The Problem with Prior

Like many, I was surprised by the inclusion of Matt Prior into England's final 15 for the World Cup in the sub-continent next month. Coupled with the belief that England were happy with Steve Davies' work at the top of the order and tidy keeping behind the wicket. Again, this smacks of England becoming a cliq of a group again; mates one and all who watch out for each other, and once you get into the group you really have to do something bad to get dropped. Injury would be the best solution for everyone a la Flintoff, or 'retiring' before you get pushed as Harmison, Collingwood and Sidebottom have done in recent years.  For Colly, it was the ultimate end of the road, unable to accumulate enough runs to muster any consistency; for Sidebottom it was time to move aside, even though his variation of left-arm attack remains a rarity now and Harmison had too many 'injuries' in body and mind to attend to.

The Prior inclusion, was a little bit out of the blue, but really we should have seen it coming. After the 3rd test, he signed a contract with Victoria for the Big Bash T20 competition taking place during the seven match series, was that a collusion between the England management and Prior saying, 'Stick around in case Davies fluffs his lines'.

Unfortunately, on the basis of two ODI innings amounting to six balls and no runs, it is Prior who is fluffing his lines.  However, I do not feel this is all his fault. I feel it is a problem of the team line up and selection of sorts. But it is everyone following the Gilchrist position. Few players have altered the game much like Adam Gilchrist did with his brazen batting and high scoring rate, much like Sanath Jayasuriya, he could take a game away from you before you have even batted, putting 100 on the board in 10-15 overs, scoreboard pressure as Andy Flower described during the Ashes series.  Now every international side, feels they have to follow suit and have a wicketkeeper/batsmen at the top of the order who can score quickly and take the game away from the opposition. New Zealand have Brendon McCullum. Pakistan have Kamran Akmal. England have anyone who can wear a pair of gloves.  They have toyed with the identity of this individual; Mustard, Davies, Kieswetter and Prior. Prior has tried twice before (and failed), yet I feel should England fail to make at least the semi finals of this World Cup; and if past form should count for anything, the 50 over format does not suit us, I feel England have a scapegoat in place ready for their collective failure.

The reason I call it it a line up issue is that the line up is disrupted by Prior's presence at the top.  Strauss and Prior open, followed by (on a perfect day) Trott, Pietersen, Bell, Collingwood, Morgan (at 7). Followed by Bresnan, Swann, Broad and Anderson. Not a bad line up but I feel if that team bats like it has in the past week, problems will arise from scoreboard pressure. The team are immediately on the back foot, and play falsely to what they would normally do.

England need to bat like they do in a Test match, bat solidly, do not lose wickets making sure you have them in reserve for the last 10 overs and you have big hitters down the order.  Trott and Bell are not big hitters but accumulaters. I would like to see Trott open with Strauss, and give the captain the free rein to attack the bowling much like he did last summer when he scored a lot of runs against Bangladesh and Australia.  That means Trott can play his own game, go at his pace whilst others around him supply runs aplenty.  And if Trott in unison with Bell or Pietersen have scored 220 by 35 overs, that allows Morgan and Prior coming in at 7 alternatively to attack the weary fielders and bowlers especially in the utilised powerplay of 45-50 overs.

When Prior was last dropped from the England set-up, following the World T20 victory, there was initial interest in Prior's reaction when playing for Sussex in the national competition. He responded by being his side's best performer scoring at better than a run a ball, and scoring his first century in the format. And his usual position for his county side - 6 or 7.  If Sussex know what is best for Matt Prior, maybe someone should get a long distance line set up between Hobart and Hove asap.