Jrod: Get real KP
August 15th, 2008 by JRod in England, South Africa in England, Test cricket, The Ashes and tagged ashes, England, Jrod, kevin pietersen, South Africa, the wisden cricketer
“If we play like we played this week, we’ll beat Australia” - Kevin Pietersen
I was there KP, I saw it with my own two eyes, when I wasn’t dozing off, it wasn’t special.
It was a dead rubber test, against a team already in holiday mode.
And it wasn’t a drubbing.
Get off the Angel dust son, if you play like you did this week against an Australian side, especially one that is clawing onto their No.1 mantle, you are going to get D Feated.
Hard.
There was nothing in this performance that said to me, England are going to win the Ashes.
And I don’t think Sri Lanka will be overly worried either.
Let’s look at the current English side.
Cook: Still could be a 10-year player, but can’t make big scores, has a pretty ordinary average in current terms, and averaged 27 against Australia last time.
Strauss: Will not be playing next Ashes.
Bell: Has the tools to be a Test-match No.3 but nothing else. If he bats three, Australia will jump for joy. In 13 Tests he has never made a hundred at three.
KP: Can seriously play. But yet to show he can seriously captain. Being positive is a great start, but if positive reinforcement worked on its own, every second kid would become successful.
Collingwood: Will not be playing next Ashes.
Flintoff: Still doesn’t take enough wickets, still doesn’t make enough runs, but he only needs one or two big wickets to fire up the whole team in an Ashes. Will his body hold up for a whole year to get there?
Ambrose: Will not be playing next Ashes.
Broad: I think Australia would be reasonably confident playing against Broad, he still averages over 40 with the ball. And I think any Test side would prefer to face him than Simon Jones. I doubt he will be there.
Harmison: A week is a long time in Harmy-land. A year is a freakin eternity. Maybe this is the third coming, maybe this isn’t. In his current form, Australia wouldn’t mind facing him, because he still isn’t 2005 Harmy, yet.
Anderson: Improving all the time, and Australia don’t do swing. But with all the ups and downs of his career so far, will he still be in this form next summer?
Monty: Australia will have faced Harbhajan and Kumble in India by the time they get to England, Monty won’t give many nightmares, and who is to say that England won’t find a snappy new spinner by then. OK, that won’t happen.
So, to recap, there are four or five players who probably won’t be in the side next summer, playing a dead rubber test against a side that hasn’t beaten Australia since who can remember when.
South Africa has yet to play this new Australian side. India, Sri Lanka and the West Indies have already tried and failed.
The one thing that I thought KP would bring to this side would be less Ashes related nonsense.
England were going on about the Ashes while they were struggling against New Zealand and while South Africa de-trousered them.
No Test should be less important that the Ashes. And I would have thought a South African would know that. India are hard to beat at home at any time. West Indies are getting better every series. And Sri Lanka are the team of the moment.
Beat all three and I’ll start saying you can win the Ashes as well.
Posted in England, South Africa in England, Test cricket, The Ashes |
August 15th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
KP is asked about The Ashes all the time. What’s he supposed to say? We won’t win?
When Glenn McGrath used to forecast 5-0 every series, that was okay otherwise he’d have been asked which Test he expected to lose / draw.
No Punter for Bangladesh, possibly no Hayden, no spinner worthy of the name. The Aussies are likely to name their weakest Ashes squad for a generation - England are second favourites, but they’ve a good cahnce and KP should keep saying so.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Whilst I admire KP’s confidence and really, really hope that he’s right, there’s a lot of cricket between now and the Ashes and England have just lost a Test series. Saying that we can beat Australia doesn’t seem to be a very meaningful statement in those circumstances, and flatters the Aussies by suggesting that they’re all England can think about. I’m worried that he’s just building up pressure and we know that not every member of this England team turns into a diamond under pressure. Also, there’s a fine line between psyching out your opposition with well-chosen words, and saying something that’s going to come back and bite you.
No-one likes to hear the tight-lipped party line, and I like that he expresses how he feels, but it wouldn’t have been a bad thing if he’d decided not to be the guy that rises to the bait every time.
August 15th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Whilst I admire KP’s confidence, and really really hope that he’s right, there is a lot of cricket to be played between now and the Ashes and England have just lost a Test series. In those circumstances, his comment doesn’t appear meaningful, and flatters the Aussies into thinking that they’re all England can think about. Also, I worry that he’s creating pressure, and the England team has individuals that don’t exactly turn into diamonds under extreme pressure.
I’m all for psyching out the opposition with well-chosen words, but there’s a difference between that and saying something that might come back and bite you (and Glenn McGrath was reminded many times of his 5-0 prediction in 2005. Although he would say that it wasn’t the prediction that was wrong, it was the timing of it).
Nobody likes to hear the tight-lipped party line, but I’d like it if he decided not to be the guy that rises to the Ashes bait.
August 16th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Whilst I admire KP’s confidence, and really really hope that he’s right, there is a lot of cricket to be played between now and the Ashes and England have just lost a Test series. In those circumstances, his comment doesn’t appear meaningful, and flatters the Aussies into thinking that they’re all England can think about. I’m all for psyching out the opposition with well-chosen words, but there’s a difference between that and saying something that might come back and bite you (and Glenn McGrath was reminded many times of his 5-0 prediction in 2005. Although he would say that it wasn’t the prediction that was wrong, it was the timing of it).
Nobody wants to hear the tight-lipped party line, and I like that he is open and expressive, but I’d like it if he decided not to be the guy that rises to the Ashes bait.
August 16th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Miriam - The Ashes is bigger than just cricket. KP will be asked about it wherever he goes, as 2005 was as big an event as sport gets in this country. For us, we know that there’s plenty more cricket to play, but for the “man on the Clapham omnibus” the Ashes is next cab of the rank. Rightly of wrongly, people will see KP as being appointed to win the Ashes.
As you say, batting it back is boring and will attract, “KP runs scared of Ashes talk”, so he’s on a hiding to nothing.
If I were KP or advising him, I’d say answer every question on its merits. “Can you win the Ashes?” “Yes”. That’s okay I think.
August 18th, 2008 at 9:23 am
England v Australia
At present England has five bowlers in the Test top 20 according to the ICC rankings, but Australia only two.
Australia has five batsmen in the top 20, but England only two.
Long way to go, of course, but it looks like an interesting contest in prospect. Can England score enough runs? Can Aus take enough wickets…?
August 20th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Gary, he could say alot of things, but none of them should be comparing beating Australia based on the form of one dead rubber.
Paddy, good point, although i would mention that in the top 5’s in the rankings Australia have 2 bowlers and 2 batsmen, and England has none in neither.
But it is still a long way away.
August 20th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
But he’s not comparing the win over SA to a win over Aus. He said, “If we play like we played this week, we’ll beat Australia”.
So, how did they play?
Five bowlers chipped in to bowl a decent side out for under 200; a ton from the skipper then secured a lead of over 100; the five bowlers then stayed disciplined to all chip in again to set the batsmen a target of just under 200 that was knocked off with the minimum of fuss.
You can only beat the eleven blokes in front of you and they did that. They also played well as a team. KP’s comment is typically bullish, but, yes, if a team plays like that it will beat most opponents. Can they when it matters is a different question.
Fair call KP.
August 20th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Gary, I was there, if they played like the played at the Oval, they wont win an Ashes test.
August 20th, 2008 at 9:51 pm
Jrod - That’s your opinion and you’re entitled to it. Your piece says nothing about the performance (which is the subject of KP’s quote) other than to assert that it wasn’t good enough. I wasn’t there, so can’t say.
What I can do is look at the card, reflect on listening to most of the Test on TMS and think about how England teams have historically won Test matches. My post above does that.
It backs up the point KP makes. Had KP asserted that he now has a team to take The Ashes, I wouldn’t be backing him up - fortunately, he didn’t say that.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
And I have an opinion on KP’s opinion, and you have an opinion on my opinion on KP’s opinion.
It’s all so lovely.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
It’s what blogs are for.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:07 pm
It’s a decent start.