BUMBLE ON THE TEST
TRUTH IS WE NEVER LOOKED LIKE WINNING
ENGLAND stopped the bleeding and put a plaster on their wounds but, fact is, they were never in the game at any stage. Certainly, never in with a chance of winning. But it was much better from England after being absolutely spannered in the first three Tests.
CUMMINS BLEW CHANCE
THAT was a very negative declaration on the fourth evening from Australia. Pat Cummins (right) could easily have dangled a carrot in front of England with their batting all over the place in this series because they could still have controlled the game on that pitch. It was almost fearful!
STAY ON STRAIGHT AND NARROW, ZAK
WHAT a superb innings from Zak Crawley and, with that double hundred against Pakistan, he is clearly a real talent. But I’d say to him don’t defend balls outside off stump you don’t need to play at. And the rule of thumb with front-foot drives for a right-hander is they should beat mid-off on his right-hand side and mid-on on his left. Greg Chappell was the master of it. There’s evidence Crawley’s drives are not quite straight enough.
HAMEED MUST GO BACK TO BASICS
I’D COMPARE Haseeb Hameed’s situation to an elite golfer dismantling his swing and starting again. He must know his defence is not standing up to Test cricket and he hasn’t got enough scoring areas. My view is there’s no room for a monumental blocker in the modern game. Hameed’s strike rate in this Ashes series is 28 and 32 in his Test career — Geoffrey Boycott was a rock solid opener against some of the best bowlers the game has seen and his strike rate was 35. Hameed needs to go back to Notts and start again. It’s not working.
...AND SO MUST BURNS
RORY BURNS (right) will probably
come back in Hobart and my question to him would be, ‘When you were starting out as a teenager did you bat like that?’ The answer would be no. So he’s another who has to start again because never in the history of Test cricket has a batter played like that and succeeded. It is said Burns has been working with Graham Thorpe since being dropped. We will see now if anything has changed.
LET’S HOPE JONNY CAN MAKE IT
JOS BUTTLER has been ruled out of the last Test and it would be a shame if that damaged thumb stops Jonny Bairstow replacing him behind the stumps in Hobart. It’s usually a belter in Tasmania and you want to roll up the pitch as a batter and take it with you. Jonny won’t want to miss it but, looking at the replays, his thumb was knocked sideways and backwards. He did well to play on and come back for more in the second innings.
I LOVE A DRY SENSE OF HUMOUR, REG
OUR old friend Peter ‘Reggie’ Hayter told me a parcel was on its way. Is it champagne, I thought, or a case of wine? Well, it’s arrived from Elstow Cricket Club in Bedfordshire — a calendar of the best hand-dryers around the world. There’s a sleek hi-tech number in Milan that was once used in a Bond film and one from a toilet in a bus station in Malta that I’ve actually used! Thanks Reg. It’s the thought that counts.