Comments on: England’s four weirdest Test picks of the last 20 years

By: Lawrence Richards

Lawrence Richards — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 13:17:29 +0000

I agree, there have been some very random picks by England over the years, not least Darren Pattinson where other tried and tested options were available at the time such as Matthew Hoggard and Simon Jones (briefly back from injury).
I recently wrote an article which looked at middle order batsmen for England over the last 30 years and picked 15 players that were given a chance in the middle order but failed to capitalise whether through bad luck, selection failures or just not being good enough. The article is here for reference:-

cricketlife.co.uk/15-english-middle-order-batsmen-who-never-quite-made-it/

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 06:06:46 +0000

I know he wasn’t a Test cricketer, but I still find it utterly baffling that Vikram Solanki (international cricket’s first ever super-sub!) played for England 54 times.

By: Sam

Sam — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 21:38:51 +0000

In reply to Mike. That really made me laugh. Sagnew!

By: Thesmudge

Thesmudge — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 14:38:09 +0000

Outside of your time period- Monty Lynch
Outside of your specified nation- Steve Smith

By: Bert

Bert — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 13:50:22 +0000

In reply to sam. There is no real life, Sam. Are we here, or in the pub? It all seems the same to me. I’ll have a pint of IPA please.

By: Edwardian

Edwardian — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 13:33:20 +0000

In reply to sam. His grandfather was Doctor Who. We're returning to the topic of time travel here. .

By: sam

sam — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 11:23:52 +0000

In reply to Ged Ladd. You could go down a much deeper wormhole with weird ODI picks. The crown calls Jim Troughton.

By: sam

sam — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 11:22:13 +0000

In reply to Bert. You have 'cricket friends'? Like, in real life?

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 09:44:09 +0000

Martin Saggers, anyone?

If for no other reason than his Wikipedia page is currently experiencing some rather juvenile vandalism. Made his debut aged 31 – quite senior for a pace bowler.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Saggers

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 09:39:12 +0000

In reply to Micko. He also had a brief stint in the Somerset First XI as a medium-fast trundler batting at nine, I think after that loss-of-form-related layoff. No-one else seems to remember this.