Because I was a goalkeeper at football I got pushed to keep wicket whenever there was a crisis. I did two or three whole seasons of it. I wasn't the real deal because at 6'3", although quick on my feet, standing up to spin bowling and hoping for stumpings showed up my weakness. Reading the spin was enough of a job without having to unwind myself to take the ball cleanly. BUT standing up to medium pacers or back to quicks, byes were close to being a never incident and dropped catches just weren't on the agenda. If I could reach it I would catch it. I can't have been a unique genius, because I played with another much the same who also kept goal for Chesterfield.
If I'd put down the catches in local League cricket that Buttler dropped for England I'd have been almost suicidal. He hadn't moved his feet properly, he didn't have his gloves right and his eyes weren't right either. They were lazy drops, which really means he wasn't concentrating. That means that although he has some talent and occasionally catches a good one, he isn't up to the job, like both Bracey and Bairstow. There must be wicketkeepers out there who just can do it, guys who love being involved on every ball, like gathering wayward throws, love a good dive down the legside and realise quick feet and an alert mind matter as much as safe hands. The nearest I've seen in recent years is Foakes. His batting is good enough for a place keeping wicket too. Buttler and Bairstow should be in the team anyway as batsmen who can field.
In local League cricket you are unlucky if a dropped catch costs your team more than twenty or thirty runs, but up at test level the cost can be hundreds of runs, matches swing on them. Buttler, who is a wonderful cricketer, demoralised himself and his entire team. Set him free to bat number six and frighten the opposition.
And as for Wood, I hardly know what to say. He was the one bowler who made the Australians struggle in the First Test, so instead of giving him a leading role next time, we rest him after a game in which he only bowled about 25 overs. Back in the days of Trueman and Statham when players did little specific fitness training they were both happy to bowl more than that any single day of the week. I know Wood is very fast and gives everything to be that quick, but unless we are able to use a bowler to help us win matches and series, he is no use to us.
We have too many unreliable and quirky batsmen, our quick bowling has seen better and fitter days, we have no slow bowling or medium pacers, our fielding is moderate at best and we need a wicketkeeper. I wonder why the Aussies are on top?
Much as I like Jjamez post the factor that ought to be taken into account when anyone is near the top of County averages is that the best bowlers have largely been seconded to Test cricket and only reappear for lucrative white ball one-day games. So Burns can stick out his arse like Billy Bunter obeying Mr Quelch and get away with it. The more he succeeds the more he thinks he has discovered a technique. I'm sure he has talent because to bat from a corkscrew position you need it, but if he was batting against a fit Jimmy Anderson twice a season and a fit Stuart Broad twice a season and a fit Olly Robinson twice, and a fit Wood only once that would be seven games where he wouldn't get past thirty.
When young players show batting talent in one dayers we have to get them up the order and leave them there in County matches. Let them hone an all-round technique. If they can pocket thousands being hit-or-miss white-ball bashers that's obviously what they'll remain, but it takes genuine cricketing talent to become that white-ball basher. Develop it!
If I'd put down the catches in local League cricket that Buttler dropped for England I'd have been almost suicidal. He hadn't moved his feet properly, he didn't have his gloves right and his eyes weren't right either. They were lazy drops, which really means he wasn't concentrating. That means that although he has some talent and occasionally catches a good one, he isn't up to the job, like both Bracey and Bairstow. There must be wicketkeepers out there who just can do it, guys who love being involved on every ball, like gathering wayward throws, love a good dive down the legside and realise quick feet and an alert mind matter as much as safe hands. The nearest I've seen in recent years is Foakes. His batting is good enough for a place keeping wicket too. Buttler and Bairstow should be in the team anyway as batsmen who can field.
In local League cricket you are unlucky if a dropped catch costs your team more than twenty or thirty runs, but up at test level the cost can be hundreds of runs, matches swing on them. Buttler, who is a wonderful cricketer, demoralised himself and his entire team. Set him free to bat number six and frighten the opposition.
And as for Wood, I hardly know what to say. He was the one bowler who made the Australians struggle in the First Test, so instead of giving him a leading role next time, we rest him after a game in which he only bowled about 25 overs. Back in the days of Trueman and Statham when players did little specific fitness training they were both happy to bowl more than that any single day of the week. I know Wood is very fast and gives everything to be that quick, but unless we are able to use a bowler to help us win matches and series, he is no use to us.
We have too many unreliable and quirky batsmen, our quick bowling has seen better and fitter days, we have no slow bowling or medium pacers, our fielding is moderate at best and we need a wicketkeeper. I wonder why the Aussies are on top?
Much as I like Jjamez post the factor that ought to be taken into account when anyone is near the top of County averages is that the best bowlers have largely been seconded to Test cricket and only reappear for lucrative white ball one-day games. So Burns can stick out his arse like Billy Bunter obeying Mr Quelch and get away with it. The more he succeeds the more he thinks he has discovered a technique. I'm sure he has talent because to bat from a corkscrew position you need it, but if he was batting against a fit Jimmy Anderson twice a season and a fit Stuart Broad twice a season and a fit Olly Robinson twice, and a fit Wood only once that would be seven games where he wouldn't get past thirty.
When young players show batting talent in one dayers we have to get them up the order and leave them there in County matches. Let them hone an all-round technique. If they can pocket thousands being hit-or-miss white-ball bashers that's obviously what they'll remain, but it takes genuine cricketing talent to become that white-ball basher. Develop it!