3ஆஷஸ் 2013: தொடரின் குழு

தொடரின் போது என்னை ஆச்சரியப்படுத்திய ஒரு விஷயம் என்னவென்றால், அந்தந்த விக்கெட் கீப்பர்களை பண்டிதர்கள் எவ்வாறு ஒப்பிட்டார்கள் - பிராட் ஹாடின் ஒரு நல்ல பத்திரிகையைப் பெற்றார், அதே நேரத்தில் மாட் ப்ரியர் ஒட்டுமொத்த எதிர்மறையான மதிப்பீட்டைப் பெற்றார். நான் பார்த்ததிலிருந்து அவர்களுக்கு இடையே அதிகம் எடுக்க வேண்டும் என்று நான் நினைக்கவில்லை, எனவே எண்கள் எவ்வாறு அடுக்கி வைக்கப்படுகின்றன என்பதைப் பார்ப்பேன் என்று நினைத்தேன். மீதமுள்ள பக்கங்களுக்கும் நான் அவ்வாறே செய்யக்கூடும் என்று நினைத்தேன், மேலும் தொடரின் ஒரு குழு வெளிவருகிறதா என்று பார்க்கிறேன், இது தனிநபர்கள் எவ்வளவு சிறப்பாக விளையாடியது என்பதைப் பிரதிபலிக்கிறது.

அதனால், அந்த சமாளிக்க உதவுகிறது 2 men behind the wick­et first

Over­all Had­din has the frac­tion­ally bet­ter bat­ting aver­age, and undeni­ably took a lot more catches behind the wick­et. How­ever, நீங்கள் மட்டும் உங்கள் வழியில் வரும் என்ன பிடிக்க முடியும், so a more telling num­ber would be the num­ber of missed oppor­tun­it­ies. Missed oppor­tun­it­ies are hard to quanti­fy of course. The bat­ting num­bers aren’t dif­fer­ent enough to jus­ti­fy pick­ing 1 play­er over the oth­er, and had Pri­or played 1 அல்லது 2 மேலும் இன்னிங்ஸ், மற்றும் செய்யப்பட்ட ஒரு 50, the aver­ages would be near enough equal.

Regard­less of the views of the pun­dits, on bal­ance I’d pick Pri­or. Firstly I have a sense that Had­din made more mis­takes behind the wick­et with a few missed chances. Secondly, I have a great­er faith that Pri­or would be the man in a pres­sure situ­ation — des­pite a good effort Had­din failed to see Aus­tralia through to vic­tory in the first test.

பந்து வீச்சாளர்கள்

I’ve only included play­ers who bowled at least 50 overs

The num­bers match up fairly well with who I’d pick for my team. Any­one who watched any of the series would be able to pick Graeme Swann, ரியான் ஹாரிஸ் & James Ander­son without a hes­it­a­tion, leav­ing the only ques­tion who the 4^வது bowl­er would be. As the 3^Rd highest wick­et taker, மற்றும் மட்டையால் அழகான எளிது இருப்பது, Stu­art Broad is the easy choice. He was also more eco­nom­ic­al than either Siddle or Starc. The final con­firm­a­tion of these 4 அவர்கள் இருக்கும் என்று ஆகிறது 4 என்ற 5 who had an aver­age under 30 — Tim Bresnan being the only oth­er bowl­er to achieve this.

ஒவ்வொரு பக்கமும் உண்டு 1 very good bowl­er who is unlucky to miss out — Tim Bresnan for Eng­land and Peter Siddle for Aus­tralia. Both play­ers are hard work­ing, மட்டையால் ஒழுக்கமான, and con­trib­ute well in the field. Bresnan took his wick­ets slightly cheap­er, whilst Siddle was a bit more eco­nom­ic­al per over bowled and both picked up key wick­ets at key times. The choice between them would prob­ably come down to the flip of a coin if a 5^வது bowl­er was going to be picked.

The bal­ance of the bowl­ers for vary­ing con­di­tions also works out very well. Swann is the best spin­ner in the world at the moment and Ander­son is one of the top 2 bowl­ers out­right with won­der­ful con­trol and an abil­ity to find swing in any con­di­tions. Broad has the abil­ity to both move the ball and bowl genu­inely fast to pres­sure any bats­man who struggles with short pitched deliv­er­ies. Har­ris is con­sist­ently accur­ate and has a skiddy speed which will unsettle even qual­ity bats­men on good sur­faces. Neither side has a really top class genu­inely fast bowl­er which is the only chink in the qual­ity of the attack.

பேட்ஸ்மேன்கள்

I’ve only included genu­ine bats­men, and have excluded a couple of the Aus­sie bats­men who only played in the first or second test (and did­n’t do well)

Pick­ing a bat­ting line up is far less straight-for­ward then a bowl­ing attack. Ian Bell is the only bats­man who can be picked without hav­ing to think. Michael Clarke also has a good aver­age but is helped by 2 இல்லை-அவுட்கள் (as a res­ult of declar­a­tions).  That said, Clarke is a world-class bats­man and it would be pretty hard to jus­ti­fy leav­ing him out of the side.

The remain­ing 4 are trick­i­er to select. Shane Wat­son is use­ful with the ball and made the 3^Rd highest aver­age, but he has a tend­ency to make runs when they don’t mat­ter, and get out when a score is needed. I also haven’t yet picked any open­ers, and Wat­son did­n’t play well as an open­er (and isn’t con­sist­ent enough) மற்றும் உண்மையில் அவர் மட்டும் எடுத்து 2 wick­ets means he’s not going to make the team. Chris Rogers sur­prised me and had a much bet­ter series than I expec­ted him to. He improved as the series went on and he was a very calm and con­sist­ent play­er — ideal as an open­er. As a res­ult he makes the team.

Pieterson சற்று கீழே சம தொடர் இருந்தது, how­ever he had to find form early on hav­ing just returned from an injury he was clearly still car­ry­ing through­out the last test. His abil­ity to make game chan­ging runs, மற்றும் ரன்கள் மிகவும் தேவைப்படும் போது அடித்த (and his sheer enter­tain­ment value) def­in­itely gets him a place.

I still need anoth­er open­er and the remain­ing choice is between the “bar fight 2”. The num­bers make this easy, and Root’s reas­on­able aver­age is par­tic­u­larly impress­ive giv­en the pres­sure he was under mak­ing his open­ing debut in such a key series. He is also a much more care­ful play­er than Warner which is bet­ter suited to test crick­et, and he showed he is a quick learner by improv­ing his tech­nique as the series went on.

This leaves just a final bats­man to pick. The num­bers say Steve Smith but I was­n’t at all con­vinced that he was a test bats­man. Without his 1 high score and his “not out” innings enhan­cing it, his aver­age would be under 21 which is a more accur­ate reflec­tion of the series he had. Khawaja had a very poor series and is out of the pic­ture so that leaves the choice of Trott, Bair­stow and Cook. Des­pite his dis­ap­point­ing series with the bat it’s easy to pick the Ashes win­ning cap­tain as the cap­tain for the whole team, espe­cially if he were a touch down the order to relieve the pres­sure that open­ing and being cap­tain brings.

The num­bers and my line up aren’t quite a match, ஆனால் நான் எடுத்து விட்டேன் 5 மேல் 7 by num­bers and added in Alastair Cook, who des­pite his dis­ap­point­ing series would be hard to leave out. The 2 who miss out — Shane Wat­son and Steve Smith have both man­aged to pro­duce num­bers that very much flat­ter the real­ity of how well they played. This is doubly so when you con­sider that the 2 play­ers I have picked instead (குக் & ரூட்) both had to face tough­er con­di­tions as open­ing batsmen.

ஃபைனல் லைன்-அப்

1. கிறிஸ் ரோஜர்ஸ்
2. ஜோ ரூட்
3. அலாஸ்டர் குக் (இ)
   
4. Kev­in Pieterson
5. மைக்கேல் கிளார்க்
6. இயான் பெல்
7. Matt Pri­or (W)
   
8. கிரேம் ஸ்வான்
9. ஸ்டுவர்ட் பிராட்
10. ரியான் ஹாரிஸ்
11. ஜேம்ஸ் ஆண்டர்சன்

This is a very strong but some­what unbal­anced side, மட்டுமே 3 Aus­trali­ans com­pared to 8 Eng­lish­men. How­ever, Eng­land have just won 3–0 and were good money for that sco­reline. No-one would have blinked if a sim­il­ar “best of” team from the 90’s was largely Aus­trali­an, எனவே அட்டவணைகள் விட்டன என்று இப்போது அதை அனுபவிக்க அனுமதிக்க.