All-round Success

Simply astonishing stuff. Truly one of the most remarkable games of cricket, with records falling, reputations being restored and stars being born. The match itself ebbed and flowed with England's initial collapse (30-4) sparking all the Pietersen chat before the ridiculously long batting line-up proving its value. New Zealand's batting display then demonstrated how blunt and one-dimensional our bowling attack was. Early wickets in our reply left the Kiwi victory simply a matter of time until Cook's infuriating stubbornness put itself to good use and Stokes batted like he'd got confused with the IPL final happening at the same time. The blunt bowling attack which we all know is so reliant on Anderson then came good, with wickets coming from all over the place. 

As outstanding and dramatic a game as it was, the end result unquestionably papers over a few cracks. With all of the attention on Stokes' remarkable performance, there remains a few questions over the opening partner for Cook, the feasibility of Moeen as a genuine spin-bowler and the genuine threat posed by the fast bowlers when the going gets tough. That being said, there are a lot of positive signs and just an outside glimmer of hope now that we might not get totally obliterated in the Ashes. 

To the matter at hand; the Ben Stokes bandwagon. A brilliant performance from an exciting prospect with undoubted potential but a long way to go before being a top quality performer. He has talent, desire and a fiercely competitive spirit but what he'll need to learn from players like Cook is application. Two outstanding and destructive innings could each have been big hundreds. Am I being too harsh or is it good to expect big things? Certainly if Stokes is hoping to be the next big thing, he has a whole host of a way to go. 

Widely accepted as the greatest all-rounder in history is Gary Sobers, with the likes of Jacques Kallis, Ian Botham, Kapil Dev and Imran Khan knocking on the door. The great measure of an all-rounder is of the differential between their batting and bowling averages. The below table shows test all-rounders with at least 100 wickets at less than 40 AND 3000 test runs at greater than 30

Player	Mat	Runs	Bat Av	Wkts	Bowl Av	Ave Diff
GS Sobers (WI)	93	8032	57.78	235	34.03	23.74
JH Kallis (ICC/SA)	166	13289	55.37	292	32.65	22.71
Imran Khan (Pak)	88	3807	37.69	362	22.81	14.88
KR Miller (Aus)	55	2958	36.97	170	22.97	13.99
SM Pollock (SA)	108	3781	32.31	421	23.11	9.19
TL Goddard (SA)	41	2516	34.46	123	26.22	8.23
AW Greig (Eng)	58	3599	40.43	141	32.20	8.23
Shakib Al Hasan (Ban)	39	2732	40.17	142	33.29	6.88
IT Botham (Eng)	102	5200	33.54	383	28.40	5.14
CL Cairns (NZ)	62	3320	33.53	218	29.40	4.13
W Rhodes (Eng)	58	2325	30.19	127	26.96	3.22
N Kapil Dev (India)	131	5248	31.05	434	29.64	1.40
MH Mankad (India)	44	2109	31.47	162	32.32	-0.84
A Flintoff (Eng/ICC)	79	3845	31.77	226	32.78	-1.01
DL Vettori (ICC/NZ)	113	4531	30.00	362	34.36	-4.36

Miller, Sobers, Kallis, Khan & Dev

The results demonstrate what we'd expect to see, Sobers and Kallis with incredible batting averages and very solid bowling stats, with the likes of Khan and Pollock the other way round. Here are Stokes' figures at the moment:

	Mat	Runs	Bat Av	Wkts	Bowl Av	Ave Diff
Ben Stokes	10	648	36.00	28	40.10	-4.10

Evidently a long way to go! But of course how can you compare him so early in his career to those more established? Have a look at their stats after 10 test matches of course:

Player	Runs	Bat Av	Wkts	Bowl Av	Ave Diff
GS Sobers	419	29.92	12	35	-5.07
JH Kallis	340	22.66	11	30	-7.33
Imran Khan	288	20.57	37	33.86	-13.29
SM Pollock	344	28.66	30	23.96	4.7
IT Botham	479	43.54	53	17.33	26.2
N Kapil Dev	510	42.5	29	39.06	3.43
A Flintoff	255	15.93	7	66.42	-50.49

What can we learn from this? The same as with a lot of statistics, especially with such a small quantity of data to look, they're meaningless. Stokes' career could go either way.

A side note is that if we simply look at the difference between batting & bowling averages then it becomes clear who the real best all-rounders are in history:

Player	Mat	Runs	Bat Av	Wkts	Bowl Av	Ave Diff
DG Bradman (Aus)	52	6996	99.94	2	36.00	63.94
AN Cook (Eng)	113	8869	46.67	1	7.00	39.67

Statistically the best two all-rounders
in all of test cricket history

Are England Over-Cooked?

The last five years or so of English cricket seem to have installed incredibly high expectations of our national team. We thrashed the Aussies, won in India, climbed to the top of the test rankings and became genuinely top quality. Then the signs began to appear to suggest that the foundations were a little shaky and suddenly it all collapsed spectacularly one winter down under. 

The changing of the guard

The true strength and depth of our squad has now been revealed and we're facing a period of rebuilding and struggle. In some ways we've paid the penalty of having such a successful and stable squad for years. The team of Strauss, Cook, Trott, Pietersen, Bell, Prior, Bresnan, Swann, Broad, Finn, Anderson pretty much picked itself and didn't really require the blooding of young talent, particularly in the batting. Suddenly we're finding ourselves needing Robson, Ballance, Root, Moeen and now Buttler all at once. With Bell and Cook in such abysmal form, is it any wonder we've struggled against a relatively mediocre India team?

The fact that we played utterly dismally yet got within 100 runs of winning suggests that perhaps we're not too far from competitive but is that really what we're aiming for? After such an era of success a lull was inevitable but is no harder to accept. 

So what of the 11 men we have now? It's seemingly the end for Prior, and although Buttler is not yet up to test standard, there is no real alternative. There is little point in bringing back Foster or Reed - a lot of people seem to think that decent county form will translate to test match form but these are players who have had a go at test level and were found wanting. How many times did Hick, Crawley and Ramprakash have chances for England? 

And what of our under-fire and under-performing captain?

No question, Cook needs a break and to find his form again but changing the captain mid-series is not the answer. Criticised for being too dull & boring with his captaincy but not praised for inventive fields in the 1st test or bowling Moeen to Jadeja when we all wanted Anderson. He is stubborn and gritty and on a dismal run of form but he is still outstandingly talented. Despite not scoring one for over a year, he still has two more centuries than any other Englishman in history. 

Four years ago Cook was having similar struggles (although not as captain of course). Look at his averages in the home series before he came good so spectacularly in Brisbane:

2009 vs Australia - 5 matches, series average 24.66
2010 vs Bangladesh - 2 matches, series average 19.66
2010 vs Pakistan - 4 matches, series average 23.85 (9.4 in the first 5 innings)

Hard to imagine scenes like these
again any time soon

If it hadn't been for the gritty and extremely lucky century then Cook would probably have been dropped and England's greatest Ashes success for years may never have come about. Take a read of this article and it's hard to believe it's not written about his current situation. 

Much like with replacing Prior, there is no viable alternative to Cook, as an opener and certainly as captain. If he cannot turn things around by the end of the series then I've no doubt he will go, but for now he needs to remain grittily determined and work hard to turn things around, ideally with at least some support from the ECB, the media and the public.