A young Glenn McGrath would have been slated by many on here as he wouldnt have had enough pace to keep people happy. As for Sidebottom and Hoggard playing in the same side, many said that McGrath and Clark wouldn't work either. I'm sorry ern, but your Lancashire bowlers need to earn their place in the side. Neither of them appear to have the first idea where they should be bowling let alone actually do it. Sidebottom may not be quick but he knows where to bowl and actually does bowl there. Ideally I would not have both Sidebottom and Hoggard operating Down Under but if there are no better bowlers (and Anderson and Mahmood sure as hell aren't) then they play. Both Sid and Hoggy know their trade, they know what they are doing and that is important, experience is key as the Aussies showed last winter.

Have you any evidence to suggest that Taylor would have stood up to a bowler swinging the ball at much as Sidebottom was in this match (apart from some romantic notion in your head about great gloveman). For starters, it would have been unnecessary. I watched Taylor keep for England a lot and don't remember him standing up to the likes of Old, Hendrick, Lever or Cowans. Maybe my memory fails me.

Coach Moores says there are "places up for grabs"...and I am sure DJ Sammy is eagerly awaiting his chance to make his test debut. I really hope the Windies put up a better fight in the next 2 tests. They're making England look good...

Anderson does put the ball in the right areas. You can't compare him to Harmison and Plunkett bowling both sides of the wicket. Anderson had one over in South Africa where he had trouble after not having any warm up games and in the process of having his action changed. Anderson's problem would be that he finds the centre of the bat more often than the edge of it.

Just looking at ODIs where there is less margin for error -

Extras per game
Harmison - 4.31 (In the top 20 worst bowlers of extras)
Mahmood - 3.32
Plunkett - 2.96
Gough - 2.89
Caddick - 2.36
Anderson - 2.28

That's somewhat misleading in that Test cricket is built on pitching the ball up in the business area, inviting the drive and looking for movement whilst ODI cricket is increasingly based around back of a length "heavy" balls that give the batsmen little room to swing their arms and yorkers aimed solely at containment.

In truth, accurate bowlers who pitch the ball up and get movement often go for a few more runs (being driven when they overpitch and suffering as edges race to the boundary) whilst hopeless speedsters periodically get away with a died of drossy short balls because they rarely make the batsmen play and just keep charging in to no good effect.

When viewing run rates in Test cricket this needs to be considered: any top bowler should generally have an economy rate of 2.5-2.8... and any decent Test bowler who makes batsmen play most deliveries should still manage no more than 3.1 or 3.2... but there's no excuse for bowlers going for 3.2 if they ain't pitching the ball up and close to the stumps for at least 5 deliveries in every over!

The problems with keeping wicket and standing up is

One you can only stand up to a certain pace and accuracy.
if the bowler is too fast, you have to stand back, and if you don't know where the ball is going to go you stand back. You have to give yourself a chance.The more skilled the keeper, the faster/the worse the bowling to which he is able to "stand up".

Two
If you stand up to a swinging ball, and you are not a pure keeper you'll let more runs through than you'll stop and you won't be able to take catches.Again it's about skill.

Prior is a wicketkeeper batsmen, he's there to help the lower order and rotate the strike (not something we need really v WI) and get you out of a fix.


The following wicket-keepers have taken 200 or more dismissals in Test cricket.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicket-keeper

(see table)


Looking at current choices
Jones 128 catches/5 stumpings from 34 tests (1172 runs)(3.7 catches per test)
Read 48 catches/6 stumpings from 15 tests (360 runs)(3.2 catches per test)
Prior 2 catches 0 stumpings from 2 tests (222 runs)(one catch per test, too soon to say really)
Foster 17 catches and 1 stumping in 7 tests (226 runs)(2.4 catches per test)

I have the feeling that prior has cemented his place for a few seasons (just as Jones did) and he will be the test choice. For ODI it doesn't matter so much.


Godfrey Evans started standing up to Bedser for the old ball first and then all the time. bedser was fast medium. Nobody has had the skill, technique or courage to do similar things since. Either they bowl faster, or more erraticalty, or the skills and techniques of wicket keeping are different.The best keepers in the modern game(Gilchrist,Boucher) dont seem to me tto stand up much. It is a forgotten art from a forgotten age;

Note that most keepers work well with a bowler, (marsh and lille, evens/bedser,gilchrist /mcgrath)

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I have a dream.... (Martin Luther King)

A big plate of humble pie for me as i doubted whether Ryan Sidebottom would do it in the test arena,one game doesn't mean he is the answer and you have doubts as to whether he and Hoggard can play in the same team but he took his chance and deserves another go.

Harmison must be under severe pressure as he was outbowled again by Plunkett,when Plunkett sorts himself out bowling to lefthanders i can't see Harmi getting a look in.It will be interesting to see if Donald has any influence on them before the next test.

As for Hoggy i hope he is made to play for Yorkshire and proving his fitness before returning to the side,smae goes for Flintoff with Lancs.

No one ever seems to have worried about Flintoff and Harmison playing in the same team... but both a right arm, straight up and down seamers whose sole asset, in most conditions, is a reasonably high release point.

At least in Hoggard and Sidebottom you have a left-arm, right-arm combination!

<P><BR>Because both are different bowler - both are fast but Harmison just bowls as fast as he can at off stump, or delivers a bouncer, while Flintoff bowls back of a length hitting the deck hard, and is hard to get away - or he can bowl full fast yorkers, and is a more than adequate bowler around the wicket at left handers, and like Harmison has a vicious bouncer.<BR>Also no matter the conditions - he like other faster bowlers will get reverse swing.<BR>&nbsp;<BR><BR>Both need the right conditions: Both can't bowl a decent bouncer, the left arm - right arm combination means nothing in terms of taking wickets, if the ball don't swing.</P>
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<P>As for Harmison - he will get wickets spraying the ball, Hoggard and Sidebottom would get carted if they strayed - not saying the Harmison is bowling well, but his pace helps him through his shortcomings.</P>

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Ern

I can see the case for Sidebottom being maintained in the short term, even if Hoggard comes back into the side. I think eventually you would have make a choice between the two, and I would go for Hoggard.

If Flintoff remains unfit, while Hoggy shrugs of the injury fin time for the Third Test, I would maintain a four man attack with Plunkett the man to lose out.

Apart from that I don't see the need for any changes to the team...

It will be interesting to see what effect Donald has. I just got the feeling that Harmy was starting to find his confidence again. I have said it before, Vaughan has the potential to get the best out of Harmison, and by the second innings, I feel that we starting to happen again.