Arthur Crabtree wrote:sussexpob wrote:In the last two England tests we have lost mind, he has bagged a pair in one, and gone for over 7 an over with the ball in the other....
Everyone in the England side has half a dozen of that kind of stat on their record over the past few years. Players commonly do badly in defeats.
I'm a bit surprised by this kind of tack, Sussex. I often see you decry the reluctance to give a good chance to unorthodox or unusual talent, but here you're only willing to interpret what we have seen in a negative way. I'm not sure Stokes will make it, but he does represent an exciting opportunity. Of course he gives too many runs away. But he's also a 90mph bowler who has just hit a second test ton.
I dont think that has ever been my point, quite the opposite. I have always favoured a selection policy that trusts actual performance over presumed physical characteristics. That is something that I have been very consistently attacking, this idea that we pick guys based on "pace, or reverse swing" even though they cant take a wicket against Essex (See comments on Overton I made recently, for instance) and go at 5 an over regularly. ODI cricket is different, because your summing up of my position in limited overs cricket is more correct.... but in tests, I want to see people who are scoring well consistently getting a chance, not youngsters who havent done it in the CC being premature elevated to fake status of their ability.
Stokes averages 33 in FC cricket with the bat, how this equates to a test number 6 when he is no better than probably 70-80% of Division one county players is beyond me. His returns, even including this test, over his career will have been under par. Nick Compton copped it after 9 tests with 2 hundreds for instance.
He has been artificially put in a position in the batting line up because his bowling has been so terrible, but they dont want to drop him.... but his bowling is getting so bad, his captain hardly wants to give him the ball, and there is no logical reason for maintaining he is going to survive as just a batter.
In the end, he can only be a test player if his bowling is up to scratch, and he has a huge amount of improvement in that area before he looks like a test bowler.