England: Fitness crucial as selectors weigh attacking options (5 November 1998)

5 November 1998

England: Fitness crucial as selectors weigh attacking options

By Christopher Martin-Jenkins

AFTER a flight south-east across Australia to Adelaide, which occupied the traditional daylight working hours from nine to five yesterday, England's cricketers have two full days to prepare for their second first-class match, against South Australia at the Adelaide Oval. Only Ben Hollioake is likely to be unfit for selection, but he is recovering more quickly than expected from a pulled muscle in the groin so all options may yet be open.

England need to be able to choose from everyone as often as possible in the weeks ahead because when it comes to strength in depth there is no comparison between themselves and Australia.

The Australian verdict on England's two games in Perth would be neatly encapsulated by one writer's summary: "We always knew they could bat. Pity they can't bowl."

With unusual reticence he avoided adding that on the evidence of the fielding performance at the WACA, they cannot catch the ball either, but this England side do in fact have a sufficient number of reliable slip catchers and that problem (unlike the relative slowness in the outfield of Robert Croft and Angus Fraser) should not be a long-term one.

It was always obvious that the trickiest problem for the England tour selectors - Alec Stewart, Nasser Hussain, David Lloyd and Graham Gooch - is going to be to choose the combination of bowlers which will have the best chance of bowling Australia out twice. They have to be flexible in their thinking because they are confronted by the most compressed Ashes series ever played. It begins two weeks tomorrow and will all be over seven weeks later. It is inconceivable that the same bowlers will play in all five games, especially given the different characteristics of each ground.

Angus Fraser is a case in point. He went straight into the nets after Western Australia's declaration on Monday, having failed to find either rhythm or length. It would be a hard decision to take, but if Alex Tudor makes a mark this weekend, Fraser should probably be rested for the second Test in Perth, even if he has done well in Brisbane. Four years ago, after a fine performance in Sydney and a good one in Adelaide, his match figures at the WACA were three for 158. It is not a course which suits this particular horse, fine stayer though he is.

The big fellow is keen to get things right here this weekend and he probably will. It is not irrelevant that his wonderful run of success for England this year - 51 wickets in two series against the West Indies and South Africa - was preceded by a bad start against Jamaica in Montego Bay.

I wrote before the first match that everything will have to go right for England if they are to win the Ashes, including players remaining fit and marginal catches being caught. With seven such opportunities spurned in Perth, Mark Butcher injured by his second ball of the tour (he had been out to his very first at Sabina Park earlier this year, so things are looking up) and the two senior batsmen unfit for an opening game in which they had both wanted to play, those caveats need to be stressed anew.

It is premature to write off England on the evidence of one bad day on Monday, characteristic though it may have been of recent England teams to spoil long periods of decent cricket with a short period of thoroughly incompetent play. All that can be said with complete conviction is that no county side will find a 24-year-old to take six wickets and a 26-year-old to make a century off 101 balls on the same afternoon against the next Australian touring side. Everyone in the England team was greatly impressed by Matthew Nicholson's performance of taking eight wickets in only his fourth first-class game and by Ryan Campbell's wonderfully confident innings of 146 off 147 balls.

As Lloyd pointed out, Campbell, who had played for the England coach's own home club of Accrington last season, was batting on a fast pitch which suited his back-foot game well, but he praised his quick eye, hands and feet and was no less generous in his appraisal of Nicholson. There is every chance that England will meet them again before Christmas, either in the one-day game at Canberra or the four-day match against an Australian XI at Hobart.

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)