Balancing Act

‘TWO brilliant innings by Marcus Trescothick have allowed England to gloss over what is a fundamental problem in their one-day batting line-up – not enough batsmen.

Vaughan worries about his top order

His quick-fire 86 in the second of the matches against Pakistan had effectively won the match for England before the middle-order was exposed.

And his unbeaten ton in the third of the three matches saw England home after the middle order had been blown away by Pakistan.

However, England cannot expect one man (or even two or three men) to get all the side’s runs.

And, looking at the line-up at the moment, it seems that that is what they are expecting.

I argued before – and yesterday’s defeat by Zimbabwe just emphasises the point – that England need another specialist batsman in the side.

With an inexperienced Vikram Solanki opening and Jim Troughton or Robert Key coming in at No.4, the top order batting looks frail.

There is a lot of sense in promoting Andrew Flintoff to No.5 – he is a much better batsman than the lower middle order slogger he has at times been cast as.

But that can only work if the batting round him is stronger than it is at present.

Michael Vaughan insists he will stick with the personnel who have been selected for the series – and he is right to do so.

Bringing back Graham Thorpe would be seen as a panic measure and would send out the wrong signals, even though it is clear the side would be better for his return.

But he does need to alter the balance of the side if England are to achieve their objective, which is building a team for the future.

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Posted: 27th, June 2003 | In: Back pages Comment | TrackBack | Permalink