• The forum upgrades are now largely complete.
    Please read this thread for more details.
    New user registrations are currently disabled.

Durham v Worcestershire [a] C.C. 8/5/26

Robinson currently a walking wicket and average keeping. Not a great batting display against a weakened Worcester attack.
 

He was genuinely very close to getting a chance in the England side some time ago. Now he is struggling against painfully ordinary attacks.

His demise has coincided pretty much perfectly timing wise with the England chat.

Bit like Borthwick all them years ago, when he started the season on fire batting at 3. Think it was mid-May when he entered the England conversation and he didn’t score a run for the rest of the season (or what felt like).
 
Our main issues though this year is the form of Robinson and the quality of 3rd/4th seamer and spinner.
Bang on. And we are not seeing a great deal being done about it.

None of our three spinners is good enough. Callum can hold an end better than the others but he's not a strike bowler on a day four wicket and firmly tail ender with the bat. Ghafari can take wickets but not hold an end and a poor batsman. Drissell's batting is better than the other two but his bowling is generally weak, you might as well pick Ackerman. Trevaskis was a better option than all of them in hindsight.

We need a better fourth seamer than Aldridge or Rhodes to be able to rest Potts or Raine.

I have heard from a few sources that Ollie Robinson is on a play if fit contract which makes him undroppable.
 
Bang on. And we are not seeing a great deal being done about it.

None of our three spinners is good enough. Callum can hold an end better than the others but he's not a strike bowler on a day four wicket and firmly tail ender with the bat. Ghafari can take wickets but not hold an end and a poor batsman. Drissell's batting is better than the other two but his bowling is generally weak, you might as well pick Ackerman. Trevaskis was a better option than all of them in hindsight.

We need a better fourth seamer than Aldridge or Rhodes to be able to rest Potts or Raine.

I have heard from a few sources that Ollie Robinson is on a play if fit contract which makes him undroppable.
Trevaskis with 47 average with ball
 
Bang on. And we are not seeing a great deal being done about it.

None of our three spinners is good enough. Callum can hold an end better than the others but he's not a strike bowler on a day four wicket and firmly tail ender with the bat. Ghafari can take wickets but not hold an end and a poor batsman. Drissell's batting is better than the other two but his bowling is generally weak, you might as well pick Ackerman. Trevaskis was a better option than all of them in hindsight.

We need a better fourth seamer than Aldridge or Rhodes to be able to rest Potts or Raine.

I have heard from a few sources that Ollie Robinson is on a play if fit contract which makes him undroppable.
Just looking at the early season bowling averages you have Parkinson at 55, Aldridge at 44 and the young seamers going 40+. While Raine and Potts have been excellent you can't expect them to take 80% of the wickets every game.
This game is a perfect example of it, on a pitch which has something in for the bowers and having the opposition at 52/4 and 189/7, your 3rd/4th seamer should be doing a lot better than a combined 2/147.
 
Aldridge given out caught behind, I don’t think he believes he was anywhere near it.

Pitch misbehaving quite considerably this morning, almost dangerously so in my view given the one that reared up off a good length to hit the shoulder of Clark’s bat about 20 minutes ago.
I have heard from a few sources that Ollie Robinson is on a play if fit contract which makes him undroppable.

I’ve seen you say that quite a few times, are your sources reliable? Seems like a ridiculous thing for a club to agree to given how volatile form in professional sport can be.
None of our three spinners is good enough.

This is the crux of it, we can all clamour for this spinner or that spinner to be given a go - but our squad is bereft of a quality spinner and that’s just a fact.

I think it’s worth noting though, that April in England has become traditionally very poor for spin bowling. There was some extensive discussion this past week on one of the podcasts (might’ve been Wisden) about the overall average for spinners in both divisions of the Championship.

For the time being I don’t mind Parky being in the side if he’s economical and we take the view that we need a spinner in the side. That said, if all the bowlers are fit next week I’d leave a spinner out and go with a five man seam attack of Potts, Raine, Stokes, Olivier, Aldridge. That’s pitch and condition dependent of course.
 
Last edited:
Aldridge given out caught behind, I don’t think he believes he was anywhere near it.

Pitch misbehaving quite considerably this morning, almost dangerously so in my view given the one that reared up off a good length to hit the shoulder of Clark’s bat about 20 minutes ago.


I’ve seen you say that quite a few times, are your sources reliable? Seems like a ridiculous thing for a club to agree to given how volatile form in professional sport can be.


This is the crux of it, we can all clamour for this spinner or that spinner to be given a go - but our squad is bereft of a quality spinner and that’s just a fact.

I think it’s worth noting though, that April in England has become traditionally very poor for spin bowling. There was some extensive discussion this past week on one of the podcasts (might’ve been Wisden) about the overall average for spinners in both divisions of the Championship.

For the time being I don’t mind Parky being in the side if he’s economical and we take the view that we need a spinner in the side. That said, if all the bowlers are fit next week I’d leave a spinner out and go with a five man seam attack of Potts, Raine, Stokes, Olivier, Aldridge. That’s pitch and condition dependent of course.
Totally agree Parky is a t20 bowler and thats in bowls the same pace does not turn and no flight of variation hes a defensive bowler.
 
Back
Top