Alastair Cook has been given a huge amount of leeway.....

.....from the England selectors. His stats since the start of the 2013 Ashes series- Matches- 16. Runs- 820. Average- 28.27.

Has any batsman in the last 20 years been given such a long rope as the England selectors have given Cook?

Sure, he made a shaky 90 and a slightly less shaky 70 at the Ageas bowl and everyone (well everyone in the media at least) went gaga about it, but that is two innings out of about 30 where he's made a decent score. Pathetic. You simply can't carry an opening batsman in the side who's averaging 28 for the last year of test cricket. It's unacceptable.

Was Mark Taylor's run of bad form in 1996-97 even as prolonged as this?

He's a dreamboat that you could take home to meet your mother - and he'd probably do her ironing into the bargain.

Stop being so demanding.

I sense that there is a code of conduct in cricket that is not visible to the peasantry who follow the game. A Dhoni or a Cook who is in the good books of the management and has followed every order without a squeak is considered undispensible. What does the management want them to do (Is it fixing matches, sharing proceeds equitably, covering up for them etc) is something I am not privy to. But if I was, surely I would have let you in on it.

But considering all angles, it sure looks like something similar is afoot. Past examples of Ashley Giles, Ishant Sharma all are similar in this aspect. A series of below par performances, and they are still in the reckoning, these guys are indispensible to some people really important is my guess.

I doubt there's many Test openers averaging much above 30 over the past couple of years. Not that that's an excuse, and neither is the lack of alternatives, but when the other opening position is a revolving door a team is always going to back their senior opener to recover form. Even if he wasn't captain.

They really need to tell him to step aside from JAMODI cricket and get some FC form with Chavland for the rest of the season. Then he can come back refreshed for the Caribbean tour.

beamer wrote:I doubt there's many Test openers averaging much above 30 over the past couple of years. Not that that's an excuse, and neither is the lack of alternatives, but when the other opening position is a revolving door a team is always going to back their senior opener to recover form. Even if he wasn't captain.

They really need to tell him to step aside from JAMODI cricket and get some FC form with Chavland for the rest of the season. Then he can come back refreshed for the Caribbean tour.

I'd dump him from the ODI side forever. I just don't think an England cricketer can play, let alone captain, in more than one format of the game these days. Morgan should take the ODI reins, with Hales taking Cook's spot at the top of the order.

Real top players can, and should, play all three formats internationally when they are at their peak. No country has 33 players of international quality anyway! But around the age of 30 they perhaps need to cut down their commitments to prolong their career. One-day cricket has never been Cook's strongest suit anyway and obviously if he steps aside from it now he doesn't get back in. I suspect he will hang on for the World Cup though.

beamer wrote:Real top players can, and should, play all three formats internationally when they are at their peak. No country has 33 players of international quality anyway! But around the age of 30 they perhaps need to cut down their commitments to prolong their career. One-day cricket has never been Cook's strongest suit anyway and obviously if he steps aside from it now he doesn't get back in. I suspect he will hang on for the World Cup though.

Cook's ODI record actually isn't that bad- Strike rate in the high 70s, and an average near enough to 40. If he was partnered with someone like Hales, it would be ok, but with Bell, we are all too frequently bogged down in the first 10 overs.

Having said that, I'd choose Bell over Cook in ODIs, as I feel Bell's batting has more gears to it.

Henry wrote:You simply can't carry an opening batsman in the side who's averaging 28 for the last year of test cricket. It's unacceptable.

You didn't mind such figures from your dreamy late cutting middle order batsman, though, did you? You were still talking of him in the regard of a man who was averaging over 100.

Henry wrote:

beamer wrote:Real top players can, and should, play all three formats internationally when they are at their peak. No country has 33 players of international quality anyway! But around the age of 30 they perhaps need to cut down their commitments to prolong their career. One-day cricket has never been Cook's strongest suit anyway and obviously if he steps aside from it now he doesn't get back in. I suspect he will hang on for the World Cup though.

Cook's ODI record actually isn't that bad- Strike rate in the high 70s, and an average near enough to 40. If he was partnered with someone like Hales, it would be ok, but with Bell, we are all too frequently bogged down in the first 10 overs.

Having said that, I'd choose Bell over Cook in ODIs, as I feel Bell's batting has more gears to it.

He's averaging 33 in his last 25 ODIs, striking in the low 70's, powerplay wasting like a mothafocka. Ronnie Knicks is powerplay wasting like a mothafocka.

You have weird hankerings for shit players

Brass Monkey wrote:

Henry wrote:You simply can't carry an opening batsman in the side who's averaging 28 for the last year of test cricket. It's unacceptable.

You didn't mind such figures from your dreamy late cutting middle order batsman, though, did you? You were still talking of him in the regard of a man who was averaging over 100.

Bell has four hundreds to Cook's zero since the start of the 2013 Ashes. In the same period Bell averages 43.71. Hardly comparable.

Open the batting in ODI's with Hales and Carberry.
Drop Ronnie to 3 or 4.
Skipped by Morgs.

No room for Chef.... bugger off back to Chavviesex.

Henry wrote:
Bell has four hundreds to Cook's zero since the start of the 2013 Ashes. In the same period Bell averages 43.71. Hardly comparable.

M. Eh. Meh.

Openers since the start of the 2013 Ashes

Player Mat Inns NO Runs HS AveDescending
DA Warner (Aus) 11 21 1 1199 145 59.95
KC Brathwaite (WI) 3 6 1 269 129 53.80
Shamsur Rahman (Ban) 2 4 0 193 106 48.25
TWM Latham (NZ) 3 6 0 288 83 48.00
JK Silva (SL) 11 19 0 853 139 44.89
GC Smith (SA) 7 13 1 512 234 42.66
CJL Rogers (Aus) 13 25 0 1011 119 40.44
Ahmed Shehzad (Pak) 5 9 0 351 147 39.00
D Elgar (SA) 4 8 0 310 103 38.75
JE Root (Eng) 5 10 1 339 180 37.66
WU Tharanga (SL) 4 7 0 261 92 37.28
FDM Karunaratne (SL) 7 13 1 424 62* 35.33
M Vijay (India) 11 19 0 665 146 35.00
CH Gayle (WI) 5 10 1 305 80* 33.88
Tamim Iqbal (Ban) 4 8 0 259 95 32.37
H Masakadza (Zim) 1 2 0 64 45 32.00
KA Edwards (WI) 3 5 0 150 59 30.00
SD Robson (Eng) 7 10 0 299 127 29.90
S Dhawan (India) 9 16 0 469 115 29.31
Khurram Manzoor (Pak) 9 17 0 481 146 28.29
AN Cook (Eng) 17 30 1 820 95 28.27
MA Carberry (Eng) 5 10 0 281 60 28.10
AN Petersen (SA) 9 17 2 418 76 27.86
DPMD Jayawardene (SL) 1 1 0 26 26 26.00
SR Watson (Aus) 4 6 0 154 46 25.66
Shan Masood (Pak) 2 4 0 96 75 24.00
KOA Powell (WI) 6 11 0 253 48 23.00
HD Rutherford (NZ) 9 15 1 309 62 22.07
PG Fulton (NZ) 8 14 0 270 73 19.28
V Sibanda (Zim) 3 5 0 96 45 19.20
TMK Mawoyo (Zim) 2 4 0 73 58 18.25
Mohammad Hafeez (Pak) 2 4 0 59 22 14.75
Anamul Haque (Ban) 2 4 0 50 22 12.50
G Gambhir (India) 2 3 0 22 18 7.33
P Utseya (Zim) 1 1 0 5 5 5.00
BB McCullum (NZ) 1 1 0 3 3 3.00

Taylor went 11 Tests before the 97 Ashes scoring 360 runs @ 18.94

Played 11 won 7 lost 4

So on that list above, looking at those with a material number of games, Kaushal Silva gets the nod to partner Warner at the top of the order in the notional World XI.