Re: OT - the corpse twitches
LLL
14 December, 2017 17:48
Quote:Florida
Aye, it's good to see a bit of resilience. Not entirely sure why they persist with picking cook. I saw somewhere the other day break down his average against Australia over the years, apart from a spike in 2010 where he averaged an astounding 100+ it was high 20 to mid 30 which for an opening bat is pretty poor.
Because he is the best opener England have by a country mile, he’s had countless opening partners since Strauss all of whom failed in the opinion of the selectors so there is horrendous instability in the opening pair, because 2,3 and 5 are all untested and unproven (and if you win the Ashes with tha5 profile it is miraculous) so to change him as well would be suicidal, especially bearing in mind test match opener is the most difficult job in world cricket, because as a massively experienced test player he is imvaluable to a new captain, and arguably the best England opener of all time, and who for the last ten years wins all the fitness tests against the whole England squad.
You’re spot on about his stats in Oz, but what else would you do?