Ones to watch
Adil Rashid, Yorkshire: first-class bowler to watch in 2010
The general feeling about Adil Rashid is that maybe everyone should just let him play a bit of cricket.
England helped his development no end last season by keeping him out of the majority of Yorkshire’s matches so that he could not play for them instead. Occasionally they let him bowl a single over before the captain, in keeping with English attitudes to leg-spinners, took him off and brought on someone to bowl flat, non-spinning finger-spin instead. Once in a while, he bowled well, at which point they dropped him.
Adil Rashid hit 387 runs at 77.40 last season, you know. Let him bat more. Let him bowl more.
3 AppealsMark Davies, Durham: first-class bowler to watch in 2010
Mark Davies’ 19 wickets at 29.57 last year was a woeful return by his standards, but an overall first-class record that reads 251 wickets at 21.68 is as good as it gets.
Mark’s 30 this year, so this will be his fourth and final appearance in our Ones To Watch. He’s as close to the England side as he’s ever been, so maybe this plot-free tale of one man repeatedly having his name published on an obscure cricket website during the month of April will have a happy ending for the protagonist.
1 AppealLiam Plunkett, Durham: a first-class bowler for 2010
Liam Plunkett’s a bit of a batsman as well, but his bowling is what matters.
Of Durham’s many fine bowlers, Onions, Harmison and Blackwell all averaged less than Plunkett last season, but only Harmison took more wickets. Plunkett’s average of 24.83 was hardly shameful either.
Although Plunkett’s age seems to increase by the year, he’s still only 25. He’s probably getting to the point where experience and youth are sitting hand-in-hand, perhaps watching an Adam Sandler film and wondering whether it’ll seem funnier if they drink more wine. Next season experience will have a lot more to do but youth won’t really feel like helping any more.
Liam Plunkett will probably be quite happy to spend less time watching England play while wearing the High-Visibility Tabard of Squad Membership that the national side uses to help onlookers identify who’s not been picked for this particular one-day international.
1 AppealEngland players to watch
Even beyond our own knee-high standards, our 2009 county cricketers to watch have come good.
Liam Plunkett is in England’s winter Test squad and has therefore proven himself an obdurate and pleasing stain on the second-favourite T-shirt that is England cricket – possibly a turmeric-based stain that could be around for some time. That may sound disparaging unless you read the article linked to from his name. Plunkett was also representing Sajid Mahmood to a degree and Saj is in the one-day squad.
Steven Davies is in England’s Test squad and might one day get a post where we don’t liken him to a spreadsheet.
Things other than spectral badger visitation have happened to Adil Rashid already this year and he’s also in both England squads.
Tim Bresnan is taking tiny steps towards making his surname convey all sorts of emotions when used in isolation after getting selected in England’s one-day side.
If you’re starting to think that we know what we’re talking about, you can get that idea out of your head right now. Knowing what you’re on about is resolutely NOT what this site is about. This site is actually about repeatedly picking Will Jefferson as a player to watch almost solely because he’s very tall.
6 AppealsAdil Rashid makes a case to be England’s new number seven
A week or so ago, Adil Rashid hit two hundreds in successive innings. In Yorkshire’s two innings in the field adjacent to those hundreds, Rashid took five wickets in each of them.
England will naturally be looking for a seam bowling all-rounder to replace Andrew Flintoff – perhaps Rashid’s team mate, Tim Bresnan – but is that the best ploy?
With Stuart Broad offering fast-medium seam and James Anderson offering fast-medium swing, England really need a vicious fast bowler to take wickets on the world’s flat Test pitches. Is there one?
Not really and even if there were, he wouldn’t be able to bat. So why not pick a leg-spinner? If Broad, Anderson and Graham Onions can’t get wickets on a given day, a fourth bowler of similar ilk isn’t going to help one bit.
Leg-spinners can get wickets on flat pitches. Adil Rashid is a leg-spinner. And he can bat.
10 AppealsPaul Horton masters one-day cricket
In his first 23 one-day innings, Paul Horton passed 50 once. Now he’s got the format cracked. Take that The Friends Provident Trophy! Consider yourself and any other 50-over competitions CRACKED.
It seems like only last week we were writing about Paul Horton’s first one-day hundred and now here we are writing about his second.
Successive one-day hundreds. Will we cover this second one more comprehensively in honour of the achievement?
Will we balls.
Paul Horton hit another one-day hundred.
That’s all you’re getting.
5 AppealsTim Bresnan being in the England squad
Rumours that we kidnapped Geoff Miller’s family and told him we were going to force them to watch Eastenders constantly until he picked Tim Bresnan for England are well wide of the mark. Clearly we told him to pick Rob Key and clearly he ignored us.
We released the Miller family after ice cream and a couple of games of Frustration, because we’re not really evil.
Tim Bresnan might have been picked for England on the basis that he was the only up and coming bowler who was more familiar with a cricket bat than a pipistrelle, but still it’s a good indication that he’s there or thereabouts.
Tim Bresnan has justified being one to watch.
5 AppealsPaul Horton’s first one-day hundred
Pakistan v Australia? The England Test squad? The IPL?
No, we’re going to cover an early season one-day match between Lancashire and Northamptonshire that happened at the weekend and we’re going to cover it by saying ‘Paul Horton hit a hundred’ and nothing more.
Paul Horton hit a hundred.
Join us tomorrow to hear how Mike Gatting hit 15 not out in a second eleven game back in 1984 when he was coming back from injury.
3 AppealsCounty cricketers to watch in 2009
What county cricketers are worth watching in 2009?
These ones:
You can watch other cricketers bat and bowl if you want, but you’d be far better off watching Mark Davies do his rehab or Paul Horton have a swift pint with one of his mates.
Latest on the 2009 ones to watch
5 AppealsSteve Davies goes one better
Nottinghamshire v Worcestershire. It’s Chris Read v Steve Davies in a battle for third or fourth place in the England wicketkeeping hierarchy. Game on!
Steve Davies clearly said to himself: ‘Whatever Chris Read can do, I can go one better.’
Fortunately for Steve Davies, Chris Read hit 125, so ‘one better’ was quite impressive. If Read had missed a straight one first-up, all Davies would have had to do was edge a single down to third man.
Instead he had to edge a single down to third man 126 times. At least we assume that’s what happened and we’re not going to let ‘facts’ or ‘the truth’ dissuade us from thinking that.
16 Appeals
