GordonMuchallNo1Fan
Striker
Not to mention our best player in the series by a mile, came straight out of white ball cricket.
So that’s the 3 best players in the series Smith, Stokes and Cummins straight out of white ball cricket and no red ball practice
And the other best player Broad hardly having any red ball practice!
But them four players never really influenced the Ashes, it was Matthew Wade with all his red ball practice!
So just to clarify Wade is 7th highest scorer in the series?
You’re talking about the number 1 test batsman and number 1 test bowler though.
Our players are undercooked in red ball cricket. I’m not saying that’s what has lost us the Ashes, but red ball cricket is completely overlooked. Yes it’s been a big boost to white ball cricket and we won the World Cup which was superb, but when you see some of the cricket played by the likes of Roy, Buttler and Bairstow, who are all superb, world class white ball players, there’s too much of an overlap between the different formats. Some of the dismissals this series have been poor, as have certain selections, people seem to think white ball cricket can be transferred to the red ball. It can’t.
The players need to play more red ball cricket. However next year the ECB are introducing yet another format, which will lower the opportunity of our players to play red ball cricket even further. Mentalities need to change, but as someone mentioned above - players can either practice and polish their red ball skills, or play white ball cricket where the money is.
So no, it isn’t simply down to game time in the longer format. But as has been mentioned when was the last time Stokes was made available for Durham in the championship? Bairstow for Yorkshire? My opinion is red ball is being neglected.
Spot on
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