Strauss Prepared to Gamble in Desperate Bid to Square Series
England's leadership group is unified and strong but the team desperately needs to savor victory
The two men in charge of the cricket on this tour, Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower, have impressed everyone as a unified, articulate, clear-thinking partnership, one that could easily shape the team over the next couple of years.
But there is a big problem that reduces the chances that they will continue to work together once this tour is over: they have yet to win a game. If Flower really covets the team director post that has been advertised, he needs a victory badly and England have just one more chance of that in a Test series they can only draw.
On match eve indications are that Strauss must gamble in team selection. "Drawing is no good to us. There is definitely more of a case for five bowlers here," he said after inspecting the wicket. "There should be a bit of help for all the bowlers. There is some grass and there are areas which might dust up. We want to cover all bases."
Five bowlers, two of them spinners, seemed the likeliest outcome. And if there is to be a Test debutant, it is more likely to be Amjad Khan than Adil Rashid. "Amjad was impressive in Barbados," said Strauss. "He has a deceptive action, he's hard to pick up. He reverse-swung the ball pretty well and bowled with good pace. He is inexperienced but I'm excited by him."
With Ryan Sidebottom laboring, it seems a straight choice between Amjad and Steve Harmison, an unlikely prospect when the tour party set off for the West Indies almost two months ago.
The new hierarchy has been prepared to drop players previously considered key planks in the team: Harmison, Ian Bell and Monty Panesar. "These guys were dropped because they weren't performing well," Strauss said. "It is important that anyone is droppable. I'm very hopeful that all three of them will come back stronger and produce better results. We are not dropping them to get rid of them."
We wait to see how the three dropped men respond. The England captain reported that Panesar was "training hard, generally reacting well and he has bowled an exceptional number of overs in the nets". Strauss had a frank exchange with Harmison in the nets on Wednesday but he said that this was nothing to do with the cricket or Harmison's omission. Of this trio Bell, in particular, can only contemplate ferrying drinks around the boundary of the Queen's Park Oval for five days.
But there is a big problem that reduces the chances that they will continue to work together once this tour is over: they have yet to win a game. If Flower really covets the team director post that has been advertised, he needs a victory badly and England have just one more chance of that in a Test series they can only draw.
On match eve indications are that Strauss must gamble in team selection. "Drawing is no good to us. There is definitely more of a case for five bowlers here," he said after inspecting the wicket. "There should be a bit of help for all the bowlers. There is some grass and there are areas which might dust up. We want to cover all bases."
Five bowlers, two of them spinners, seemed the likeliest outcome. And if there is to be a Test debutant, it is more likely to be Amjad Khan than Adil Rashid. "Amjad was impressive in Barbados," said Strauss. "He has a deceptive action, he's hard to pick up. He reverse-swung the ball pretty well and bowled with good pace. He is inexperienced but I'm excited by him."
With Ryan Sidebottom laboring, it seems a straight choice between Amjad and Steve Harmison, an unlikely prospect when the tour party set off for the West Indies almost two months ago.
The new hierarchy has been prepared to drop players previously considered key planks in the team: Harmison, Ian Bell and Monty Panesar. "These guys were dropped because they weren't performing well," Strauss said. "It is important that anyone is droppable. I'm very hopeful that all three of them will come back stronger and produce better results. We are not dropping them to get rid of them."
We wait to see how the three dropped men respond. The England captain reported that Panesar was "training hard, generally reacting well and he has bowled an exceptional number of overs in the nets". Strauss had a frank exchange with Harmison in the nets on Wednesday but he said that this was nothing to do with the cricket or Harmison's omission. Of this trio Bell, in particular, can only contemplate ferrying drinks around the boundary of the Queen's Park Oval for five days.
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