On a different note, one thing that interests me is why a number of our top order batsman have such glaring technical problems but don't seem to be able to work to eradicate them. It reminds me a bit of Shane Warne's comment about Monty Panesar not having played 50 tests, but having played the same test 50 times.
I was watching a master class with ABdV last year and he mentioned how early on in his test career he had a real problem against the moving ball and playing too far away from his body, so he had to go away and adapt so that he played more under his eye line. He was basically saying that his technique was good enough for him to score the runs that would get him a test call up, but not good enough for him to score at that level.
The concern for me is that guys score runs in county cricket, get the chance to play test match cricket, get found out the higher level, go back to their county, score runs again then come back without having addressed the fundamental problem. Balance still didn't get forward to full deliveries, Jennings still drives with all his weight on his back foot, Bairstow still plays across the line to anything straight and gets bowled.
During the last test Butcher and Key were discussing how the county schedule doesn't leave time for working on your game during the season and that too much cricket was being played. However, it also seems to me that counties don't really have an incentive to invest in improving a player if he is successful at first class level. I recall an interview Jason Gillespie gave when he spoke about Bairstow coming back to Yorkshire after being dropped by England and how they just wanted him to have the confidence of hitting lots of balls rather than having too much technical information floating around his head. It worked for Yorkshire where he hit a weight of runs, but he had come back to England with exactly the same problems.
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Topic: Ashes 2019 (Read 20693 times)