England's ailing batting line-up
Lawrence Booth, in his final blog of The Spin in the Guardian , analyses England's batting line-up and its disappointing performance in the ODI series so far
Siddhartha Talya
25-Feb-2013
Lawrence Booth, in his final blog of The Spin in the Guardian, analyses England's batting line-up and its disappointing performance in the ODI series so far. He calls for Adil Rashid's inclusion in the third ODI and backs Jonathan Trott to get a game in place of Owais Shah.
How Andrew Strauss must be tearing out his hair, still sticky, no doubt, with Ashes bubbly. His mantra since he took over in January has been one of personal responsibility: assess the situation and act accordingly. This has been mocked by those who point out, reasonably enough, that statements of the bleeding obvious should not be worshipped as timeless verities. Yet the principle has clearly not sunk in.
Also in the Guardian, Paul Weaver wonders what's wrong with Owais Shah.
His one-day career is still in danger of stalling, just as his Test career did after an eye-catching debut brought only five further appearances. The trouble with Shah is that his fielding is ordinary, his running calamitous and his batting, though often brilliant, does not win enough matches. As one former England player said yesterday: "They like Owais because he hits the balls in unusual areas. Unfortunately his mind is in unusual areas too."
Siddhartha Talya is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo