Englands Number 6.

After the the recent failures in the Middle East, I believe it is time that we look at the number 6 position in the England batting line up, one weak link in a batting line up upsets the whole balance of the side and as we've seen if a few batsmen fail the pressure grows further on that weak link. Some will say that I am jumping the gun and that calling for Eoin Morgan to be dropped is the wrong thing to do. However I have never been comfortable with him in the England test squad, his technique is poor, and although he gets away with having a poor technique in the shorter forms of the game he doesn't and hasn't in the test arena. In 15 test matches he has averaged 31.38, there have been players dropped from the England team who have averaged higher in their first 15 matches. Morgan is considered a spin expert, and in his test career he has only played sub-continent teams, and has never hit the type of form that see's him consistently score 50 plus. He has also only scored three 50s in the last twelve months. This is not good enough, and there are players on the county circuit who are very deserving of a call up, so I thought I'd give you a list of players, who in my opinion, deserve their shot.

Alex Hales, Nottinghamshire
The 23 year old from Nottinghamshire has had a great start to his professional career, scoring 2259 runs at an average for 40. Although usually an opening batsmen I have no doubts he could do a job in the middle order for England. The array of shots he has learnt through T20 has made him one of the hottest players on the county scene. In 2008 he was picked for the England under 18s against New Zealand for a test and ODI series, he averaged 50 in the test matches and 30 in the ODIs. He made his debut for England in the T20s against India and scored a two ball duck, however kept his place for the following games against the West Indies and scored an unbeaten 62 as England won by 10 wickets.

Varun Chopra, Warwickshire
Another talented young batsmen of the production line at Essex, and a previous captain of the England under 19s who whitewashed Sri Lanka in 2005, he had found considerable form in that test series himself averaging 48. Unfortunately things got tougher for him from there, with his side taking being demolished 11-0 against Bangladesh in the winter. Although his county cricket has been a slow burner, only averaging 29, last season saw his form really pick. He scored 1178 runs at an average of 46 and a top score of 228.

Jonny Bairstow, Yorkshire
Broke in to the Yorkshire side in 2009, and scored 28 and 82 in his first two innings. By 2010 he was a regular scoring 918 runs at an average of over 40, and even though he was unable to convert one of his eight 50s into hundreds he was still selected for the England Performance Programme for the tour to Australia. He continued his good form in 2011 scoring 1015 runs at an average of 46.

Nick Compton, Somerset
The South African born batsmen has enjoyed a good career so far averaging 37. He was selected for an England A tour of Bangladesh 2006-2007, his highest score against Bangladesh was 92, although he did score 152 not out in a minor game. Last season he scored 1010 runs at an average of 56, and a high score of 254 not out.

James Taylor, Nottinghamshire
The 22 year old has had a superb career so far, having scored 4534 at an average of 49. He is the one of many players that are being touted to be a star of the future. Due to England Lions commitments he was sometimes unable to play for Leicestershire, although he did play in their first county game of the season; scoring 45 and 14 against Glamorgan. His next game was against Loughborough University, scoring 237 his highest first class score.

These players are who I want to see the England selectors look at. They are all young and exciting players who can potentially end the troubles that England have at number 6.

Anyone?

Sorry hampo not got any length of spare time at the moment, I'll try and have a look tonight if I can.

No worries mate, I'm happy with the content as it's my opinion, just need someone to give it the once over and it's good to go.

Just had a brief skim - initial thoughts are that you need to position the article - ie say why you are writing it.

for example - after the last test, it has become apparent that we need to really think about the No6 shirt...blah blah blah...

Remember to capitalise the T in Test cricket as well, mate.

Adam D wrote:Just had a brief skim - initial thoughts are that you need to position the article - ie say why you are writing it.

for example - after Lancasters team announcement, it has become apparent that we need to really think about the No6 shirt...blah blah blah...

This is for cricket not rugby Adam , so rather than Lancaster, something like "after the batting failures in the middle east"

I've done a very quick once over and fixed a handful of typos (Norttingham etc), I'll hopefully have time to read more in-depth later this evening (Auditors, mutter mutter mutter).

Kiwireddevil wrote:

Adam D wrote:Just had a brief skim - initial thoughts are that you need to position the article - ie say why you are writing it.

for example - after Lancasters team announcement, it has become apparent that we need to really think about the No6 shirt...blah blah blah...

This is for cricket not rugby Adam , so rather than Lancaster, something like "after the batting failures in the middle east"

I've done a very quick once over and fixed a handful of typos (Norttingham etc), I'll hopefully have time to read more in-depth later this evening (Auditors, mutter mutter mutter).

I had already changed by the time you posted!

Adam D wrote:

Kiwireddevil wrote:

Adam D wrote:Just had a brief skim - initial thoughts are that you need to position the article - ie say why you are writing it.

for example - after Lancasters team announcement, it has become apparent that we need to really think about the No6 shirt...blah blah blah...

This is for cricket not rugby Adam , so rather than Lancaster, something like "after the batting failures in the middle east"

I've done a very quick once over and fixed a handful of typos (Norttingham etc), I'll hopefully have time to read more in-depth later this evening (Auditors, mutter mutter mutter).

I had already changed by the time you posted!

Almost a very good catch there then Adam