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England players and selection discussion thread

Magrat Garlick

Global Moderator
"he's a strokeplayer, we saw in this test what difference that can make"

No way they'll recall a 38yo whose most recent innings on Cricinfo is a 1 for the Sinhalese Port Authority (because CI (in)explicably have decided the 2022 County Championship isn't happening)
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
"he's a strokeplayer, we saw in this test what difference that can make"

No way they'll recall a 38yo whose most recent innings on Cricinfo is a 1 for the Sinhalese Port Authority (because CI (in)explicably have decided the 2022 County Championship isn't happening)
Are you mixing up your Compton cousins or have I just bitten? :detective

Anyhoo, I'm not generally a fan of the old "if you remove their best performances player X is a bit rubbish" statistical sidestep as it seems intellectually dishonest and bending the evidence to one's preconceived prejudices, but in Crawley's case it maybe is worth a second look.

If one removes that (increasingly anomalous) 267 he scored v Pakistan his average drops from an already less than stellar 27.21 to a frankly piss poor 21.36.

There's no way that cuts it for a top order batter.
 

Groundking

International Debutant
This is where we need to be ruthless for once imo and just drop Crawley for the guy in form, waiting until he loses form never works and sometimes players need to hit the ground running in test cricket which we never allow as we wait too long always.
 

kevinw

State Vice-Captain
the challenge for Keysey is that he runs the risk of weakening his beloved Kent if he releases Crawley back to them. tricky one.
Genuinely think he wouldn't get into the Kent side unless it's Compton coming in. Compton and DBD are better players than Crawley.
 

Magrat Garlick

Global Moderator
The other option was to carefully manage his injury risk. There are lots of ways to do this - typically you would want a bespoke strength and conditioning program, and different physios would quibble over the details. But the most basic, well-established principle would be avoiding spikes of activity at a much higher intensity or length than the player is used to. And they're allowing him to come into his first test ever and bowl 10-over spells flat-out.
Getting back to this: Anderson only bowling 9 overs in the second innings two days ago might be a sign that things are changing (I'm unsure how long spells they bowled Potts for mind)
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
I remember Goughy (the poster, not Darren) had a unique take on Paul Collingwood. He thought he'd created a reputation as an honest grafter, but really he was too lazy to develop proper technique, and becoming a decent test batsman with such an ugly style just revealed immense hand-eye co-ordination that was going to waste.

I don't know if it was true, but it really changed how I think about talent. Crawley is thought of as talented because his form is so good when he plays attacking shots, but maybe that's actually a sign that his talent is maxed out. If there were technical issues you could fix them, but if he's technically not bad but keeps getting out because his eye isn't sharp enough, where do you even go from there?
It an interesting postulate but based on what I have seen of him, I really dont think its his hand-eye that is the problem. He just has to stop wafting at balls aimlessly. Its far more ok nicking off like Vince trying his cover drive than nicking off on a defense IMO. Sehwag dealt with it by learning to leave better and also committing to attacking shots when he recognized it was balls he could go after. Crawley needs to do a bit of that.

Think having B Mac as coach will really help him overall. Have to wait and see though. Still think he has a higher ceiling than Pope for example.
 

sledger

Spanish_Vicente
Crawley should definitely be sacked

Absolutely no harm in giving Brook a go at this stage, especially seeing as the series is already won
 

Spark

Global Moderator
It an interesting postulate but based on what I have seen of him, I really dont think its his hand-eye that is the problem. He just has to stop wafting at balls aimlessly. Its far more ok nicking off like Vince trying his cover drive than nicking off on a defense IMO. Sehwag dealt with it by learning to leave better and also committing to attacking shots when he recognized it was balls he could go after. Crawley needs to do a bit of that.

Think having B Mac as coach will really help him overall. Have to wait and see though. Still think he has a higher ceiling than Pope for example.
Is not "wafting aimlessly" potentially a sign of (relatively) poor hand-eye coordination? If you aren't as good a judge of line and length quickly out of the hand as others, then you're more likely to be indecisive when judging what to play and leave.
 

Red_Ink_Squid

Cricketer Of The Year
It an interesting postulate but based on what I have seen of him, I really dont think its his hand-eye that is the problem. He just has to stop wafting at balls aimlessly. Its far more ok nicking off like Vince trying his cover drive than nicking off on a defense IMO. Sehwag dealt with it by learning to leave better and also committing to attacking shots when he recognized it was balls he could go after. Crawley needs to do a bit of that.

Think having B Mac as coach will really help him overall. Have to wait and see though. Still think he has a higher ceiling than Pope for example.
Alistair Cook was talking about Crawley the other day and he too labelled him a "high ceiling" player. He also acknowledged that Crawley has edged a higher % of balls than any other player during his time in international cricket, and didn't know the solution to it.
 

Uppercut

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Is not "wafting aimlessly" potentially a sign of (relatively) poor hand-eye coordination? If you aren't as good a judge of line and length quickly out of the hand as others, then you're more likely to be indecisive when judging what to play and leave.
Could be. His LO record is a little better than you’d expect from someone with poor hand-eye co-ordination, though still nothing special. But ultimately no one really knows.

I’m kind of agnostic about what the root problem is. My opinion only extends as far as thinking that there’s no ‘good’ way to never score runs at any level over an extended period. The selectors obviously think there is.
 

Xix2565

International Debutant
Getting back to this: Anderson only bowling 9 overs in the second innings two days ago might be a sign that things are changing (I'm unsure how long spells they bowled Potts for mind)
I mean Anderson has consistently been bowling less overs for a while now. I don't know if he's ever been the workhorse consistently.
 

Nintendo

Cricketer Of The Year
It an interesting postulate but based on what I have seen of him, I really dont think its his hand-eye that is the problem. He just has to stop wafting at balls aimlessly. Its far more ok nicking off like Vince trying his cover drive than nicking off on a defense IMO. Sehwag dealt with it by learning to leave better and also committing to attacking shots when he recognized it was balls he could go after. Crawley needs to do a bit of that.

Think having B Mac as coach will really help him overall. Have to wait and see though. Still think he has a higher ceiling than Pope for example.
Crawley averages 30 in fc and 27.5 in test's, he's had 23 test's and his only runs have come on absolute roads. At kent his opening partner Compton made as many 100's in 3 months as crawley has in his entire county career. I guess you can say his ceiling is higher than pope because of that 260 vs Pak, but pope is a FAR more accomplished county cricketer and his 135* vs SA against an attack of Rabada-philander-nortje-maharaj is better than any knock crawley has played in test's.
 

Starfighter

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
There have been absolute roads in almost every county match this season, certainly the ones Kent have been involved in. Crawley hasn't made a big score on any of them.
 

honestbharani

Whatever it takes!!!
Is not "wafting aimlessly" potentially a sign of (relatively) poor hand-eye coordination? If you aren't as good a judge of line and length quickly out of the hand as others, then you're more likely to be indecisive when judging what to play and leave.
I mean, you could say its an eye thing at best, but in my view it is more of a judgement thing, and I see hand-eye as more of a reflex. Its how it makes sense in my head when you see folks like Sehwag and Virat and the like, maybe even Crawley.
 

Groundking

International Debutant
I mean Anderson has consistently been bowling less overs for a while now. I don't know if he's ever been the workhorse consistently.
Up until 2015 he consistently used to bowl more than 20 overs an innings and now he's bowling closer to 17 overs an innings since then. Is 20 overs an innings workhorse levels?
 

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