Simon Hughes made a good point yesterday that the conditions Kumar has had so far are very similar to where he grew up playing in the north of India. Agree he looks the real deal though.
Been thinking about the Cook captaincy and have a left-field idea that, on the face of it, is pure fantasy and the England management would never go for it. That said, here goes!
Yesterday on Sky Ravi Shastri compared Cook to Tendulkar at the turn of the century. As India Captain, he had a far worse record than Cook has and his form was suffering. He pulled the plug on his captaincy as it was felt his runs and enjoyment of the game far outweighed his captaincy, which was forced and un-natural, very much like Cook.
The main difference in that was that India had a number of options as replacements. In the current set up, England have none. Bell is a follower, not a leader. Nothing wrong with that, as long as we're clear on his place within the side. He likes playing second fiddle and has got 20 test hundreds doing so. Cook back in the ranks give him that position back since KP's departure. Root isn't ready and possibly won't be for another couple of years. Same with Ballance. You can't give it Anderson as he will be rested at some point and I have it on very good authority that it was offered to Broad before the India series and he turned it down. Prior is on borrowed time.
We need Cook's runs more than his captaincy, so you have to look outside the current squad (and Lions players for that matter). You hear that we can't pick captains for their captaincy alone, like Brearley, they have to do a job. Step forward Chris Read.
Read is currently captaining the Div 1 leaders, is arguably the best keeper in the country, certainly top three. He has previous Test experience and is averaging 45 with the bat this season. Either way, he knows his game inside out.
I would bring him in with the remit that his role is to captain and keep wicket, runs are not an issue. We bat down to 7 with Stokes, Read at 8 or 9. He'd be an improvement behind the stumps significantly and I'd pull in Buttler whenever he's free during Test match build up to work with him in drills. The England captain has a lot of press and media duties (the other issue is that Cook's image fits the role well with corporates and that will cloud issues on him stepping down), so I would share that around senior players, taking pressure off one person. Cook, Bell, Anderson, Broad and Read can effectively share that around. The England captaincy is unique compared to other Test nations for the sheer volume of games year round - its a constant toil and clearly grinds players down. Vaughan, Strauss and now Cook's form all suffered, which lends more weight to taking it off a batsman.
It won't happen. But I would suggest we wouldn't be doing any worse than we are now...
As a slight aside, I know we've done DRS to death. I'd like to present some stats to the BCCCI at the end of the series comparing howlers overturned during previous series and this one. We've had 5 or 6 shockers after two tests alone that would have been overturned. Strip all the pony trap away and that's DRS's role. The BCCI are doing my swede in...
Author
Topic: England Vs India (Read 119131 times)