T20: England Can Benefit Without Strauss and KP
If Andrew Strauss’s England needed any more stark reminder of how tough this South Africa tour is going to be, Graeme Swann provided it on Wednesday via Twitter.
Swannyg66, with a gallows quip drier than peanut butter on Ryvita, tweeted:
“this part of joburg is safe as houses” said our liaison officer. Round the next corner? bullet ridden car , news crews, body bags!”
If off-the-field crime was not already a concern, Tuesday’s Twenty20 humbling against South Africa A hasn’t helped the playing side. With only 11 fit players available then, Andrew Strauss may reconsider his decision to rest during T20s.
Nothing could be worse for England, whose real focus must be the Test series. Nothing save Kevin Pietersen – who only netted outdoors for the first time since July yesterday – being rushed back.
Before his first long-term injury layoff, Pietersen had endured his toughest year in International cricket, scoring only one hundred in 25 innings since losing the captaincy. Returning to the country against whom he first took the role – and debuted with an even hundred – we hope the break has done him good. Only if KP is fully fit can we know.
On Pietersen’s impending return it was Swann, cocky after the first two warm-up wins, who said:
“You never know, he [Pietersen] might even have to fight for his place.”
Swann’s attitude, shown in countless sound bites besides this, could be just what England need.
Averaging 35.57 from number nine in the Ashes 2009 shows he will put his hand up. But it is Swann’s sense of fun, and with it his fearlessness, that allows him to express himself and play his most positive cricket, as in his 57-ball 63 at the Oval.
If England want to beat the number one-ranked Test side in the world, in their own back yard, they are going to need some self-belief, if not a sense of humour.
On Friday, one or two wearing the Three Lions might wish they were anywhere but Johannesburg’s Bullring – the crowd will be more rowdy than at its Brummie namesake, even with Christmas shoppers.
Those who really express themselves however, without Strauss and Pietersen to lean on, will take much greater confidence going into the all-important Tests.
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