Good to see Bashir on that trip and very much the forgotten man, at Lancashire and England, Hartley. Coles can hopefully use the trip to put himself in the frame. Robinson appears to have fallen through some sort of hole between being good enough to be called up for England but the likes of Davies, McKinney (Durham team mate of Robinson) and Rew preferred for the trip.
Perhaps, though, Davies has been called up not to keep, as he's relinquished the gloves at Warwickshire, but to open. He averaged 50.68 in the CC and the reason for him going, at the age of 30, surely has to be with a view to getting a good look at him for the England opening spot. Despite losing Rhodes to Durham), the form of Davies, Hain and Yates and arrival of Latham actually creates a bit of an issue if England want Bethell to bat in the top three for the county.
Another interesting opener, though very much at the other end of the age spectrum, is 19 year old Freddie McCann who averages 51.10 in FC cricket, albeit from just 7 innings, but that includes 2 hundreds and a fifty. I would say that it's far too early for McCann to be anything other than an outside for the Ashes but, under this regime specifically, if he were to carry that form into next season then, given the example of Bethell, you wouldn't want to bet against that happening.
Away from England, I hadn't noticed that Ravichandran Ashwin has retired from international cricket with immediate effect, with 2 Tests of the current series still to go.
537 wickets at 24.00, the 7th highest, and a handy average of 25.75 with the bat also, including 6 tons.
If I was England I would be going to Liam Dawson and askingbwhat it would take for him to be available for test cricket from now till the ashes. He has to be our best option. Experienced, knows his game has played around the world can hold up an end or attack. The best spinner in the country.
Spinners mature much later so the exposure our young spinners have got over the last couple years will be so useful in their careers long term but exposing then to an away ashes would be negligent.
Dawsons ability with the bat would be valuable too and would take away the issues created when stokes is injured.
Bethell is making his Big Bash debut in a matter of minutes and Pope and Duckett will be playing for their respective teams. So much for our boys being fatigued from the NZ tour and desperate to get home!
If I was England I would be going to Liam Dawson and askingbwhat it would take for him to be available for test cricket from now till the ashes. He has to be our best option. Experienced, knows his game has played around the world can hold up an end or attack. The best spinner in the country.
Spinners mature much later so the exposure our young spinners have got over the last couple years will be so useful in their careers long term but exposing then to an away ashes would be negligent.
Dawsons ability with the bat would be valuable too and would take away the issues created when stokes is injured.
I totally agree but I do think that bridge might have been burned. The guy will be 35 in March and he really must be scratching his head as to why he has just 3 Tests to his name. He's been the best for years, was spurned in last year's Ashes when they opted for Moeen and then, for the tour of India, Key and McCullum wanted him to be third spinner and carry the drinks in India. The likes of Bashir and Leach have probably in the region of a £300k head start on him with their central contracts so the only way I can see this happening is if we persuaded him to play in the India Series here with the promise of that central contract either this year or, at worst, next year along with that Ashes place. Dawson has his Hants contract and other lucrative guaranteed franchise commitments so the offer (and associated guarantees) really would have to be meaningful.
Gone are the days when each and every player will drop everything because of that call from England especially for someone like Dawson who will recognise that there is no longevity in the position. A 20 year old would be persuaded but it has to be questionable as to whether we can influence a 35 year old who has other franchise interests and has been overlooked so many times.
I wonder if the choice of spinner for the Ashes will take up as much thought from the selectors as it does from the armchair viewers. Because there's a paucity of exceptional performances from England spinners down under.
This century, there has been only one Ashes Test in Australia that England have won, on the strength of a spinner taking more than a couple of wickets in an innings. Once. In what will be a quarter of a century.
In that match Graeme Swann took his fifth - and match-winning - wicket in his 42nd over, bowling Peter Siddle. Match-winning, but not what you might call match-changing. Because Australia were facing a mammoth 375 first innings deficit, after England piled up 620-5.
Let's face it, if we're 375 ahead on first innings, there's a good chance we'd win whoever bowls at the other end from the seamers. Put it another way, if Australia are facing a 375 first innings deficit in the First Ashes Test next year, the selectors have done a good job, no matter who the spinner is.
I think Bashir is in prime position as we stand, simply because of the sunk investment cost of giving him fifteen Tests so far. And I think, if they get the batting line-up right (they're nearly there), they make the right decision about the keeper (which will be a difficult choice between good options) and they get the seam attack firing, in-form and fit (tough job), the decision about the spinner will assume a very much lower priority.
Bethell is making his Big Bash debut in a matter of minutes and Pope and Duckett will be playing for their respective teams. So much for our boys being fatigued from the NZ tour and desperate to get home!
That was one of the weirdest BBL games I've seen. Hobart with one of the worst batting displays I've seen since the Thunder got rolled for 15.
Bethell is making his Big Bash debut in a matter of minutes and Pope and Duckett will be playing for their respective teams. So much for our boys being fatigued from the NZ tour and desperate to get home!
"Guys, we've been watching how you've been batting in the 3rd Test, and you need to calm it down. Those funky shots are ok in Test cricket, but this is T20, the proper stuff, where you need to knuckle down a bit."
I wonder if the choice of spinner for the Ashes will take up as much thought from the selectors as it does from the armchair viewers. Because there's a paucity of exceptional performances from England spinners down under.
This century, there has been only one Ashes Test in Australia that England have won, on the strength of a spinner taking more than a couple of wickets in an innings. Once. In what will be a quarter of a century.
In that match Graeme Swann took his fifth - and match-winning - wicket in his 42nd over, bowling Peter Siddle. Match-winning, but not what you might call match-changing. Because Australia were facing a mammoth 375 first innings deficit, after England piled up 620-5.
Let's face it, if we're 375 ahead on first innings, there's a good chance we'd win whoever bowls at the other end from the seamers. Put it another way, if Australia are facing a 375 first innings deficit in the First Ashes Test next year, the selectors have done a good job, no matter who the spinner is.
I think Bashir is in prime position as we stand, simply because of the sunk investment cost of giving him fifteen Tests so far. And I think, if they get the batting line-up right (they're nearly there), they make the right decision about the keeper (which will be a difficult choice between good options) and they get the seam attack firing, in-form and fit (tough job), the decision about the spinner will assume a very much lower priority.
It would look the unkind thing to do at this moment in time to play Bashir . I’d be tempted not to play a spinner at all , but I would agree that Dawson would be a safe bet and offer an all round option . To go in there with Carse and Atkinson both pretty green and a spinner going around the park is a recipe for disaster .
I'm surprised the Lions are having another look at Tom Hartley. Seems a bit weird when you've got a batting left arm spinner there in James Coles too.
McCullum and Key have made some excellent left field selections in their time together. If there is one thing that we all probably need to accept is that when you're in you're in with this regime, you're well and truly in but when you're out, you'll never be seen again. McCullum's statement that Crawley, despite being 27, has until 30 to learn his game is evidence of how long they are prepared to wait. The flip side is when they fall out with someone and I'm sure that we will never see (and rightly so) Ollie Robinson (the bowler) in an England shirt again all the time they are in charge.
That goes for Hartley too. Not sure about Coles but at least he's a regular in county cricket. However, Jack Carson is qualified for England and took 50 wickets in the CC last season at 22.46. He has the same action as Bashir who took the grand total of 6 wickets in the CC for Somerset and Worcestershire 89.83 a time.
McCullum and Key want to be proven right in picking Crawley, Bashir and Hartley. The fact that neither spinner is rated sufficiently by their counties to even play at that level does not matter one iota to them. They will carry on regardless, though if the argument is that Crawley needs to be 30 before maturing then those two will probably need to wait until Bashir and Hartley get beyond that age to reach their peak given how underused they have been in their career to date. That's almost another decade of Bashir playing for England.
Where all of this becomes an issue is where other opening bats or spinners come to the correct conclusion that there is no merit in hanging about and waiting for a call. They might as well sign up for franchises. Which is probably why the ECB want to have their cake and eat it by preventing county red ball cricketers from doing just that.
I'm surprised the Lions are having another look at Tom Hartley. Seems a bit weird when you've got a batting left arm spinner there in James Coles too.
McCullum and Key have made some excellent left field selections in their time together. If there is one thing that we all probably need to accept is that when you're in you're in with this regime, you're well and truly in but when you're out, you'll never be seen again. McCullum's statement that Crawley, despite being 27, has until 30 to learn his game is evidence of how long they are prepared to wait. The flip side is when they fall out with someone and I'm sure that we will never see (and rightly so) Ollie Robinson (the bowler) in an England shirt again all the time they are in charge.
That goes for Hartley too. Not sure about Coles but at least he's a regular in county cricket. However, Jack Carson is qualified for England and took 50 wickets in the CC last season at 22.46. He has the same action as Bashir who took the grand total of 6 wickets in the CC for Somerset and Worcestershire 89.83 a time.
McCullum and Key want to be proven right in picking Crawley, Bashir and Hartley. The fact that neither spinner is rated sufficiently by their counties to even play at that level does not matter one iota to them. They will carry on regardless, though if the argument is that Crawley needs to be 30 before maturing then those two will probably need to wait until Bashir and Hartley get beyond that age to reach their peak given how underused they have been in their career to date. That's almost another decade of Bashir playing for England.
Where all of this becomes an issue is where other opening bats or spinners come to the correct conclusion that there is no merit in hanging about and waiting for a call. They might as well sign up for franchises. Which is probably why the ECB want to have their cake and eat it by preventing county red ball cricketers from doing just that.
Carson confuses me as to how he's not involved, I watched basically every Sussex game on stream that I could last season and he's a very good prospect. Luke Wright would have worked with him too at Sussex so unless there's underlying attitude concerns after he was banned for tripping in 2023 I honestly don't understand why he's not around the Lions again. He's gone down under for the winter to play in Aussie conditions so he's over there anyway.
James Coles I also rate as a prospect but I see him more as a Batter that will give you some part time overs very much in the ilk of ironically a Liam Dawson
I'm surprised the Lions are having another look at Tom Hartley. Seems a bit weird when you've got a batting left arm spinner there in James Coles too.
McCullum and Key have made some excellent left field selections in their time together. If there is one thing that we all probably need to accept is that when you're in you're in with this regime, you're well and truly in but when you're out, you'll never be seen again. McCullum's statement that Crawley, despite being 27, has until 30 to learn his game is evidence of how long they are prepared to wait. The flip side is when they fall out with someone and I'm sure that we will never see (and rightly so) Ollie Robinson (the bowler) in an England shirt again all the time they are in charge.
That goes for Hartley too. Not sure about Coles but at least he's a regular in county cricket. However, Jack Carson is qualified for England and took 50 wickets in the CC last season at 22.46. He has the same action as Bashir who took the grand total of 6 wickets in the CC for Somerset and Worcestershire 89.83 a time.
McCullum and Key want to be proven right in picking Crawley, Bashir and Hartley. The fact that neither spinner is rated sufficiently by their counties to even play at that level does not matter one iota to them. They will carry on regardless, though if the argument is that Crawley needs to be 30 before maturing then those two will probably need to wait until Bashir and Hartley get beyond that age to reach their peak given how underused they have been in their career to date. That's almost another decade of Bashir playing for England.
Where all of this becomes an issue is where other opening bats or spinners come to the correct conclusion that there is no merit in hanging about and waiting for a call. They might as well sign up for franchises. Which is probably why the ECB want to have their cake and eat it by preventing county red ball cricketers from doing just that.
Carson confuses me as to how he's not involved, I watched basically every Sussex game on stream that I could last season and he's a very good prospect. Luke Wright would have worked with him too at Sussex so unless there's underlying attitude concerns after he was banned for tripping in 2023 I honestly don't understand why he's not around the Lions again. He's gone down under for the winter to play in Aussie conditions so he's over there anyway.
James Coles I also rate as a prospect but I see him more as a Batter that will give you some part time overs very much in the ilk of ironically a Liam Dawson
Sussex, as you will know, received a 12 point deduction for that incident and Haines' ill discipline and whilst I'm sure that wouldn't exclude him, any question regarding his temperament would. He's been doing OK in the four or five games he's played in for West Torrens (the same club that Spencer Johnson and Jake Fraser-McGurk as well as Sussex team mate Sean Hunt) in South Australia.
England do have that other spin option avenue to explore in Bethell. If I were them then I would actively encourage him to keep bowling in red and white ball and not allow that to become a bit part as has with Root and even more so with KP. A spinner that can bat in the top four is somewhat unique after all and no one is expecting him to be the real deal sooner rather than later as opposed to Bashir, who struggles to know one end of the bat from the other, so his bowling must stand on its own.
I'm surprised the Lions are having another look at Tom Hartley. Seems a bit weird when you've got a batting left arm spinner there in James Coles too.
McCullum and Key have made some excellent left field selections in their time together. If there is one thing that we all probably need to accept is that when you're in you're in with this regime, you're well and truly in but when you're out, you'll never be seen again. McCullum's statement that Crawley, despite being 27, has until 30 to learn his game is evidence of how long they are prepared to wait. The flip side is when they fall out with someone and I'm sure that we will never see (and rightly so) Ollie Robinson (the bowler) in an England shirt again all the time they are in charge.
That goes for Hartley too. Not sure about Coles but at least he's a regular in county cricket. However, Jack Carson is qualified for England and took 50 wickets in the CC last season at 22.46. He has the same action as Bashir who took the grand total of 6 wickets in the CC for Somerset and Worcestershire 89.83 a time.
McCullum and Key want to be proven right in picking Crawley, Bashir and Hartley. The fact that neither spinner is rated sufficiently by their counties to even play at that level does not matter one iota to them. They will carry on regardless, though if the argument is that Crawley needs to be 30 before maturing then those two will probably need to wait until Bashir and Hartley get beyond that age to reach their peak given how underused they have been in their career to date. That's almost another decade of Bashir playing for England.
Where all of this becomes an issue is where other opening bats or spinners come to the correct conclusion that there is no merit in hanging about and waiting for a call. They might as well sign up for franchises. Which is probably why the ECB want to have their cake and eat it by preventing county red ball cricketers from doing just that.
Carson confuses me as to how he's not involved, I watched basically every Sussex game on stream that I could last season and he's a very good prospect. Luke Wright would have worked with him too at Sussex so unless there's underlying attitude concerns after he was banned for tripping in 2023 I honestly don't understand why he's not around the Lions again. He's gone down under for the winter to play in Aussie conditions so he's over there anyway.
James Coles I also rate as a prospect but I see him more as a Batter that will give you some part time overs very much in the ilk of ironically a Liam Dawson
Sussex, as you will know, received a 12 point deduction for that incident and Haines' ill discipline and whilst I'm sure that wouldn't exclude him, any question regarding his temperament would. He's been doing OK in the four or five games he's played in for West Torrens (the same club that Spencer Johnson and Jake Fraser-McGurk as well as Sussex team mate Sean Hunt) in South Australia.
England do have that other spin option avenue to explore in Bethell. If I were them then I would actively encourage him to keep bowling in red and white ball and not allow that to become a bit part as has with Root and even more so with KP. A spinner that can bat in the top four is somewhat unique after all and no one is expecting him to be the real deal sooner rather than later as opposed to Bashir, who struggles to know one end of the bat from the other, so his bowling must stand on its own.
Completely agree, if Bethell and Root could hold an end, we could play 4 seamers in Australia and that potentially solves the issue of Stokes not bowling enough for an all rounder.
Wouldn't be an option on spinning pitches etc but could work down under given Leach and Bashir aren't pulling up many trees.
Middlesex after Kane Williamson, Southee to Hampshire , Will O'Rourke was going to Somerset but NZC only want him playing in the first block of the Blast + 1 round of the champ so they're in for Matt Henry instead.
Looks like most of the Kiwi test side is going to be over here....
England Men’s Lions Squad that's going to Australia
Sonny Baker (Hampshire)
Shoaib Bashir (Somerset)
Pat Brown (Derbyshire)
James Coles (Sussex)
Sam Cook (Essex)
Alex Davies (Warwickshire)
Rocky Flintoff (Lancashire)
Tom Hartley (Lancashire)
Tom Lawes (Surrey)
Freddie McCann (Nottinghamshire)
Ben McKinney (Durham)
James Rew (Somerset)
Hamza Shaikh (Warwickshire)
Mitch Stanley (Lancashire)
Josh Tongue (Nottinghamshire)
John Turner (Hampshire)
A lot of discussion about this 16 year old who averages 12.42 in the CC and 23.85 in List A (with one fifty from just 14 innings) being sent on the Lions tour. I'd actually forgotten who the Lions coach is but there's nothing like keeping it in the family.
Bethell is making his Big Bash debut in a matter of minutes and Pope and Duckett will be playing for their respective teams. So much for our boys being fatigued from the NZ tour and desperate to get home!
"Guys, we've been watching how you've been batting in the 3rd Test, and you need to calm it down. Those funky shots are ok in Test cricket, but this is T20, the proper stuff, where you need to knuckle down a bit."
Pope has just got out, caught behind, trying to ramp Peter Siddle.
A very interesting pick from Australia for the next Test against India - they've dropped Nathan McSweeney and brought in the much talked about 19 year old, Sam Konstas.
A very interesting pick from Australia for the next Test against India - they've dropped Nathan McSweeney and brought in the much talked about 19 year old, Sam Konstas.
As I saw someone else say, crazy to see your top order is a mess and decide the solution is to drop someone who has played 3 tests for a 19 year old rather than let McSweeney settle into test cricket.
A very interesting pick from Australia for the next Test against India - they've dropped Nathan McSweeney and brought in the much talked about 19 year old, Sam Konstas.
As I saw someone else say, crazy to see your top order is a mess and decide the solution is to drop someone who has played 3 tests for a 19 year old rather than let McSweeney settle into test cricket.
Not disagreeing with that (my son has seen McSweeney at first hand having played against him in Australia and can't believe it) but George Bailey has more or less said that they made a mistake in picking McSweeney in the first place. At the other end of the scale, you give an opener 150 innings and until he reaches 30 only to conclude that he was never good enough in the first place. Konstas, by all accounts, is the real deal and recently hit 107 off 97 against the Indians in a warm up game for the Test series. He also hit 56 off 27 balls on his debut for the Thunder the other night.
A very interesting pick from Australia for the next Test against India - they've dropped Nathan McSweeney and brought in the much talked about 19 year old, Sam Konstas.
As I saw someone else say, crazy to see your top order is a mess and decide the solution is to drop someone who has played 3 tests for a 19 year old rather than let McSweeney settle into test cricket.
Not disagreeing with that (my son has seen McSweeney at first hand having played against him in Australia and can't believe it) but George Bailey has more or less said that they made a mistake in picking McSweeney in the first place. At the other end of the scale, you give an opener 150 innings and until he reaches 30 only to conclude that he was never good enough in the first place. Konstas, by all accounts, is the real deal and recently hit 107 off 97 against the Indians in a warm up game for the Test series. He also hit 56 off 27 balls on his debut for the Thunder the other night.
Sure but what they've done is thrown McSweeney under the bus and massively increased the pressure on Konstas. I think whichever of them had played the first test should've been given the series. It's India we're talking about, making your test debut against Bumrah is something that should never have happened. Really this all comes down to the stupid Smith experiment last year.
Ultimately, as an England fan I'm happy to see their top order in disarray but I feel sorry for both McSweeney and Konstas on a human level
A very interesting pick from Australia for the next Test against India - they've dropped Nathan McSweeney and brought in the much talked about 19 year old, Sam Konstas.
As I saw someone else say, crazy to see your top order is a mess and decide the solution is to drop someone who has played 3 tests for a 19 year old rather than let McSweeney settle into test cricket.
Not disagreeing with that (my son has seen McSweeney at first hand having played against him in Australia and can't believe it) but George Bailey has more or less said that they made a mistake in picking McSweeney in the first place. At the other end of the scale, you give an opener 150 innings and until he reaches 30 only to conclude that he was never good enough in the first place. Konstas, by all accounts, is the real deal and recently hit 107 off 97 against the Indians in a warm up game for the Test series. He also hit 56 off 27 balls on his debut for the Thunder the other night.
Sure but what they've done is thrown McSweeney under the bus and massively increased the pressure on Konstas. I think whichever of them had played the first test should've been given the series. It's India we're talking about, making your test debut against Bumrah is something that should never have happened. Really this all comes down to the stupid Smith experiment last year.
Ultimately, as an England fan I'm happy to see their top order in disarray but I feel sorry for both McSweeney and Konstas on a human level
The mistake they made in picking McSweeney in the first place was because he has never opened in even the Sheffield Shield. Konstas is an opener and they should have gone straight to him if he was under consideration and allowed him to have the job for the duration. For that reason, I think that they will persevere with Konstas come what may in the same way as we should with Bethell.
Duckett has just taken one of the most unbelievable diving, one handed catches over his head from a full blooded drive from D'Arcy Short.
Cricket is such a leveller - Duckett is out for a golden duck. Our three Test players that have flown in from NZ haven't had a great time of it with the bat to date - Bethell 3 (6), Pope 8 (10) and Duckett 0 (1)
Ollie Pope (who is keeping) and Jamie Overton (Adelaide Strikers) versus Ben Duckett and Tom Curran (Melbourne Stars) this morning
Was it the plan for Pope to keep in the Big Bash, as after Jamie Smith took the England gloves from his Surrey teammate Foakes, there could be a future Surrey battle for the England gloves between Smith and Pope.
Ollie Pope (who is keeping) and Jamie Overton (Adelaide Strikers) versus Ben Duckett and Tom Curran (Melbourne Stars) this morning
Was it the plan for Pope to keep in the Big Bash, as after Jamie Smith took the England gloves from his Surrey teammate Foakes, there could be a future Surrey battle for the England gloves between Smith and Pope.
The Strikers have Harry Nielsen (son of Tim who, like Harry, kept for South Australia), who played in the first game but doesn't have the pedigree of Pope with the bat and Alex Carey who will, no doubt, take the gloves when he returns from Test duty. I see Pope as a stop gap rather than someone who will get the England gig permanently though we won't truly know how good he is until such time as he gets to keep, standing up, on turning tracks.
Comments
Batting:
Inn - Runs - HS - Ave - SR
Root 31 - 1556 - 262 - 55.57 - 63.38
Brook 20 - 1100 - 317 - 55.00 - 85.00
Bethell 6 - 260 - 96 - 52.00 - 75.14
Smith 15 - 637 - 111 - 42.46 - 72.30
Duckett 32 - 1149 - 153 - 37.06 - 87.04
Pope 30 - 994 - 196 - 33.13 - 68.88
Robinson 2 - 58 - 58 - 29.00 - 58.58
Stokes 23 - 602 - 80 - 28.66 - 65.72
Crawley 25 - 695 - 79 - 27.80 - 71.79
Bairstow 10 - 238 - 39 - 23.80 - 82.06
Atkinson 16 - 445 - 118 - 23.46 - 79.10
Foakes 10 - 205 - 47 - 20.50 - 39.34
Lawrence 6 - 120 - 35 - 20.00 - 65.57
Woakes 13 - 216 - 62 - 19.63 - 56.54
Carse 7 - 94 - 33* - 18.80 - 78.99
Hartley 10 - 185 - 36 - 18.50 - 65.14
Leach 6 - 52 - 25* - 17.33 - 72.22
Stone 4 - 47 - 15* - 15.66 - 52.22
Rehan Ahmed 8 - 92 - 28 - 11.50 - 53.80
Wood 10 - 83 - 33 - 10.37 - 75.45
Potts 7 - 56 - 21 - 9.33 - 53.84
Hull 2 - 9 - 7* - 9.00 - 56.25
Shoaib Bashir 23 - 76 - 13 - 6.90 - 36.71
Anderson 9 - 13 - 6 - 2.60 - 24.07
Bowling:
Overs - Runs - WKts - Ave - ER
Carse 156.1 - 536 - 27 - 19.85 - 3.43
Atkinson 308.4 -1152 - 52 - 22.15 - 3.73
Woakes 260.4 - 771 - 32 - 24.09 - 2.95
Bethell 15.2 - 77 - 3 - 25.66 - 5.02
Anderson 136.4 - 393 - 14 - 28.07 - 2.87
Stone 42.0 - 206 - 7 - 29.42 - 4.90
Potts 124.0 - 387 - 13 - 29.76 - 3.12
Hull 17.0 - 91 - 3 - 30.33 - 5.35
Leach 171.2 -599 - 18 - 33.27 - 3.49
Hartley 250.4 - 795 - 22 - 36.13 - 3.17
Rehan Ahmed 136.1 - 550 - 15 - 36.66 - 4.03
Stokes 130.1 - 479 - 13 - 36.84 - 3.67
Wood 154.1 - 558 - 15 - 37.20 - 3.61
Shoaib Bashir 524.3 -1968 - 49 - 40.16 - 3.75
Root 158.4 - 561 - 11 - 51.00 - 3.53
Brook 2.0 - 13 - 0 - 0.00 - 6.50
Lawrence 8.0 - 36 - 0 - 0.00 - 4.50
Robinson 13.0 - 54 - 0 - 0.00 - 4.15
Perhaps, though, Davies has been called up not to keep, as he's relinquished the gloves at Warwickshire, but to open. He averaged 50.68 in the CC and the reason for him going, at the age of 30, surely has to be with a view to getting a good look at him for the England opening spot. Despite losing Rhodes to Durham), the form of Davies, Hain and Yates and arrival of Latham actually creates a bit of an issue if England want Bethell to bat in the top three for the county.
Another interesting opener, though very much at the other end of the age spectrum, is 19 year old Freddie McCann who averages 51.10 in FC cricket, albeit from just 7 innings, but that includes 2 hundreds and a fifty. I would say that it's far too early for McCann to be anything other than an outside for the Ashes but, under this regime specifically, if he were to carry that form into next season then, given the example of Bethell, you wouldn't want to bet against that happening.
Away from England, I hadn't noticed that Ravichandran Ashwin has retired from international cricket with immediate effect, with 2 Tests of the current series still to go.
537 wickets at 24.00, the 7th highest, and a handy average of 25.75 with the bat also, including 6 tons.
Spinners mature much later so the exposure our young spinners have got over the last couple years will be so useful in their careers long term but exposing then to an away ashes would be negligent.
Dawsons ability with the bat would be valuable too and would take away the issues created when stokes is injured.
Gone are the days when each and every player will drop everything because of that call from England especially for someone like Dawson who will recognise that there is no longevity in the position. A 20 year old would be persuaded but it has to be questionable as to whether we can influence a 35 year old who has other franchise interests and has been overlooked so many times.
This century, there has been only one Ashes Test in Australia that England have won, on the strength of a spinner taking more than a couple of wickets in an innings. Once. In what will be a quarter of a century.
In that match Graeme Swann took his fifth - and match-winning - wicket in his 42nd over, bowling Peter Siddle. Match-winning, but not what you might call match-changing. Because Australia were facing a mammoth 375 first innings deficit, after England piled up 620-5.
Let's face it, if we're 375 ahead on first innings, there's a good chance we'd win whoever bowls at the other end from the seamers. Put it another way, if Australia are facing a 375 first innings deficit in the First Ashes Test next year, the selectors have done a good job, no matter who the spinner is.
I think Bashir is in prime position as we stand, simply because of the sunk investment cost of giving him fifteen Tests so far. And I think, if they get the batting line-up right (they're nearly there), they make the right decision about the keeper (which will be a difficult choice between good options) and they get the seam attack firing, in-form and fit (tough job), the decision about the spinner will assume a very much lower priority.
That was one of the weirdest BBL games I've seen. Hobart with one of the worst batting displays I've seen since the Thunder got rolled for 15.
That goes for Hartley too. Not sure about Coles but at least he's a regular in county cricket. However, Jack Carson is qualified for England and took 50 wickets in the CC last season at 22.46. He has the same action as Bashir who took the grand total of 6 wickets in the CC for Somerset and Worcestershire 89.83 a time.
McCullum and Key want to be proven right in picking Crawley, Bashir and Hartley. The fact that neither spinner is rated sufficiently by their counties to even play at that level does not matter one iota to them. They will carry on regardless, though if the argument is that Crawley needs to be 30 before maturing then those two will probably need to wait until Bashir and Hartley get beyond that age to reach their peak given how underused they have been in their career to date. That's almost another decade of Bashir playing for England.
Where all of this becomes an issue is where other opening bats or spinners come to the correct conclusion that there is no merit in hanging about and waiting for a call. They might as well sign up for franchises. Which is probably why the ECB want to have their cake and eat it by preventing county red ball cricketers from doing just that.
Carson confuses me as to how he's not involved, I watched basically every Sussex game on stream that I could last season and he's a very good prospect. Luke Wright would have worked with him too at Sussex so unless there's underlying attitude concerns after he was banned for tripping in 2023 I honestly don't understand why he's not around the Lions again. He's gone down under for the winter to play in Aussie conditions so he's over there anyway.
James Coles I also rate as a prospect but I see him more as a Batter that will give you some part time overs very much in the ilk of ironically a Liam Dawson
England do have that other spin option avenue to explore in Bethell. If I were them then I would actively encourage him to keep bowling in red and white ball and not allow that to become a bit part as has with Root and even more so with KP. A spinner that can bat in the top four is somewhat unique after all and no one is expecting him to be the real deal sooner rather than later as opposed to Bashir, who struggles to know one end of the bat from the other, so his bowling must stand on its own.
Wouldn't be an option on spinning pitches etc but could work down under given Leach and Bashir aren't pulling up many trees.
Middlesex after Kane Williamson, Southee to Hampshire , Will O'Rourke was going to Somerset but NZC only want him playing in the first block of the Blast + 1 round of the champ so they're in for Matt Henry instead.
Looks like most of the Kiwi test side is going to be over here....
Ultimately, as an England fan I'm happy to see their top order in disarray but I feel sorry for both McSweeney and Konstas on a human level