Only Way Is Down After Durham

[The Red Telephone]

botham has had a pretty successful career post durham anarl but that's not really the point is it?

Ok here's one even though its all relative...Robin Weston.
He scored three of four centuries for Middlesex...something which Tim Wellock used to take great relish in pointing out in The Northern Echo.

 

[rentaghost]

Been covered about twenty times but I'll do it again.

He went into last season coming off three consecutive thousand run seasons and many (himself included) felt it was time for him to properly cash in and score big. He himself claimed he wanted to convert more 50's into hundreds and spend far more time at the crease.

What happened was he regressed by comparison to the upward trajectory he'd been on and a different Durham opener scored absolute bagfulls of runs and was selected on merit for England. Not before Duckett and Hameed had also beaten him to the job too though.

The favourable circumstances were that he pretty much was the only English opener left to pick from after Jennings because 5/6 other openers before him had failed/lost form/got injured.

We're literally at the bottom of the barrel now. If Stoneman was to break a finger, who else could actually claim to be deserving of a slot in the team? Jennings and Hameed can't certainly.

That's not to say he doesn't deserve his place, he does, but that wasn't the point I was making.

Regressed by scoring more runs in a season than he had ever done before at a higher average than he had ever done before? That's some regression! He has taken it a further notch by improving again this year. The fact that Jennings had a one off great season doesn't detract from that.

 

[brandon]

Regressed by scoring more runs in a season than he had ever done before at a higher average than he had ever done before? That's some regression! He has taken it a further notch by improving again this year. The fact that Jennings had a one off great season doesn't detract from that.

He was completely and utterly overshadowed by his opening partner - had he scored a similar number of runs or hundreds - he'd have been on the winter tours.

He scored 2 hundreds, in a season where he pledged to convert more of his starts into big scores. In all the three previous season he had scored more than 2. Jennings scored 7 (SEVEN) in 2016.

 

[rentaghost]

He was completely and utterly overshadowed by his opening partner - had he scored a similar number of runs or hundreds - he'd have been on the winter tours.

He scored 2 hundreds, in a season where he pledged to convert more of his starts into big scores. In all the three previous season he had scored more than 2. Jennings scored 7 (SEVEN) in 2016.

As you typed that you must have realized what an irrelevant line it was - Jennings had a phenomenal one off season and fair play to him for that. Scoring over 1200 runs at 46, better than you have ever performed before is hardly regression - its also a very good season. What more important is when you put that 1234 runs alongside the fact that Stoneman has been easily the most consistent batsman (in any position let alone opener in the CC in the last 5 years).
Since 2013 no English qualified cricketer has scored more runs than Stoneman in the CC - not one. No other English qualified player has scored 5 consecutive 1000 runs in a season - not one. Over that time hes scored way more runs at a better average than Trescothick and more runs at a better average than the likes of Robson, Lyth, Jennings, Compton and all the other England touted openers. But more importantly last year was comfortably his best year out of all of them so I ask you again how can he have regressed?

 

[brandon]

As you typed that you must have realized what an irrelevant line it was - Jennings had a phenomenal one off season and fair play to him for that. Scoring over 1200 runs at 46, better than you have ever performed before is hardly regression - its also a very good season. What more important is when you put that 1234 runs alongside the fact that Stoneman has been easily the most consistent batsman (in any position let alone opener in the CC in the last 5 years).
Since 2013 no English qualified cricketer has scored more runs than Stoneman in the CC - not one. No other English qualified player has scored 5 consecutive 1000 runs in a season - not one. Over that time hes scored way more runs at a better average than Trescothick and more runs at a better average than the likes of Robson, Lyth, Jennings, Compton and all the other England touted openers. But more importantly last year was comfortably his best year out of all of them so I ask you again how can he have regressed?

Not at all, it was completely and utterly relevant - just ask the selectors. You have to outshine those around you, he didn't and therefore didn't get picked.

He regressed because at the start of the season he was in the England conversation and by the end of the season he wasn't. Quite simple really, it doesn't always have to be about the figures. Again, just ask the selectors.

 

[Twisted]

As you typed that you must have realized what an irrelevant line it was - Jennings had a phenomenal one off season and fair play to him for that. Scoring over 1200 runs at 46, better than you have ever performed before is hardly regression - its also a very good season. What more important is when you put that 1234 runs alongside the fact that Stoneman has been easily the most consistent batsman (in any position let alone opener in the CC in the last 5 years).
Since 2013 no English qualified cricketer has scored more runs than Stoneman in the CC - not one. No other English qualified player has scored 5 consecutive 1000 runs in a season - not one. Over that time hes scored way more runs at a better average than Trescothick and more runs at a better average than the likes of Robson, Lyth, Jennings, Compton and all the other England touted openers. But more importantly last year was comfortably his best year out of all of them so I ask you again how can he have regressed?

i think the point is - and as durham fans we all know he deserved recognition, at least with the lions, far far sooner - he didn't do anything out of the ordinary for him, he just did what he has always done and if it wasn't good enough a few years ago the fact that it is good enough now is because others that England fancied more have failed in the meantime.

hopefully that is a compromise we can all agree on.

 

[rentaghost]

Not at all, it was completely and utterly relevant - just ask the selectors. You have to outshine those around you, he didn't and therefore didn't get picked.

He regressed because at the start of the season he was in the England conversation and by the end of the season he wasn't. Quite simple really, it doesn't always have to be about the figures. Again, just ask the selectors.

i think the point is - and as durham fans we all know he deserved recognition, at least with the lions, far far sooner - he didn't do anything out of the ordinary for him, he just did what he has always done and if it wasn't good enough a few years ago the fact that it is good enough now is because others that England fancied more have failed in the meantime.

hopefully that is a compromise we can all agree on.

I partly agree with that - he didn't bang the door down to get selected but his form continued on an upward curve scoring the most runs he had ever done in a season at his highest average. He didn't regress, he improved and has taken that improvement a step further this year to get the recognition he deserves.