Sport | Football
Inclusion of new faces is right step
From England's point of view, it's time for a change when it comes to the one-day game, because we haven't been very good at it over the past year.
- By Geoffrey Boycott, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 23:37 August 20, 2007
From England's point of view, it's time for a change when it comes to the one-day game, because we haven't been very good at it over the past year.
Thus the inclusion of a few new faces seems a step in the right direction, but the problem is that there's too much uncertainty regarding the batting line-up and the overpowering impression is one of a team feeling its way around.
One would expect the focus to be on Andrew Flintoff, because England's game has revolved around him in the past, but he's back after such a long lay-off that it would be unwise to expect too much from him.
I would be far more interested in the performances of Stuart Broad - son of former England opener Chris Broad - who I believe holds immense promise as an allrounder.
With Liam Plunkett and Steve Harmison effectively sidelined, Chris Tremlett and Jimmy Anderson will also have to take a fair share of the bowling load. As for the batting, Luke Wright should have been there, but that would only have added to the confusion, probably.
As it is, it makes no sense to me to have Kevin Pietersen coming in at No 4 and Paul Collingwood at five or even six. Why would you not have your three best players in early?
A good example is Australia, unarguably the world's best ODI team, which had Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting coming in early.
That's the basic rule of one-day cricket - you have only 300 balls (give or take 10) to play with, so your best batsmen should face them.
Younger lot
Instead, England are choosing to open with Matt Prior, already under pressure because as a batsman-keeper, he is not doing enough to justify his inclusion.
He's lucky Peter Moores is from the same county, but the coach cannot protect him forever.
As for India, they haven't played a proper one-day series since the World Cup, and this is a team that is looking to its younger lot to take charge.
Sachin Tendulkar is a far cry from his commanding one-day form, and Rahul Dravid hasn't pulled up any trees with his batting so far.
Sourav Ganguly has looked far more comfortable, which may have surprised a lot of people but not me.
However, the point is that these are players on their way out, sooner or later. So this ODI series should shed some light on whether the likes of MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh can become Indian cricket's next superstars, or whether they will remain merely good players.
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