It’s okay - it’s a good line. It’s the line you have to cross to get written about on King Cricket.

Tim Bresnan has been having one of those quietly productive seasons in which our Ones To Watch seem to specialise. Despite having taken more wickets than anyone else in division one so far this season - 29 at an average of 23.34 - his 5-94 against Durham yesterday was remarkably his first five-wicket haul.

Complementing his quietly productive bowling has been some quietly productive batting: 295 runs at an average of 49.16 with two fifties and no hundreds.

Liam Plunkett is making his first County Championship appearance of the season in the same match after playing a few Twenty20 games over the last few weeks. Plunkett is having a Bresnanian match himself. He took 3-70 and hit 68 not out, batting at nine.

Tags: Liam Plunkett, Tim Bresnan, county cricket, ones to watch by King Cricket
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We saw Tim Bresnan looking out of his depth for England at Old Trafford for one of his four one-day international matches. The crowd didn’t think much of him. He took 0-58 off eight overs. Fortunately for him, Kabir Ali went for 77 off ten, so he didn’t stand out.

It was in the field that he looked worst though. He seemed insanely serious, which isn’t the worst crime, but he clearly wasn’t at all releaxed. To us, he looked like a man who was decidedly rattled by the large crowd and the occasion. Bresnan was only 21 and he hadn’t played a huge amount of cricket. He wasn’t ready.

Some people thrive on being in the spotlight from the word go. Some people need time to acclimatise. We think Bresnan’s got a lot of talent and doesn’t deserved to be judged on some stage-fright cricket during a wholly torrid one-day tournament for England.

Last year Tim Bresnan took 34 wickets at a respectable but not jaw-dropping 32.05. He also hit two hundreds and averaged 39.50. He’s 23. That’s encouraging.

County players to watch in 2008.

Tags: Tim Bresnan, county cricket, ones to watch by King Cricket
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