Plusses and minuses for England from the ODIs

Henry wrote:Yes, drop them both, but for all of the criticism Bell gets, the cold hard stats suggest KP has been even worse.

I mean, he has been clearly the worst performed England ODI player for two years now. Worse than Broad, Bell, Bresnan....anybody. But he MIGHT suddenly turn it on and win us a game, so that's why we're picking him- Purely on reputation. Sooner or later you have to say "enough is enough."

Even if he gets a couple of run-a-ball 40s a series, that's still contributing more than someone who gets say 50 or 60 at a sub-70 strike rate. Wasting deliveries can be worse than getting out cheaply in a lot of cases. It can totally destroy the momentum of an innings. KP is rarely if ever guilty of that, he will get on with it or get out.

The question is, do we have a like-for-like replacement who would do better, or would he just be replaced by someone else who would nudge it around, pick out the fielders and stall the innings? Power hitters are thin on the ground in the English game, you need two or three players in the top six who can clear the ropes on a regular basis.

Sixes this year*

First Class:

Name	Sixes	Balls Per Six
GR Napier	24	11.18
BA Stokes	14	66.4
JWA Taylor	9	163.44
AJ Wheater	8	73.88

List 'A':

Name	Sixes	Balls Per Six
C Kieswetter	15	34.8
PD Trego	10	15.9
V Chopra	9	43.4
BA Stokes	8	30.88
NJ O'Brien	7	31

Twenty20:

Name	Sixes	Balls Per Six
LJ Wright	14	15.71
JJ Cobb	14	14.57
DI Stevens	13	15.23
TC Smith	12	21.66
MH Wessels	12	20.92

* Disclaimer: This list has been compiled without great care. Certain players have been discluded, people who are unavailable for whatever affliction - be it crapitude, foreignism or 'past it' syndrome. Furthering this, I do not know or care whether Niall O'Brien or Riki Wessels are England-qualified.

Considering Benjamin Stokes was injured for the long, drawn out clownfest that is T20, all signs not only point to him in neon they also have round-the-clock announcements signalling that Ben Stokes, who can also bowl, is a must to try out sooner rather than later.

Ickle Jimmy Taylor hitting sixes seems like it must be against nature or something. Must have massive edges and tiny boundaries.

You should never look at six-hitting as proof of any kind of skill. My man Alex Hales is probably the best young aggro top order bat around who is genuinely English, but his major skill is threading the off-side field, which surprises folk. He has probably scored more fours in Twenty20 this year than any other frakker. And he loves that arc through cover in first-class cricket. On Ben Stokes, it's pretty hard to say anything against England and their reactions to him seeing as they haven't yet had an opportunity to pick him. I think they may have picked him for this series had he been fit, though I'm not completely sure he or any of the other young 'uns are likely to be any great shakes at the moment in time.

Except for my main man James Taylor.

Dello wrote:Ickle Jimmy Taylor hitting sixes seems like it must be against nature or something. Must have massive edges and tiny boundaries.

Naw, he's just a Little Big Lad.

Chivalry Augustus wrote:You should never look at six-hitting as proof of any kind of skill.

F*ck off. Beamer wanted power hitters. Sixes are an allusion to power. This has been DJ Suck T Nuts hanging out the back of you.....

Brass Monkey wrote:

Chivalry Augustus wrote:You should never look at six-hitting as proof of any kind of skill.

F*ck off. Beamer wanted power hitters. Sixes are an allusion to power. This has been DJ Suck T Nuts hanging out the back of you.....

Bollocks. Guys don't worry about how far they can launch semen. It's all about thrust and timing. Sixes are for little girls without penises. Little girls like you.

Y'reet. Reet y'are. Sixes are nothing to do with power. That young Ian Bell chap, he's all thrust and timing. We should stick him in the side. Oh.....

Brass Monkey wrote:Y'reet. Reet y'are. Sixes are nothing to do with power. That young Ian Bell chap, he's all thrust and timing. We should stick him in the side. Oh.....

Or we could go for the best six-hitter in the country over the last few years. I think his name was Luke Wright. Very good player, he's going to make something in the game. Fact is neither extreme is any good, but being able to hit sixes against county dobbers isn't a skill, as Shahid Afridi has proved in a long career of below average batsmanship.

No, no, no. Beams wanted power hitters. He was all like "sh!t man. What be the power hitters?". I was all like, "I's a bit naive, I's reckon that if you got bits of power in your batting, through whichever combos of backlift technique, timings and strengthies youse have, maybs that could be indicated by them old DLF F*CKING MAXIMUMS YEAH!!!!"

But I was wrong. I mean, of course, one wouldn't choose one of them that bats and sh!t just for sixes, buts it's a goods indicator of some power. If I was all like "Ooh that Stokesey, he can play. Plus he can hit a few sixers, whoopee" then that's the thing.

Well, quite.

beamer wrote:

Henry wrote:Yes, drop them both, but for all of the criticism Bell gets, the cold hard stats suggest KP has been even worse.

I mean, he has been clearly the worst performed England ODI player for two years now. Worse than Broad, Bell, Bresnan....anybody. But he MIGHT suddenly turn it on and win us a game, so that's why we're picking him- Purely on reputation. Sooner or later you have to say "enough is enough."

Even if he gets a couple of run-a-ball 40s a series, that's still contributing more than someone who gets say 50 or 60 at a sub-70 strike rate. Wasting deliveries can be worse than getting out cheaply in a lot of cases. It can totally destroy the momentum of an innings. KP is rarely if ever guilty of that, he will get on with it or get out.

The question is, do we have a like-for-like replacement who would do better, or would he just be replaced by someone else who would nudge it around, pick out the fielders and stall the innings? Power hitters are thin on the ground in the English game, you need two or three players in the top six who can clear the ropes on a regular basis.

Like I said a while ago, if you want a player who will get a quick 20 most of the time before throwing it away, then let's get Luke Wright back in there. But KP is a number 4 batsman. So much more is expected and indeed required from him.

I think that KP cares about tests and T20s, but somewhere along the line (probably after he lost the captaincy, based on his stats), he decided that ODIs are a waste of space, and not worth the mental effort.