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Liam Plunkett has been a key figure in England’s one-day resurgence. At first his job was bowling quickly at the batsmen’s armpits, then it was bowling quickly at the batsmen’s armpits with a few slower balls thrown in for mishit-inducing variety.
At present, there’s a faint suspicion that the slower balls don’t contrast with the quicker ones quite so markedly as they once did. If that’s the case, bowling at batsmen’s armpits might not longer be a legitimate tactic.
He does look like a Game of Thrones extra who’s just had a haircut though. That might be distracting enough that no-one notices any loss of pace until after the World Cup’s finished.
Here’s a bit more about Liam Plunkett and here’s a photo of him wrestling with his conscience.
Let us tell you about the other members of England’s World Cup squad
Cricketers as Game of Thrones extras? That has some mileage in it.
Rob Key languishing naked in Little Finger’s brothel.
Jimmy Anderson as one of the Sparrow’s religious fanatics.
Mike Atherton as a Dothraki marauder.
You just know that the fanatics would be the Aussies, upholding the sanctity of The Line. They even have a Reverend who wargs into a Bull when needed.
Did Wood just get crocked?! I have been concentrating on the Som-Hants OD final
The answer, at this point, is ‘maybe’.
The “i” key on my laptop seems to be playing up. I did not mean to imply above that Somerset and Hampshire were indulging in some sort of “overdose contest”
Er, but getting back to the England World Cup squad… I was keeping half an eye on the score against Australia, but no more than that – so I missed these injuries until they did a quick highlights/recap during the innings break. Wood, then Dawson? WTF??
… and Archer, say whaaaaaat..? I missed that entirely. (I had actually just looked at the bowling figures and concluded that Archer wasn’t even playing – that they were keeping him back so as not to let the Aussies get too close a look at him. But that doesn’t really add up, given that they will all have seen him in the IPL)
What’s the record for most bowlers injured in a ODI? Zaltzman..?
After calmly dawdling around at the top of the alphabet we’ve snapped straight from D to P?
This is a bit jarring for me. Bring back Hales and make someone other than Morgan captain. Then we can have a nice steady run through.