Michael Lumb - Future Star?

Another England player stars in the IPL today in the form of Michael Lumb. He’s been in really solid form so far for the Rajasthan Royals, but today he finally got himself past the fifty mark for the first time. Lumb smashed 83 off of 43 balls, which included 16 fours and 2 sixes, helping to set up a very straightforward 9 wicket win over the Kings XI Punjab.

He is one of only 8 English players to be in the IPL this year (Kevin Pieterson, Andrew Flintoff, Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood, Ravi Bopara, Eion Morgan and Graeme Napier). When you bear in mind that Lumb has only just been selected for England for the first time, he is doing remarkably well and repaying the selectors faith.

A lot of former professionals believe that the IPL is a poor way upon which to establish the quality of a player and their suitability for international cricket. How can they possible say this say this? It may not be suitable to pick potential future Test Cricket stars, sure. But bear in mind, every one of the ten IPL teams can play 4 of their overseas star players out of about 7 or 8 altogether in their squad. The any new or future International Cricket stars would get to ply their trade against the likes of Brett Lee and Matthew Hayden for example.

In county cricket, both four day and 40/50 over, the English players only get to face one class overseas player per game. The IPL has allowed them to play four times as many, and therefore (I think) gain valuable experience.

Michael Lumb has been able to not only get paid a decent amount of money for doing what he loves, thanks to the massive television coverage he has pushed himself to the forefront of the selectors minds.

Good luck to the lad!

Paul

T20 Squad Time!

So the past few days have been a story of ups and downs for English cricket players. Ravi Bopara was handed the news that he will be going to the World T20 at the end of April (don’t quote me on the exact date), but at the same time he managed to field appallingly in his last outing in the IPL. It’s also worth noting that his form has slumped rather significantly as of late after making back to back fifties in his first two appearances for the Kings Punjab XI this year.

This is classic England selection policy:

Step 1 - Wait till a player gets into good/great/amazing form.
Step 2 – Wait a tad more.
Step 3 – Form going slightly pear shaped/confidence waning.
Step 4 – Really out of form = selection made!

On a similar note, Craig Kieswetter has been chosen as the sole Keeper in the T20 part, which gives him a chance to flaunt his entire game to the selectors, and start banging on Matt Priors test and One day door’s. This is a brave move on the selectors part, bearing in mind that his international experience consists of a few appearances against Bangladesh, the worst team in the top flight of the game in all formats. On a downer, one of England’s best players as of late, and ranked 3rd best bowler in the world, Graeme Swann, has been arrested on suspicion of drunk driving after his 31st birthday.........MUPPET!

Michael’s Yardy and Lumb have been recalled/selected for the T20 too on the back of solid form which is great news as I have always been a fan of the south coast duo, and I fully expect them both to shine! All in all an interesting squad and one that could make any diehard test cricket purist slightly interested.

Paul

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For more information please go to:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/8595614.stm