Will Trescothick open for England in the India tour?

[Prince EWS]

Bopara's calmness in the few ODIs he's played so far has been little short of extraordinary. But Shah has a much, much wider range of shots and in the last 4 or 5 years has been good at using them.

His range is shots isn't what concerns me - it's his off-stump judgement and odd, jerky backlift. Admitted, I've never seen him score many, and he obviously has in his time, so I can't really judge him properly. Bopara looks more organised - better technique, much better off-stump judgement, better defence.

 

[Richard]

You might have been concerned about that backlift with Graham Gooch, too. It's odd, yes, but it's not a disadvantage if you're used to it, and Shah's had it all his career.

Shah played poorly at Lord's in the First Test of this WI series, but his off-stump judgement and defensive technique are generally actually pretty good.

 

[UncleTheOne]

Eeek, haven't been keeping my eye on the ball as much as I should be this season. Didn't realise he'd been so poor of late.

he hasn't been firing, but got some scores in the list a games. his form for england in one dayers was poor but over the past few years he's strangely developed into a quality one day player for middlesex.

still if strauss is to get the boot i wouldn't mind seeing a top 3 of cook, vaughan and shah.

 

[Richard]

I don't want to see ANYTHING that means Vaughan opens, TBH.

 

[andmark]

Yes.

 

[Prince EWS]

You might have been concerned about that with Graham Gooch, too.

Well, if his backlift seemed to make him prod at balls outside his off stump due to the misalignment of his feet and head to his bat given the slightly varying times he made his decision over whether to play or leave... then yes, I probably would have. I haven't seen much of Gooch, however I somehow don't think that was the case.

Something is not a problem because it is odd - however it is far more likely for unconvential methods to cause problems than conventional methods - they are popular for a reason. Shah's backlift, to me, seems to cause him problems with his off-stump judgement. As I said though, I don't think I've seen him make more than 40 odd, and if you have a look at my posts around the time I did see him make 40 odd, I was quite clearly a poor judge back then anyway - so it's hard for me to judge properly. However, based purely on the looks of their respective techniques, Bopara seems a much better pick. Obviously one would base selection on more than what I've seen of both players though - I was just calling it as I had seen it.

 

[UncleTheOne]

I don't want to see ANYTHING that means Vaughan opens, TBH.

how come?

http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Players/PlayerPositions.asp?PlayerID=2200

his record opening is pretty excellent.

so if strauss gets dropped and tres says he's not open for selection, who would you prefer to see picked?

 

[Prince EWS]

how come?

http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Players/PlayerPositions.asp?PlayerID=2200

his record opening is pretty excellent.

so if strauss gets dropped and tres says he's not open for selection, who would you prefer to see picked?

Cork or Ealham, obviously.

 

[UncleTheOne]

Cork or Ealham, obviously.

usmaan afzaal surely

in all fairness usmaan is one of my favourite players to watch in county cricket.

 

[Richard]

how come?

http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Players/PlayerPositions.asp?PlayerID=2200

his record opening is pretty excellent.

What that simple set of figures doesn't show is that he had one hell of a lot of let-offs in the May - November 2002 period, and that said luck dried-up thereafter, and as a result his record declined notably.

I always said Vaughan was not a Test-class opener and I still very much believe that.