People being pigeon holed at certain positions

[SirBloody Idiot]

A person on another board raised an interesting point, which I'd like to get some opinions on here.

With Phil Jaques in super form at the moment, after hitting two tons against the English and piling on runs in England and Australia, I'm not sure that preventing him from getting a game 'because he's an opener' is the right call.

Shane Watson gets injured, and Michael Clarke comes in, someone who hasn't exactly been banging down the door for a test spot like Jaques has.

So what do the other CW members think? Is it wrong for batsmen to be pigeon holed as a certain type of player, when they are clearly the next best thing?

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

The question is if Michael Clarke is still being considered an allrounder. I think he is. I read somewhere that he was battling with Andrew Symonds and Shane Watson for the six spot, so I gather that's because the selectors think he's an allrounder.

[SirBloody Idiot]

I would hope that Clarke is being selected and not because he can bowl a bit. They said Symonds was selected as a batsman and his bowling was just a bonus.

The other option is, of course, for Jaques to bat down at four or six for a couple of games at state level to try and prove he can make runs there. Katich moved to the top to get a one day spot for Australia, and while Jaques is dominating at the top, NSW may have to think of his interests here.

[andyc]

Meh. If you can make runs opening, you can make runs in the middle order.

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Originally Posted by andyc

Meh. If you can make runs opening, you can make runs in the middle order.

You should be able to. But that doesn't mean you can.

[Poker Boy]

Some batsmen can, some can't. Gooch and Gibbs wre middle-order players who became Test openers, Mike Hussey is a very good example of someone who went from opener to middle-order while Vaughan and Alec stewart seemed to bat everywhere for England! But some can't - in 1974 the England selectors had the brainwave of putting G Boycott at No 4 in a Test in the Windies and Geoff wrote in his autobiography "that batting down the order in a Test was not for me" and before the next Test he said "I'm opening. Let's sort out the rest of the order". Mind you that doesn't sound like Geoffrey...

[Fandoth]

Originally Posted by Mr Mxyzptlk

You should be able to. But that doesn't mean you can.

Exactly. Some people may not play the spinners as well either, so opening might be where they could score the most.

[Perm]

Michael Clarke scored heavily in First Class cricket when he was dropped from the test side and that is really all the opportunity he has had in the longer version of the game. I hope he is not considered as an all-rounder but primarily a batsman, who may turn his arm over if required and if conditions suit. A bit like Kevin Pietersen or Graeme Smith for want of a better example.