Blignauticus was just a swinger knowing his place as a bowler was all but safe. Thats all.eugene wrote: ↑Fri Jun 08, 2018 2:40 amZimbabweans seem to coach flair out of their players also, certainly among the white community. Seems to be a big emphasis on correct technique and grafting runs. How many Zimbabweans through the years have been good at improvising shots? Andy Flower and Doug Marillier seem to be the only ones that come to mind among the white guys.Googly wrote: ↑Wed Jun 06, 2018 2:32 pmSam is a superb batsman but his role has been as a bowling all rounder for the last three years! He’s almost a seasoned pro.
It’s a matter of time before his role becomes that of a batting all-rounder and then he will really come good.
I’ve watched him since he was a youngster and have always thought he should focus on his batting because he’s exceptionally talented. It’s a good observation that he’s probably not international standard (yet?) if the ball isn’t hooping. He’s definitely better than Tom. Whom everyone has forgotten is the other brother, Ben. He was always ordinary at school, but he’s become an exceptionally reliable and quality opening batsman. I think he may struggle to get a FC contract, which is unfair as he’s good enough. He’s Zimbabwean as well and would probably consider playing here if he failed there and in my opinion he’s a fine player and a gun fielder. He’d walk into our national side as an opener. It’s a percentage game and whilst he lacks a bit of flair he’s rock solid and knows his game and I guarantee he has burning desire having lived in a big shadow.
Bess was fortunate to get a game ahead of Verdi (20 year old Surrey player with 17 wickets on different tracks compared to Bess’ 20 on a Taunton turner), but he did well with the bat.
England have a handful of superb 19-21 year old batters.
Surrey have Pope who’s had 148 and 150 already this season and Jacks with a List A 100. He strikes it as clean as anyone in world cricket. There’s a Somerset or Sussex young leftie (can’t remember his name!) who’s probably better than all of them. I watched him continuously reversing two quicks a couple of weeks ago, it takes skill and confidence to do that. In the game I watched he went out taking on deep backward point with a reverse off a quick, bizarre but true, otherwise he would still be batting.
The fact is guys of this caliber would probably be playing international cricket by now if they were from a smaller nation, they’re that talented. English cricket has a way of somehow stamping out flair from quite a few players. They get so hung up on consistency and very few guys get a pink ticket (like Roy) to just go out and play their natural game.
Marillier was a bit of an improviser but as an all rounder coming in late he was afforded freedom to do so.
All in all, Zim whites have talent and are coached well in regards to a former era.
You dont see any real graceful batsman th way you see other countries. Zimbabwean batters make it look like very hard work even when they are scoring big. Sometimes Williams gets into a groove though.