Luke Wright Should Play in South Africa Series Opener
When the first Test against South Africa begins on Wednesday at Centurion, you can imagine the resident dressing room DJ going through a psych-up playlist – Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger for Jimmy Bullard fan James Anderson, Rocket Man Andrew Flintoff apparently blared out Elton John throughout the 2005 Ashes, Get’cha Head in the Game from High School Musical for Alastair Cook…
With England selection whispers we are going to play four bowlers, with Ian Bell at number six and Matt Prior at seven, how about a burst of Where’s Your Head At for the two Andrews, England Captain Strauss and Coach Flower?
England have made losing starts to six of their last seven overseas Test series and if they want to get that monkey off their backs, Bassment Jaxx is as fitting as any backing track to prompt a re-think.
Test cricket is a game played in the mind as much as it will be contested at altitude at South Africa’s SuperSport Park. Bearing these two facts in mind; England need five bowlers to rotate and to put down a marker for the series.
Selecting Luke Wright (pictured) to balance the batting unit at number seven and to rattle the Proteas top order with short bursts of bowling is the best way for the tourists to make a positive statement.
Graeme Smith has had strong words to say which have continued in the build-up to Wednesday; Smith criticising England selectors for their omission of Steve Harmison and selecting ‘steady’ bowlers as a conservative option in ‘Grievous Bodily’s’ stead.
If Wright debuts tomorrow he could offer relief for England’s other seam bowlers: James Anderson, Graham Onions and Stuart Broad, to concentrate on consistency, line and length, rather than the intimidatory role so often shouldered by Broad.
While Smith may opt for ‘talking smack’, the variety offered by Wright as enforcer allows England to do their talking on the field.
Related Posts
No Responses to “Luke Wright Should Play in South Africa Series Opener”
Leave a Reply
We're online newspaper, bringing you the best of British news from the real world and the web. There’s enough doom and gloom in the world that it’s sometimes hard to see the fun in life, the good things, that make us smile. we're here to do just that.
[...] and JP Duminy however bedded during the afternoon session as England’s four-man bowling strategy suffered when Onions had to leave the field with a calf strain. Selection [...]