and Broad there was Finn coming through, Tremlett, Bresnan, Meaker and loads more all supposedly knocking on the door. Now through injury or for no obvious reason at all they have all got very average and the cupboard looks bare. This tour represents a great opportunity for the likes of Stokes, Plunkett and Jordan to stake a claim in the bowling lineup. By jeebus we need them too because at the moment our bowling looks more of a shambles than our batting. Which is saying something.Comment
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There is a massive power play going on in the ECB and KP is the pawn. Graves will win.Originally posted by Chazza View PostComment
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KP being 34, he realistically has what 3 years tops in Test Cricket left and maybe 6 at the most in Limited overs.
Could see him doing it, but it seems like an almighty effort to get someone in for 2/3 years of Test sides.*Except Michael, who died.Comment
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I honestly think England could do worse than have someone like Pietersen involved in the coaching set up. Bring him back in to help manage the team on the pitch, as a sort of vice captain for the next few years and then move him towards coaching.
I think he understands modern cricket (test and short format) better than any other player in the England set up. His main crimes seem to have been in telling the truth, and a lot if what he has said has gone on to be proved correct. Anything else, well there has been very little said to say that he was wrong.
It is a good point about there being a power play at the ECB, as there are 2 conflicting stories being put out. Colin Graves seems to think he is in a position where he will win.Modifying post.Comment
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Breaking news...
Kevin Pietersen: Colin Graves has spoken to sacked player
Incoming England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Colin Graves has spoken to Kevin Pietersen about a return to the England side.
Pietersen wants a meeting when he returns from the World Cup following radio duties, BBC Sport has learned.
It comes a day after selector James Whitaker said the 34-year-old was "not part" of the team's plans.
Pietersen was sacked in February 2014 in the fallout of the 5-0 Ashes whitewash by Australia.
More to follow.Modifying post.Comment
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An incredulous Michael Vaughan
"The more staggering thing is what Alastair Cook has said," continued Vaughan.
"England were number one in the world and they got to the Champions Trophy final but that was two years ago. This is a new era of one-day cricket. Cook's last ODI century was in June 2012 "The only series they have won in the last two years has been away from home in the Caribbean when Cook wasn't the captain."What that interview told me is that you become a very good player when you are out of the side."Modifying post.Comment
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Kevin Pietersen's plans to return to county cricket with Surrey moved a significant step closer after he endorsed reports that he is about to agree a release from his Indian Premier League contract.
Pietersen, axed by England in February 2014 after their Ashes whitewash in Australia but hoping for a still unlikely international recall, retweeted an update in the Daily Telegraph announcing the Sunrisers Hyderabad are preparing imminently to release him from his IPL commitments with them over the next two months.
That will be a key development as the record-breaking 34-year-old batsman seeks a new deal with Surrey - who de-registered him at the end of last season.Comment
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