capt_Luffy
Hall of Fame Member
Tbf Read was a better bat in CC than Jones. I would take him ahead as well.
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The value of a specialist keeper vs a wicketkeeper batsman
- Thread starter Cipher
- Start date
Afraid I would have to respectfully disagree! No substitute for having been there and done it. The rest of us are mostly speculating.
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Read v Jones in hindsight was a mad period of selection and painful debate in English circles and forums given that both were unceremoniously dumped after the 06/07 Ashes.
More interesting for me was why Read was never ever considered again, despite remaining a top notch keeper and being a very consistent batter at county level, with England opting instead for Prior and, during his enforced absence from the team, Tim Ambrose. Prior v Read is/was a more genuine batter-keeper vs keeper comparison given that Jones turned out to be a naff bat.
More interesting for me was why Read was never ever considered again, despite remaining a top notch keeper and being a very consistent batter at county level, with England opting instead for Prior and, during his enforced absence from the team, Tim Ambrose. Prior v Read is/was a more genuine batter-keeper vs keeper comparison given that Jones turned out to be a naff bat.
Prior and Ambrose benefited from the Sussex connection with new England coach Peter Moores. Prior's wicket-keeping was criticised at first, especially by Bob Willis.
Once Andy Flower took over as coach, the batsman-keeper v specialist keeper debate was finally settled in favour of the former. Flower, himself a batsman-keeper, stuck with Prior, and as England rose to the top of the Test rankings the media came to support the decision. English selectors and media have largely supported the selection of batsmen-keepers ever since.
kyear2
Hall of Fame Member
Flower was hardly a passive observer.
kyear2
Hall of Fame Member
Simply put.
They also can only select what the domestic game provides, which has itself has moved fully towards batters who keep. Take the 18 glovemen playing county games this week - only 5 average under 30 (and 2 of those are first class newbies with ten matches total between them) and 11 average over 35. Two counties have top order batters covering keeping duties (Burns, Hanscomb) rather than promoting a full time keeper from the ranks.
TheJediBrah
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James Foster was the other one who kept getting overlooked around that time (and slightly before)
Cipher
School Boy/Girl Captain
Anything humanly possible to catch/stump/run out for the keeper. Or in other words no errors.