Hello Adil - Geoff Miller and Andy Flower here. How are you...?
What's that? You just bowled the Lions to a win? That's lovely. Forgot that's why you're over in the Caribbean. Have you had a nice winter...?
Played a bit of T20 for South Australia in the Big Bash, did you? Very nice. Get on okay...?
Won the tournament? Smashing. Suppose you picked up a few wickets here and there...?
Lots? That's good to hear....
No, we didn't realise you'd started bowling an off-break as another variation to go with your googly and your slider...
No, we didn't know you'd gotten comfortable with taking the new ball...
No, to be honest we were just pretty busy winning the Ashes. Sorry about that.
So here's a proposition for you, Adil. How would you like to fly 9000 miles to join us in Sri Lanka...?
No, not to play in the quarter-final exactly. We were thinking more that you could sit in the dressing room like you did on all your previous tours. You remember, don't you? If we make it to the semi then maybe we'd ask you to carry some drinks, but even if we don't you'd be able to join the team for the flight back to England, which will be a laugh.
What do you say, Adil...?
If the England management are sensible (which is by no means guaranteed), they should use the retirement of Collingwood as an opportunity to make the switch from four bowlers to five. In the absence of a genuine world class all-rounder, Rashid would seem to be the next best thing, and the second spinner would bring good balance to the side. I also see that Chris Woakes chalked up another hundred in the Caribbean. England could have a pretty fearsome lower order in a year or two...
ReplyDeleteI've been a Rashid fan for several years and I think he has been treated very poorly by the ECB. I'm glad they finally came to their senses and gave him a winter to develop (which has clearly paid off), instead of making him sit around in Oz, although I think I'm right in saying that he was bizarrely omitted from the Performance Squad.
Rashid's treatment aside, I think the current management team has actually done really well to develop the England limited overs squads. I think the biggest problem was just the crazy scheduling. If you had both KP and Morgan, Broad and a mentally switched on Jimmy Anderson, it would have been a far better side.
ReplyDeleteThe contrast with Sri Lanka's World Cup focus couldn't be more stark. We were 7th in the ODI rankings about 18 months ago (and I think we had a similar lull 18-24 months before the last World Cup), but all our planning revolved around building a squad for this tournament.
Admittedly the Ashes was always going to be the number one focus over the winter but playing 7 meaningless ODIs in completely different conditions to the subcontinent was just madness.