Trust Flower to make the right calls
In the Wisden Cricketer , Lawrence Booth writes that Andy Flower's track record of making the right decisions for English cricket needs to be trusted in dealing with the Andrew Strauss ODI conundrum.
Nitin Sundar
25-Feb-2013
In the Wisden Cricketer, Lawrence Booth writes that Andy Flower's track record of making the right decisions for English cricket needs to be trusted in dealing with the Andrew Strauss ODI conundrum.
England under Flower have barely put a foot wrong – and when they have, redemption has been swift: Ravi Bopara was dropped for the Ashes decider, Owais Shah booted out of the one-day team, and Paul Collingwood rested from the NatWest Series. There is a decisiveness about Flower that makes the old days of wrongly aligned planets and Calcutta smog look like low farce.
Selection for the World Twenty20 was neck-on-the-line stuff too. What previous regime would have dared drop their shop-window fast bowler? Or drafted in a pair of relatively untested openers? Or encouraged the slow bouncer? Mike Yardy as a second spinner? Luke Wright at No 6? These were all products of a coaching mind that knows itself and isn’t swayed by others.
Nitin Sundar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo