Is spin the way to tame Gilchrist?

[Zainub]

Oliver Brett has popped the big question here, can King of Spain exploit this weakness of Gilchirst as well?

Originally Posted by Oliver Brett, for BBC Sport

Probably the most destructive batsman in Test match cricket, Gilchrist has well over 4,000 runs at an average comfortably exceeding 50. But examining the details of his 66 appearances in Tests, one can see spinners have had a fair amount of joy against the free-scoring 33-year-old.

On the 2001 tour of India, Gilchrist fell five times to spinners in five innings, where he followed a century in Mumbai with scores of 0, 0, 1 and 2. But there then followed a far more fruitful period for Gilchrist against the slow men.In his next 31 Test appearances, he lost his wicket just eight times to spin bowlers.In that time, he scored a century at Edgbaston that set up an Ashes series triumph before pulverising South Africa in the 2001-02 winter, both home and away.

The Edgbaston innings, mentioned earlier, was the first Ashes Test of 2001. England were bowled out for 294 on the first day, and Australia stood at 336-5 in reply when Gilchrist came in. In the final session of the second day, he hit a flagging attack to every corner of Birmingham in a virtuoso innings of 152 of 143 balls. Shell-shocked, England folded in the second innings to lose by an innings and 118 runs. Ashley Giles was playing in that Test but injury has since prevented him appearing in all but one of the nine subsequent Ashes Tests.A much-improved bowler now, will his confrontation with Gilchrist this coming summer prove one of the crucial sub-plots of the 2005 Ashes series?

[Ernest]

Out of overconfidence and under estimation of England, players like Gilchirst might just try and slog him out of the attack, at his own peril.

[Richie Benauds Love Child]

Or the wheely bin will carted around like mad. Its not out of the question but it could just as easily go the other way.

[Seamer]

I was about to post that left arm offspin and right arm legspin is Gilchrists weaknesses. But now i am not so sure.
Some stats
Career Average 53.94
Legspin and leftarm offspin averages
Bowler Dis bwd c fi c wk st lbw hit Ave
A Kumble (LBG) 7 2 4 0 1 0 0 27.71
DL Vettori (SLA) 5 1 4 0 0 0 0 53.80
M Kartik (SLA) 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 14.00
CW Henderson (SLA) 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 7.00
SR Tendulkar (LBG) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0.00
Asd you can see, his record against bowlers spinning away to off is less than his career average. Up until the recent test against NZ, Vettori had the wood on him but Gilchrist absolutely hammered him. This was on a wicket that suited spin (Warne got 7 wickets). Now i am not so sure. Maybe Gilchgrist has turned the corner.

[Richie Benauds Love Child]

Perhaps Vettori was injured

[Seamer]

Originally Posted by Richie Benauds Love Child

Perhaps Vettori was injured

Actually he is suffering from a bad back by all reports. Once again, the Aussies have won a test because of injury to the opposition. Perhaps the Aussie physio, Alcott, should start giving seminars about how to keep a team fit?

[Richie Benauds Love Child]

To be honest, he left the england series early but with vetorri I think it was genuine (even though he was shown up by Ashley Giles of all people ). i guess I deep down assume some players could over do the "i'm injured thing"(alex tudor springs to mind despite playing the aussies) and some dont (freddie, thorpe, gough).

Not that the aussies are imune to it though see here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...ol/4330249.stm

[Paoli]

To be honest, Giles will most likely get hammered by an attacking batsman like Gilchrist. Frankly, King of Spain will have to go back to his regal duties or get smacked around by the Aussies

[Kirsty Harris]

I don't think Giles has played against Austrailia more than a handful of times, Paoli69 - certianly he only played one or two games in the last Ashes tour, and he had a pretty good game (compared to the rest of the England bowling attack) in the first test match (6 wickets in tha match).

[Milo]

He got sprayed in the game at Brisbane, consistently going at 3/4 an over. He picked up some wickets in Australia's bash for a declaration in the second innings (I remember Gilchrist putting him over the rope at least once) and a couple of tail-end bunnies to flatter his performance irst up. Over all, Hayden absolutely murdered him. We certainly need much more from him this time.