So simple question do the ECB need to break the red ball test side away from one day side ie just specialist red ball players that take this over white ball cricket. You may not get the glamour names but those that are specifically picked for 5 day cricket
The entire setup from county age group upwards is focused on producing the best T20 cricketers possible and has been for a decade now - Back in the late 2000s, as CAG coaches we were *instructed* by the ECB to prioritise teaching kids white balls skills and not to worry about traditional red ball skills - they were seen as fuddy duddy and old fashioned. Young batsmen are expected to be able to score quickly and hit powerfully on flat tracks - if the pitch does a bit and all the kids get bowled playing across the line, then its criticised for being a bad pitch, rather than the kids being criticised for having poor technique. I was talking to an umpire about this last night who had also observed this.
Pace bowlers are expected to be rapid and have multiple variations, the ability to swing and seam the ball both ways is no longer a priority. Two-man boundary catch routines are now practiced significantly more often than standard slip catches.
So it shouldn't be a surprise when the system produces lots of good T20 players and no good test cricketers, and as long as this system is in place, we will never produce any. The ECB know this but don't care. White ball is the priority now.
Of course there are still red ball specialists around the county game - but these are generally players who aren't quite good enough to play white ball cricket and so focus on red ball as a fall back option. With all due respect they're generally just not that good.
The current England team is a mixture of talented cricketers who in another era might have had good test careers - Buttler, Bairstow etc - but who have focused on white ball cricket to the detriment of their red ball abilities, and red ball specialists like Burns, Sibley, Hameed, etc, who are honestly just not that good, and 20 years ago would have been county journeymen without a glimmer of a chance of an England call up. (I might also put Robinson and Leach into this category)
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Topic: Ashes Test Series - 2021/22 (Read 90790 times)