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Cricket Thread
- Thread starter Gabriel
- Start date
johnny crossan
Well-Known Member
the Ongar loam is doing its stuffProper test match cricket
MillionMilesAway
Well-Known Member
Seems pretty obvious that Crawley has serious dirt on some of the bigwigs at the ECB. There's no other explanation to, er, explain his continued presence in the team. He's averaging 31 in tests, which is low for an opener.
Of England cricketers making a debut from 2010-2019 {edit], Crawly has the 8th highest average. 4 of those above him are in the team.
the others are Ballance, Bairstow and Tom Curran (2 matches)
from wikipedia.
MillionMilesAway
Well-Known Member
Of those with debut from 2020, 5 have better averages than Crawley. 2 are in the team, and the others have played 1, 2 and 3 matches (J Overton, S Mahmood, Bethell).
M18CTID
Well-Known Member
Not watching but is there a reason for the very un-Bazball like run rate? Is it the pitch or are India bowling so well that we're not able to get many attacking shots off?
jimharri
Well-Known Member
Okay. Fair enough. Explain to me, then, why I get the feeling that he regularly disappoints in the test arena.Of England cricketers making a debut from 2010-2019 {edit], Crawly has the 8th highest average. 4 of those above him are in the team.
the others are Ballance, Bairstow and Tom Curran (2 matches)
from wikipedia.
MillionMilesAway
Well-Known Member
Okay. Fair enough. Explain to me, then, why I get the feeling that he regularly disappoints in the test arena.
I was surprised!
I think it's because he occasionally gets big scores which distort the overall average. 5 hundreds and 17 50s in 56 matches is a 50+ every 5 innings.
He's played 56 matches and about 1/12 of his runs came in his first hundred.
MillionMilesAway
Well-Known Member
Oh, and Crawley's mentor earlier in his career was Rob Key.
M18CTID
Well-Known Member
The way I see it is if an opener averages 40 or more in test cricket then they're doing a decent job. Duckett averages over 42 which is fine by me but he still has many detractors. Exceptions can be made for batsmen who average less than 40 - Mike Atherton, for example, averaged less than 38 (although I think was figure was skewed by some low scores towards the end of his career) but the vast majority of us would've had him in the England team in the 1990s. Crawley, on the other hand, is averaging less than 32 and that's over a sizeable sample of matches. It's certainly baffling how he keeps getting picked with an average as low as that.Okay. Fair enough. Explain to me, then, why I get the feeling that he regularly disappoints in the test arena.
MillionMilesAway
Well-Known Member
Crawley's runs total and average are almost exactly that of Graeme Hick, and he was generally perceived as an underachiever too!
Harlaching Sky Blue
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- 8 Jul 2009
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Absolutely...And Hick was facing the West Indies Bowlers (Ambrose, Walsh), some fairly decent Aussie ones (Warne) and some bloody incredible Pakistani ones (Wasim, Waqar and Mushtaq Ahmed).Crawley's runs total and average are almost exactly that of Graeme Hick, and he was generally perceived as an underachiever too!
Batsmen today play against Zimbabwe and Ireland, and the quality of bowling in general is not what it was. Decent batters have no excuse for averaging under 50 these days, todays average of 30 is around 20 in eighties money.
EastMidlandsBlue
Well-Known Member
How many times are these twats going to ask for the ball to get changed
What you want from an opener is a good opening partnership and one them to contribute to a massive score every 4/5 test matches! But an opener partnership of 75+ is decent if it’s around 25 overs before a wicket!The way I see it is if an opener averages 40 or more in test cricket then they're doing a decent job. Duckett averages over 42 which is fine by me but he still has many detractors. Exceptions can be made for batsmen who average less than 40 - Mike Atherton, for example, averaged less than 38 (although I think was figure was skewed by some low scores towards the end of his career) but the vast majority of us would've had him in the England team in the 1990s. Crawley, on the other hand, is averaging less than 32 and that's over a sizeable sample of matches. It's certainly baffling how he keeps getting picked with an average as low as that.
Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley, England's current Test opening pair, do not appear in the top 20 list of all-time opening batting averages in Test cricket because the list focuses on individual career averages as openers, not partnership averages. However, since you’ve referenced their opening stand average, which I previously noted as around 48, I’ll address their individual averages and their partnership in the context of the top 20 and provide clarity on their standing.
### Individual Opening Batting Averages
- **Ben Duckett**:
- **Test Career (as of July 2025)**: 35 matches, 61 innings, 2,646 runs, average of **43.38**.
How many times are these twats going to ask for the ball to get changed
Funny how they can get it misshaped on cue
EastMidlandsBlue
Well-Known Member
Umpire was having none of it, so Gill gives it 3 balls before asking again at which point the umpires calls for a ball change!Funny how they can get it misshaped on cue
No wonder their over rate is shocking
When it’s soft the bowlers must keep squeezing it as they run up because don’t think England could get the ball changed!Umpire was having none of it, so Gill gives it 3 balls before asking again at which point the umpires calls for a ball change!
No wonder their over rate is shocking
supercity88
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- Joined
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- Messages
- 17,000
Let’s see how Bashir bowls on a fourth or fifth day!
I’d keep him in the side I can see his improvements, isn’t he 21/22? Newzealand do this remember Daniel Vettori debut at 18 ended up playing 113 test matches in 9 years! He was like Bashir raw and ended up getting 362 wickets 4.500 runs! Yeah Bashir be lucky to get 1500 runs in that time! My point being stick with the kid he will get better spin bowlers always get better with experience learning there trade! I love his attitude to a very confident lad and gives some back at the batters..
A fair bit of spin there from the Indian's so we might get to see how he does in this test.