Ravi Bopara

Another great innings!


Think he should be in the test squad as well.

Everything I've seen of him in county cricket this season has been impressive - not sure why it hasn't quite happened for him at international level yet, his technique and temperament look pretty decent and he's shown glimpses of his potential in ODI cricket without making a really big score yet.

Perhaps now isn't the time to throw him into the Test side again in the middle of a fragile batting line-up against a tough opponent, but he's someone who should definitely remain in the selectors' thoughts.

I just hope he isn't destined to be one of those 'too good for county cricket but not good enough for international cricket' types...

When I see him playing for England he looks too intense to me and has endless problems running between the wickets.

Not ready for tests yet, i'd like to see him at 3 in an ODI though

He is only 23 years old so he should get a LOT better in the next 4 or 5 years. He will prove to be a much better option than both Collingwood and Shah.

A guy who averages 40 in First-Class cricket and 34 in ODD cricket is no way too good for county cricket. The Bopara bandwagon really is stupid - he hasn't done anything more than any of the guys currently in the team really, and he was comprehensively exposed in Test Cricket anyway. His ODI performances have been awful bar the odd gutsy 50. That's not to say he doesn't have ability, but he isn't anything yet.

That's sort of 'where I am' with him. There's something that just 'makes my spidey sense tingle'. Don't know what exactly though. Got to give it to the young lad though, he's had a bang-on year and those OD tons he's hit have been pretty supreme.

Augustus wrote:A guy who averages 40 in First-Class cricket and 34 in ODD cricket is no way too good for county cricket. The Bopara bandwagon really is stupid - he hasn't done anything more than any of the guys currently in the team really, and he was comprehensively exposed in Test Cricket anyway. His ODI performances have been awful bar the odd gutsy 50. That's not to say he doesn't have ability, but he isn't anything yet.

He averages only 40 in FC cricket and 34 in OD cricket because he was thrown in early at Essex at the age of 17 and for 2 years previous to this one Essexs bowling has been so short he was bowling ridiculous amounts as a first change bowler...

To my thinking he has really kicked on the last 2 seasons since he turned 21 and he stopped bowling so many overs. Played some cracking innings this year that not many young English 23 year olds in county cricket are capable of.

Accept what you say is probably true. I just 'hope' he doesn't end up that way as he seems to freeze at a higher level...

For Bopara, read Stuart Broad: bright future, but probably not ready for the step up yet.

Class act. Should be in instead of Colly.

Maybe even Vaughan?

Innings and 239 runs.

Michael Vaughan.

furriner wrote:Michael Vaughan.

He's very good...

Prawn XI 600 for 6 dec.
Vaughan 136, M. P. Vaughan 127, Michael V 125*, Virgil 115

India 223 all out
5-84 M. P. Vaughan, 4-72 Vaughan

India 138 all out
6-26 M. P. Vaughan, 4-60 Vaughan

JKLever wrote:Accept what you say is probably true. I just 'hope' he doesn't end up that way as he seems to freeze at a higher level...

He's played a couple of great ODI knocks under real pressure. The one when he and Broad got them home from an apparently lost situation in a match last year (against India was it?), and the World Cup game with SL where he came within a whisker of snatching it for us.

It might be that he's better as a number 6 "finisher" at international level at the moment, but he deserves a bit of a run up the order to see what he can do. As I've said about a few ODI top three candidates, he can't be any worse than what we've had recently anyway!

Thing is even in the NZ series he was coming in 5/6 and having to rescue shocking starts. It should be the senior players that rescue any innings and not keep leaving up to the inexperienced players.

I'd like to see him have a real run at 3

Gary 111 wrote:

furriner wrote:Michael Vaughan.

He's very good...

Prawn XI 600 for 6 dec.
Vaughan 136, M. P. Vaughan 127, Michael V 125*, Virgil 115

India 223 all out
5-84 M. P. Vaughan, 4-72 Vaughan

India 138 all out
6-26 M. P. Vaughan, 4-60 Vaughan

You convinced me.

I'd like to see him have a real run at 3

If Pietersen wants to bat at 3 in the ODI's then he should be allowed to, imo. Your best player needs to face a lot of overs.

JKLever wrote:I just hope he isn't destined to be one of those 'too good for county cricket but not good enough for international cricket' types...

When I see him playing for England he looks too intense to me and has endless problems running between the wickets.

Not ready for tests yet, i'd like to see him at 3 in an ODI though

As beamer mentioned that he has already played couple of very fine innings when ENG were in serious trouble so it seems that he is fully capable of dealing with the pressure at the international level.

I've only seen him once ...at the Lilac Hill game in December 2006 ...he was one of the three Poms who had the "look" of a batsman...the other two were A Stewart and A Hollioake ...

Augustus,

Just checked his stats for this year

867 runs at an average of 67.

embee wrote:I've only seen him once ...at the Lilac Hill game in December 2006 ...he was one of the three Poms who had the "look" of a batsman...the other two were A Stewart and A Hollioake ...

Obviously. All the best people play against England. Even when they're also English. So people can tell us how good they are, while the selectors laugh at the craziness.

The cliques of 'Team England' have made sure quite a few players never got a go.

Henry wrote:

I'd like to see him have a real run at 3

If Pietersen wants to bat at 3 in the ODI's then he should be allowed to, imo. Your best player needs to face a lot of overs.

Well, that'd probably get him 49 + overs oon a regular basis.

Zat wrote:

Henry wrote:

I'd like to see him have a real run at 3

If Pietersen wants to bat at 3 in the ODI's then he should be allowed to, imo. Your best player needs to face a lot of overs.

Well, that'd probably get him 49 + overs oon a regular basis.

Canadian or Scottish?

embee wrote:

Zat wrote:

Henry wrote:

I'd like to see him have a real run at 3

If Pietersen wants to bat at 3 in the ODI's then he should be allowed to, imo. Your best player needs to face a lot of overs.

Well, that'd probably get him 49 + overs oon a regular basis.

Canadian or Scottish?

What do you become after you've been South African and then English?

A Channel Nein employee for life ...