Two weeks after the conclusion of
the Ashes, it’s time to evaluate the Ashes draft that took place before the
series began. In that draft, Dave
Siddall and I selected sides with the object of evaluating who the series’ best
players might be.
The results and their
performances over the course of the five-match Test series are listed below.
Siddall’s Squad
Player
|
Draft no.
|
Runs
|
Dism.
|
Avg
|
Wkts
|
Conc.
|
Avg
|
SR Watson
|
5 (10)
|
418
|
10
|
41.80
|
2
|
179
|
89.50
|
EJM Cowan
|
11 (22)
|
14
|
2
|
7.00
|
|||
IR Bell
|
7 (14)
|
562
|
9
|
62.44
|
|||
JM Bairstow
|
8 (16)
|
203
|
7
|
29.00
|
|||
MJ Clarke
|
4 (8)
|
381
|
8
|
47.62
|
0
|
6
|
|
UT Khawaja
|
9 (18)
|
114
|
6
|
19.00
|
|||
MJ Prior
|
2 (4)
|
133
|
7
|
19.00
|
|||
SCJ Broad
|
6 (12)
|
179
|
7
|
25.57
|
22
|
604
|
27.45
|
JL Pattinson
|
3 (6)
|
72
|
2
|
36.00
|
7
|
307
|
43.85
|
TT Bresnan
|
10 (20)
|
103
|
4
|
25.75
|
10
|
296
|
29.60
|
JM Anderson
|
1 (2)
|
36
|
5
|
7.20
|
22
|
651
|
29.59
|
NM Lyon
|
12 (24)
|
12
|
2
|
6.00
|
9
|
303
|
33.66
|
PJ Hughes
|
13 (26)
|
72
|
3
|
27.66
|
|||
Totals
|
-
|
2299
|
72
|
31.93
|
72
|
2167
|
30.10
|
The Other Mob
Player
|
Draft no.
|
Runs
|
Dism.
|
Avg
|
Wkts
|
Conc.
|
Avg
|
AN Cook
|
1 (1)
|
277
|
10
|
27.70
|
|||
JE Root
|
6 (11)
|
339
|
9
|
37.66
|
3
|
34
|
11.33
|
CJL Rogers
|
9 (17)
|
367
|
9
|
40.77
|
|||
IJL Trott
|
2 (3)
|
293
|
10
|
29.30
|
1
|
28
|
28.00
|
KP Pietersen
|
3 (5)
|
388
|
10
|
38.80
|
|||
SPD Smith
|
12 (23)
|
345
|
9
|
38.33
|
4
|
106
|
26.50
|
BJ Haddin
|
13 (25)
|
206
|
9
|
22.88
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
GP Swann
|
5 (9)
|
126
|
5
|
25.20
|
26
|
755
|
29.03
|
PM Siddle
|
4 (7)
|
84
|
8
|
10.50
|
17
|
537
|
31.58
|
MA Starc
|
7 (13)
|
114
|
6
|
19.00
|
11
|
357
|
32.45
|
ST Finn
|
8 (17)
|
2
|
1
|
2.00
|
2
|
117
|
58.50
|
JM Bird
|
11 (21)
|
2
|
0
|
2
|
125
|
62.50
|
|
JP Faulkner
|
10 (19)
|
45
|
2
|
22.50
|
6
|
98
|
16.33
|
Totals
|
-
|
2588
|
88
|
29.41
|
72
|
2157
|
29.96
|
I think based on the above stats,
we can suggest that Siddall’s Side narrowly edged the contest as Shane
Watson’s 176 ironically led his side to victory and made for a far closer
contest than the actual Ashes series.
Had either side taken a flier on
Ryan Harris, however, the result would have been very different. Given the draft took place just prior to the
firing of a coach who favoured youth over experience, Harris’ injury history
made him a difficult selection.
The no. 1 selection overall
(Alastair Cook) was probably the biggest failure of the draft, but Jonathon Trott was also
disappointing. Without question the best
late-round “finds” were Chris Rogers and Tim Bresnan, while the player of the series
– Ian Bell – was Siddall’s seventh pick.
This suggests that all the pre-series “form” guidelines were based almost entirely on educated guesswork.
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