Two Types of Cricket
I'm watching cricket. I love cricket. But I'm not sure what cricket to watch, because cricket's on two channels. On the one hand, there's some very exciting test cricket between England and South Africa, but (sacrilege!) I'm also finding myself flipping over to Australia's T20 Big Bash League on the other channel.
I flipping love the BBL. It's the first T20 I've really relished. The IPL, the Ram Slam, the Caribbean Premier League, even our own T20 Blast, I can entirely take or leave - I can find them crass, garish, boring all at once, but I'm completely sold on the BBL. It's become a yearly sporting highlight, a wonderful background to these cold winter mornings.
People complain about the modern Australian commentators being too matey, and I have found that in the past, but I love the mateyness of the guys they've got for IPL. I love Gilchrist and Ponting in particular - serious and knowledgeable, funny and good-natured. Fleming is a smooth pro, Mark Waugh is the grumpy misanthropic foil, and then there's Flintoff, who's just on the right side of Flintoffy.
There are innovations which are actually thrilling, like Kevin Pietersen actually talking to the com box while batting, and seeming to thrive on it.
And the cricket is excellent, nearly always closely matched, on big proper cricket grounds with packed stands - intense rather than showbizzy and gimmicky.
There are 8 teams, all the Aussie cities (Melbourne and Sydney have two each) and a game pretty much every day for over a month. Simple.
And the best thing of all - the English are killing it. KP, Lumb, Luke Wright, Carberry are all old hands at it and big successes, but this year, the stars of pretty much the whole show have been David Willey (with ball and bat) and above all, Adil Rashid.
Even the pom-hating Mark Waugh has been completely won over. Rashid has bowled like an absolute master, gamechanging spell after spell. He has the most wickets at pretty much the best economy rate.
Anyone not sure if Rashid is up to the challenge of international cricket should watch this. He's been almost faultless, scaring batsmen with his accuracy, his flight, his variations, including a beautiful googly. He's become an Adelaide hero in less than a month.
England need to grab this opportunity with him - he showed promise in Pakistan, but he's moved up a large notch. He's truly ready to be a class international spinner,
Which is very exciting for English cricket. And let's be honest, there's a lot to be excited about in English cricket right now.
Hostage to fortune, I'm writing this sentence with South Africa 36-5 in the 2nd innings at Johannesburg. Surely England will go on to win the match and series ... surely.
If so, that's so massive. But, frankly, it's the level England should be at. They've gradually put together a hugely exciting cricket team over the last couple of years and, all being well, I truly think it's poised to take over, maybe across all formats.
Pakistan in the UAE was a shame. To play so well for nearly all of the 3 tests and end up losing 2-0, when it could easily have been a triumphant 1-1 .... but still, that's notoriously tough over there.
So, in tests, what have England got and where are they lacking?
Above all they've got all-rounders and all-rounders are so vital. That's the stats game. It is like having an extra player, or let's say half an extra player in terms of their comparative contribution.
England, right now, have two potential true-allrounders, in Stokes and Moeen Ali. If both can genuinely contribute to win test matches regularly, that's a recipe for dominance. Then there are half all-rounders like Broad and even Root (and potentially Rashid).
To me, Broad and Swann were the key to England's rise to World Number 1 in 2011, not just their wicket-taking spells but their regular lower-order runs. Lower order runs are more important in test cricket than is even considered. They are worth more, I think, than upper-order runs, in terms of game situation, because of their relative variation from the norm and also in their switch in the momentum of the game.
So half all-rounders (guys who wouldn't get near the team on their second skill but still make regular valuable contributions) are truly worth their weight. What are not worth their weight are supposed true-allrounders who don't do a good enough job in either form nor have the potential to - your classic David Capels and Mark Ealhams. They're great for ODI cricket, but in tests, they're keeping big contributors out.
But England, right now, with Stokes and Moeen as guys who might genuinely win a match with either bat or ball (Moeen needs to get more runs, though, needs to remember what a class player he is), that's at least one whole extra player.
Then there's Root, one of the world's best three batsmen, Bairstow coming into his own as batsman-wicketkeeper, Cook as one of the best openers and a better and better captain. Finn deserving a long run in the team with his strike rate. He's a flat out test bowler. Let's give him a chance here.
Everywhere else is a potential boost/problem. The other opener, of course. Hales ain't it. Who's it going to be? There has to be someone.
Compton and Taylor. They could be the guys, I really hope so, especially for Taylor. I've long thought he had what it takes to be a test stalwart. He replaced Bell at the right time, if not a little too late. But both positions could still go either way. We need another world-class middle order player.
And we may need another world-class bowler soon. How long will we have Jimmy Anderson for? I'm not too worried that he hasn't bowled brilliantly in this series so far. Any bowler coming back from injury takes a while. But we might be in the last year or two. He might not win that many more matches for England.
So those are the potential issues. But there's back-up talent around. Joss Butler, Mark Wood, David Willey, Alex Lees, Zafar Ansari, Rashid, Footitt and Reece Topley, I think those can all push on the test team. Who knows, maybe Bell, and indeed Gary Ballance, comes back and is class again ...
It is exciting. Stokes is probably the key to it all. His bowling is looking tighter, above all. What a player we might have there.
If England have a good enough team to cover Root losing form, as he will do, Broad being off-key, Cook having another dodgy patch, that'll be the test.
Anyway, I genuinely think there'll be major success for England across all the forms in the next two or three years. And if not, there's always the BBL.
I flipping love the BBL. It's the first T20 I've really relished. The IPL, the Ram Slam, the Caribbean Premier League, even our own T20 Blast, I can entirely take or leave - I can find them crass, garish, boring all at once, but I'm completely sold on the BBL. It's become a yearly sporting highlight, a wonderful background to these cold winter mornings.
People complain about the modern Australian commentators being too matey, and I have found that in the past, but I love the mateyness of the guys they've got for IPL. I love Gilchrist and Ponting in particular - serious and knowledgeable, funny and good-natured. Fleming is a smooth pro, Mark Waugh is the grumpy misanthropic foil, and then there's Flintoff, who's just on the right side of Flintoffy.
There are innovations which are actually thrilling, like Kevin Pietersen actually talking to the com box while batting, and seeming to thrive on it.
And the cricket is excellent, nearly always closely matched, on big proper cricket grounds with packed stands - intense rather than showbizzy and gimmicky.
There are 8 teams, all the Aussie cities (Melbourne and Sydney have two each) and a game pretty much every day for over a month. Simple.
And the best thing of all - the English are killing it. KP, Lumb, Luke Wright, Carberry are all old hands at it and big successes, but this year, the stars of pretty much the whole show have been David Willey (with ball and bat) and above all, Adil Rashid.
Even the pom-hating Mark Waugh has been completely won over. Rashid has bowled like an absolute master, gamechanging spell after spell. He has the most wickets at pretty much the best economy rate.
Anyone not sure if Rashid is up to the challenge of international cricket should watch this. He's been almost faultless, scaring batsmen with his accuracy, his flight, his variations, including a beautiful googly. He's become an Adelaide hero in less than a month.
England need to grab this opportunity with him - he showed promise in Pakistan, but he's moved up a large notch. He's truly ready to be a class international spinner,
Which is very exciting for English cricket. And let's be honest, there's a lot to be excited about in English cricket right now.
Hostage to fortune, I'm writing this sentence with South Africa 36-5 in the 2nd innings at Johannesburg. Surely England will go on to win the match and series ... surely.
If so, that's so massive. But, frankly, it's the level England should be at. They've gradually put together a hugely exciting cricket team over the last couple of years and, all being well, I truly think it's poised to take over, maybe across all formats.
Pakistan in the UAE was a shame. To play so well for nearly all of the 3 tests and end up losing 2-0, when it could easily have been a triumphant 1-1 .... but still, that's notoriously tough over there.
So, in tests, what have England got and where are they lacking?
Above all they've got all-rounders and all-rounders are so vital. That's the stats game. It is like having an extra player, or let's say half an extra player in terms of their comparative contribution.
England, right now, have two potential true-allrounders, in Stokes and Moeen Ali. If both can genuinely contribute to win test matches regularly, that's a recipe for dominance. Then there are half all-rounders like Broad and even Root (and potentially Rashid).
To me, Broad and Swann were the key to England's rise to World Number 1 in 2011, not just their wicket-taking spells but their regular lower-order runs. Lower order runs are more important in test cricket than is even considered. They are worth more, I think, than upper-order runs, in terms of game situation, because of their relative variation from the norm and also in their switch in the momentum of the game.
So half all-rounders (guys who wouldn't get near the team on their second skill but still make regular valuable contributions) are truly worth their weight. What are not worth their weight are supposed true-allrounders who don't do a good enough job in either form nor have the potential to - your classic David Capels and Mark Ealhams. They're great for ODI cricket, but in tests, they're keeping big contributors out.
But England, right now, with Stokes and Moeen as guys who might genuinely win a match with either bat or ball (Moeen needs to get more runs, though, needs to remember what a class player he is), that's at least one whole extra player.
Then there's Root, one of the world's best three batsmen, Bairstow coming into his own as batsman-wicketkeeper, Cook as one of the best openers and a better and better captain. Finn deserving a long run in the team with his strike rate. He's a flat out test bowler. Let's give him a chance here.
Everywhere else is a potential boost/problem. The other opener, of course. Hales ain't it. Who's it going to be? There has to be someone.
Compton and Taylor. They could be the guys, I really hope so, especially for Taylor. I've long thought he had what it takes to be a test stalwart. He replaced Bell at the right time, if not a little too late. But both positions could still go either way. We need another world-class middle order player.
And we may need another world-class bowler soon. How long will we have Jimmy Anderson for? I'm not too worried that he hasn't bowled brilliantly in this series so far. Any bowler coming back from injury takes a while. But we might be in the last year or two. He might not win that many more matches for England.
So those are the potential issues. But there's back-up talent around. Joss Butler, Mark Wood, David Willey, Alex Lees, Zafar Ansari, Rashid, Footitt and Reece Topley, I think those can all push on the test team. Who knows, maybe Bell, and indeed Gary Ballance, comes back and is class again ...
It is exciting. Stokes is probably the key to it all. His bowling is looking tighter, above all. What a player we might have there.
If England have a good enough team to cover Root losing form, as he will do, Broad being off-key, Cook having another dodgy patch, that'll be the test.
Anyway, I genuinely think there'll be major success for England across all the forms in the next two or three years. And if not, there's always the BBL.
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