Cook has the right ingredients for England
Cook has the right ingredients for England
By Christopher Martin-Jenkins, Chief Cricket Correspondent
DECISIONS still have to be made about the final balance of the England XI for this week’s first Test match against Sri Lanka at Lord’s, but the selectors took a bold step yesterday by announcing that Alastair Cook will bat at first wicket down. It is a clear statement of the belief that this tall, cool, mature 21-year-old left-hander has the class and mental poise to become a prolific Test batsman and future captain.
Equally to the point, if Michael Vaughan’s knee should fail him again after his possible return for the second Test against Sri Lanka, the decision suggests that Cook has been identified as the player with the temperament and technique to succeed against Australia next winter. He has gained preference over Ian Bell, who will play his twelfth Test in succession only if Duncan Fletcher and Andrew Flintoff, duly confirmed as caretaker captain, decide that the pitch and weather will suit a brace of medium-pace bowlers (Bell and Paul Collingwood) as much as a fourth fast bowler.
Assuming that Monty Panesar, chosen ahead of Shaun Udal, plays on a pitch likely to require a varied attack, a choice of two will have to be made from Bell, Liam Plunkett and the two uncapped fast bowlers, Jon Lewis and Sajid Mahmood.
Fletcher, the England coach, hinted that Lewis, so outstanding in the first fortnight of this season and twelfth man in three Tests last year, will miss out again. Just back from holiday after a tough tour of India in which he was almost never off duty, Fletcher did not see Lewis bowl until the last day of the match against the Sri Lankans on Saturday, when Stuart Broad, 19, confirmed his potential with two more wickets and figures of three for 17.
Lewis, the match-winner with nine for 90 to take his season’s first-class tally to 17 at eight runs each, played in Worcester only because Chris Tremlett withdrew with an ankle injury. Mahmood played instead — with notable success — for Lancashire against Kent, having been withdrawn for “tactical” reasons.
That was a strong hint that the selectors want to waste no more time before blooding Mahmood in a Test, although if the weather is cloudy on Thursday and Lewis underlines his form in the nets tomorrow and on Wednesday, the coach’s admission that forward planning had to be balanced against winning the first Test could yet be pertinent. It seems unlikely, however, in the light of his reiteration of the strategy of consistent selection “to give players a chance to grow at international level”.
Cook gets exactly that opportunity this week. He will follow the reunited opening partnership of Andrew Strauss and Marcus Trescothick, about whom David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, said simply: “England are a better team with Marcus Trescothick.”
Cook will bat at No 3 in preference to Bell, Owais Shah, whose accomplished 88 and 38 (out of 191) played an important part in the defeat of India in Bombay seven weeks ago, Robert Key, who could still go to Australia again if he has a commanding season for Kent, and Vaughan, the recuperating captain who hopes to return for Yorkshire at Canterbury this week in the Liverpool Victoria County Championship.
Vaughan, Key, Bell and Shah have all occupied the important No 3 position since Mark Butcher ended a run of 42 successive matches there in the middle of the 2004 season. One England selector at least has not discarded the possibility that Butcher, finding his feet as Surrey captain after the series of misfortunes that apparently ended his England career two seasons ago, may still go to Australia for a third tour this winter. That outside chance will recede if Cook plays as well in his first Test in England as he did in his first abroad.
Eight of the chosen 13 — Bell, Collingwood, Hoggard, Jones, Pietersen, Strauss, Trescothick and Flintoff — are among the 12 players awarded annual England contracts last October. Graveney said that the selectors were still working on naming a larger “development squad” of 25 and that summer contracts could still be awarded on a pro-rata basis.
Stephen Harmison had two 20-minute spells with an hour’s rest between in practice with Durham yesterday. Martyn Moxon, the coach, said that he had showed no sign of being troubled any longer by shin soreness and has a good chance of playing for the county against Middlesex in the four-day game starting at the Riverside on Wednesday.
Cook has the right ingredients for England
By Christopher Martin-Jenkins, Chief Cricket Correspondent
DECISIONS still have to be made about the final balance of the England XI for this week’s first Test match against Sri Lanka at Lord’s, but the selectors took a bold step yesterday by announcing that Alastair Cook will bat at first wicket down. It is a clear statement of the belief that this tall, cool, mature 21-year-old left-hander has the class and mental poise to become a prolific Test batsman and future captain.
Equally to the point, if Michael Vaughan’s knee should fail him again after his possible return for the second Test against Sri Lanka, the decision suggests that Cook has been identified as the player with the temperament and technique to succeed against Australia next winter. He has gained preference over Ian Bell, who will play his twelfth Test in succession only if Duncan Fletcher and Andrew Flintoff, duly confirmed as caretaker captain, decide that the pitch and weather will suit a brace of medium-pace bowlers (Bell and Paul Collingwood) as much as a fourth fast bowler.
Assuming that Monty Panesar, chosen ahead of Shaun Udal, plays on a pitch likely to require a varied attack, a choice of two will have to be made from Bell, Liam Plunkett and the two uncapped fast bowlers, Jon Lewis and Sajid Mahmood.
Fletcher, the England coach, hinted that Lewis, so outstanding in the first fortnight of this season and twelfth man in three Tests last year, will miss out again. Just back from holiday after a tough tour of India in which he was almost never off duty, Fletcher did not see Lewis bowl until the last day of the match against the Sri Lankans on Saturday, when Stuart Broad, 19, confirmed his potential with two more wickets and figures of three for 17.
Lewis, the match-winner with nine for 90 to take his season’s first-class tally to 17 at eight runs each, played in Worcester only because Chris Tremlett withdrew with an ankle injury. Mahmood played instead — with notable success — for Lancashire against Kent, having been withdrawn for “tactical” reasons.
That was a strong hint that the selectors want to waste no more time before blooding Mahmood in a Test, although if the weather is cloudy on Thursday and Lewis underlines his form in the nets tomorrow and on Wednesday, the coach’s admission that forward planning had to be balanced against winning the first Test could yet be pertinent. It seems unlikely, however, in the light of his reiteration of the strategy of consistent selection “to give players a chance to grow at international level”.
Cook gets exactly that opportunity this week. He will follow the reunited opening partnership of Andrew Strauss and Marcus Trescothick, about whom David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, said simply: “England are a better team with Marcus Trescothick.”
Cook will bat at No 3 in preference to Bell, Owais Shah, whose accomplished 88 and 38 (out of 191) played an important part in the defeat of India in Bombay seven weeks ago, Robert Key, who could still go to Australia again if he has a commanding season for Kent, and Vaughan, the recuperating captain who hopes to return for Yorkshire at Canterbury this week in the Liverpool Victoria County Championship.
Vaughan, Key, Bell and Shah have all occupied the important No 3 position since Mark Butcher ended a run of 42 successive matches there in the middle of the 2004 season. One England selector at least has not discarded the possibility that Butcher, finding his feet as Surrey captain after the series of misfortunes that apparently ended his England career two seasons ago, may still go to Australia for a third tour this winter. That outside chance will recede if Cook plays as well in his first Test in England as he did in his first abroad.
Eight of the chosen 13 — Bell, Collingwood, Hoggard, Jones, Pietersen, Strauss, Trescothick and Flintoff — are among the 12 players awarded annual England contracts last October. Graveney said that the selectors were still working on naming a larger “development squad” of 25 and that summer contracts could still be awarded on a pro-rata basis.
Stephen Harmison had two 20-minute spells with an hour’s rest between in practice with Durham yesterday. Martyn Moxon, the coach, said that he had showed no sign of being troubled any longer by shin soreness and has a good chance of playing for the county against Middlesex in the four-day game starting at the Riverside on Wednesday.