Strauss

Where does he rank amongst all time England opening batsmen? Trescothick? Vaughan? Atherton? Does he belong in that company?

I reckon he's on a par with Vaughan.

Henry comes through with the typical knee-jerk . . .

Saying Strauss is as good as Vaughan is a knee jerk?

If anything Strauss is slightly better.

Vaughan would've batted until stumps.

Strauss is good. But I wouldn't start putting him up with other England greats. 169 on a road is Good, but not Great.

Last week was a pretty important test for him, new captain of England, time to usher in a new era, placate potential dressingroom conflict. It was his moment to lead from the front with the bat.

Remind me how he went!

And while we're at it, didn't he make some pretty telling contributions during the last home series against SA? I know he made a few runs in the dead rubber.

Straussey = Solid, dependable, stoic, non complacent, no-nonsense person and a decent batsman.

Despite the kick in the guts in Nov '06, I've always believed he'd make a better captain because he's his own man who has no hidden agenda as previous incumbents did. Doesn't ramp on about playing for the Three Lions etc etc ... just gets on with it.

Stamping his authority by making the "surprise" changes for this Test match proves the point (he is the only one selecting the team - Flower only advises.)

The test at Sabina came at a time when he was still dousing egos in the dressing room post the KP-Moores fallout and amidst all the IPL auction crap. To return from that humiliation and post a score of 169 a week later shows the real Strauss character.
He'll do nicely.

He's not as beautiful to look at as Vaughan was in full flow.

Yesterday's innings was the old Strauss. Ie the Strauss that plays more than 2 different shots in his innings. It was good to see.

I guess he's not that far off Vaughan as a batsman but as a captain only time will tell. He seems quite a steady, cautious kind of guy so he suits being England captain very well.

Henry wrote:Yesterday's innings was the old Strauss. Ie the Strauss that plays more than 2 different shots in his innings. It was good to see.

That's because he's worked on his game - comes onto the front foot a lot more and looks to drive more than cut off the back. His five straight drives for fours and the lofted six back over Benn's head were examples.

Re Captaincy - agreed, it's too early to tell. But he will be better than Vaughan rest assured.
Unlike MPV, Strauss has inherited a dysfunctional team stacked with ego, aggro, love-ins and a 'stat average of 40' complacency; whereas MPV's greatest period, (having inherited a tough unit from Naz in the first place) was Ashes'05 when he had 11 players (bar the dumbBell) firing on all cylinders. He also had Feltch (who was top of his game at that time), to help him out. After Feltch's departure, he went on to f**k it all up with the 'pet/mate' metality ... (bar the Snoozers tour) but that's another story.

Strauss is solid - and so far, believable.

What's that now? 15 test centuries

he's no mug, but looks horrible when in poor form

He's probably got an average in excess of that of KP over the same period since his return to the side as well...

Since the 1st Test against the Kiwis in March last year when Strauss was recalled.

Strauss : 1163 runs @ 50.57
KP : 1121 runs @ 50.95

KP needs a half century in this innings to keep his nose in front during that period both in terms of aggregate and average.

Got to admit, thought the old Strauss was done for at test level

His batting stance seems to be much more open - his front leg's more to the on-side as the bowler reaches delivery stride nowadays. I don't know what this actually achieves, but it makes him look awfully similar to Alastair Cook at the other end. The point being that it's annoying.

Strauss is pretty rubbish against the likes of Vaughan and Trescothick, in my opinion. He makes batting look really ugly and is a bit of a flat-track bully. A decent opener but you wouldn't pick him ahead of either of them when all three were at their best.

Augustus wrote:His batting stance seems to be much more open - his front leg's more to the on-side as the bowler reaches delivery stride nowadays. I don't know what this actually achieves, but it makes him look awfully similar to Alastair Cook at the other end. The point being that it's annoying.

Strauss is pretty rubbish against the likes of Vaughan and Trescothick, in my opinion. He makes batting look really ugly and is a bit of a flat-track bully. A decent opener but you wouldn't pick him ahead of either of them when all three were at their best.

Gary Kirsten looked pretty ugly but he would have walked into a lot of test teams.

When did Thicko become Victor Trumper?!?!

The crab NEVER used his feet and the fact he made a Test ton indicates how crap the bowling attacks where in his day.

JKLever wrote:Got to admit, thought the old Strauss was done for at test level

Likewise.

Despite his protestations to the contrary you do wonder just what effect being (scandalously) overlooked for the captaincy for the last Ashes tour had on his frame of mind, and whether that impacted on his overall confidence in his game.

Yeah, he's playing straighter in this game, even though his scoring shots were similar to usual. He looked good, on a flat deck. But is definitely a nailed on place in the England team.

Purely as openers:

Gooch > Vaughan > Stewart > Strauss > Tres > Atherton

Strauss has a better average than Tres abroad.

Gooch > Vaughan > Stewart > Strauss > Tres > Atherton

Hmmm....

Very difficult to do in a linear fashion like that.

I think Stewart could have topped the pile had he been allowed to carry on opening unfettered rather than being burdened with the gloves.

Also very difficult to compare the likes of Athers and Tres because of the different qualities that they brought - a gritty, determined obdurate versus a more vulnerable but free scoring stroke maker...you could almost say the same about Strauss Mk I and Strauss Mk II.

Had Trescothick been well enough to continue his career over the last 3 years or so, I do think that he would have been more valuable to the side than Strauss or Vaughan during that period - the 2002/3 Vaughan excepted.

Athers is under-rated. He had a good career considering the debilitating back problem.

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:Very difficult to do in a linear fashion like that.

I think Stewart could have topped the pile had he been allowed to carry on opening unfettered rather than being burdened with the gloves.

Also very difficult to compare the likes of Athers and Tres because of the different qualities that they brought - a gritty, determined obdurate versus a more vulnerable but free scoring stroke maker...you could almost say the same about Strauss Mk I and Strauss Mk II.

Had Trescothick been well enough to continue his career over the last 3 years or so, I do think that he would have been more valuable to the side than Strauss or Vaughan during that period - the 2002/3 Vaughan excepted.

It's difficult, as you say Bob and I totally agree about Stewart - IMO none better at playing pace, allied with the new ball, at the time. Gooch obviously would be up there with them. Atherton would, in my mind, be averaging approximately 45 in this generation at least, he had trouble with a few greats, I'd surmise that so would many others with a better average in this day and age.

Which leads us onto the rest, of them I'd say that Vaughan was easily the most talented - think the captaincy and his drop to 3 didn't help him in this cause though I'd put Trescothick alongside him because of the fact he tried to get the innings going and at times failed but that's what happens when you're not trying to shoulder arms to every ball you can.

Strauss, the jury's out, I'd say he's made some really good, match-contributing tons against good attacks at bad times however.