andy wrote:Hildreth is a mystery to most of us....allegedly back in the days when Taunton was a road he was overlooked because of 'easy runs' howveer in past few seasons it's been a raging turner, and he still has runs, so yeah no one can figure out why he's never been selected....
Considering the fact that Trescothick is on record as saying Giles and him have talked about Hildreth as being a test player ready in the making, the fact that Mike Newell essentially stated very unambiguously that Hildreth was a flawless technical talent that he was sure would step up, and that Gus Fraser has also stated in the past he sees him as a test player, who exactly in the sphere of English cricket in the last few years hasnt verified his name? Moores was understood to be strongly considering picking him before he was sacked. And one stat I heard on the radio in a recent match was Whitaker went specifically to watch him 5 times, and he apparently banged a century in all four championship games, and a 98 in the limited overs game, when knowing he was the centre of attention. Add into that that Graham Thorpe, England's batting coach, speaks about him in glowing terms since working with him with the Lions in the early 2010s.... who is the person blocking him?
Andy Flower has definitely been to Somerset, and when invited to talk about prospects, spent the whole time bigging up a player scrapping a 30s averages. Sounds typical Flower. Hype the guy who looks all the right stuff but not succeeding, ignore the guy smashing runs.
I guess at some stage in Hildreth's run in the Lions (average just under 60, successful captaincy with the team, praised by everyone in the setup he worked with) he was given "THE TEST"..... he got 97% percent, but filled it out in red pen, so had his opportunity burnt. Ravi Bopara got 75% percent, but used blue pen. Played for England a 100 times.