Marcus North as National Selector

Yeah, gone! Gone, he gets his fairy tale ending! An epic way to go to a test match 100! The London Spear the first time winning! The most remarkable thing you'll probably ever see in cricket. 6 04 and final test wicket for Stuart Wall. It's India who win the T-20 World Cup. England's captain Ben Stokes, while he is there, England have hop e 15 uh names there for the first test which will be against new zealand on june the fourth at lords that was announced about 40 minutes ago at noon. Rob Key's actually going to speak at three o'clock this afternoon, so we're talking before Rob Key does his zoom call, he's going to put a bit of flesh on the bone around the the squad and the wise and the wherefores. So we're talking before we've heard him. So he may contradict now some of the things we're about to say. But what's your reflection overall on the 15? Let's just start with a general reflection. General reflection is probably you're going to see a load of new names there in the squad, but actually when you get down to the 11 that we might see take the field for that first test, I reckon there'll be a change maybe with the opening batter. Well',ll defin thereitely be that because there's no Zach Crawley. But really, you're seeing a side that's been together for quite some time. Emilio Gay, I think, will open at Lords. James Roo could do it. They could move Jacob Bethel.. I wouldn't Olli Robinson, a return as well. So they have not said to anyone, we're done, we're moving on. This is a new era. Olli Robinson has been captaining Sussex, he's got wickets and runs, he's got first class 100 and they've stuck with a couple of spinners there as well. Rayon Ahmed is away on IPL duty, but they've gone with him. He's been around a little while around the squad. And also Showed Bashir, who was unselectable at the end of the ashes. Well, he's selectable now because he's played five games in a row for Derbyshire. What was your main takeaway? The headline act, I'd say, as an opening batter, no Zach Crawley. Yeah, of the eleven, obviously Crawley is the one, the the big name missing from the ashes really. They'd stuck with him for a long, long period of time. I think he's played 64 tests now, averaging 31. 64 tests puts him high up on the list of all -time England batters, although his returns don't put him high up on the list of all-time England batters. And I think his position had become untenable, really. The returns at Tess level didn't justify his ret ention. And given that part of the story of the opening weeks of the season has been that England have to kind of re-engage with county cricket, given that his returns at test level don't justify it.tainly Cer his returns for Kent in the opening five games of the season don't justify it. So, I mean, it was long uh kind of touted and advanced that Crawley was not going to be selected, everybody expected that , but I don't think they could select him the right to make that change. And Emilio Gay, I think, is an interesting call because I think four years ago, when these selectors first came together, I know they've got a new selector, Marcus North, who we'll talk about later. But I think when Rob Key, Brennan McCullum, and Ben Stokes first came together, they would have they may have gone for somebody like Ben McKinney. 21 , loads of potential, lots of talent . Probably the highest ceiling of all the possible openers, but they've gone for the man who has got runs at the early stage of the season. So Emilio Gay's played five games , he's got three hundreds, he's got hundreds against Kent, Middlesex and Lancashire, he's averaging over ninety . So I would say that's a change as well. It's a kind of pragmatic selection. Do you think they've moved away from looking for a certain type of cricketer? You have to bat at a certain tempo, bowl at a certain pace, release the ball from a certain height to actually are you getting runs and wickets because in the ashes they went with high pace and lacked a bit of control. There's Fisher and there's Robinson. Maybe Sam Cook will be a little bit disappointed. He's had a good start for Essex again and he's been good for Essex for a number of years. Do you think they've just gone to stats and wickets and runs? Not completely because Sonny Baker is a a very interesting and exciting call and we'll we'll come back to him. I've seen him bowl this year for Hampshire and he's certainly improved I think on the form that he showed last year when he was a bit of a wild card. For a minute. Gay has got the runs and against that he's batting at number three in the second division. Now there's not a massive we assume that Gay is going to play, by the way, James Rue is also there, but I imagine that Rue is a spare batter in case any of the others get injured. But gay at number three in the second division is not the same as Dom Sibley, for example, who's getting runs as an opener in the first division? And probably they just didn't want to turn the clock back and not Sibley. But then there are others who were in contention. McKinney have mentioned Acer Tribe and other playing first division for Glamorgan at the top of the order. It's kind of been in and out without the volume of runs that Emilio Gaze scored and Tom Haynes at Sussex, who's also first division. Just before we move on to the rest of the squad, just a word of advice for Zach Crawley. First time he'd be left out for a very long time. A break from cricket, go and play white ball cricket, get it smashed. Because the anomaly for me is not how Zach Crawley has started the summer. That for me is not, you know, I'm not getting runs this season. What do I need to do to get runs? The stats are there on Zach Crawley averages thirty-one in Test cricket after sixty-four tests and thirty-one in first class cricket, and that is a big sample size, and that's what needs So, you know, does he need to move away from Kent? Does he need to play white ball cricket? What would you advise Zach Crawley now? It's a phase of his career that he won't be used to Yeah. Yeah well first of all he's he's had that significant run, sixty four tests. You can't complain that you've not been given a chance, clearly. Um and it was right that he was left out. But I I never believe in closing the door on people and drawing a line under them. I don't think well any team is good enough to do that, and certainly not England at the moment. And whilst it's hard to see Crawley coming again, certainly any time soon, given the chances that he's had, because other people who come in need to be given that chance as well. You know, I just wouldn't say that's it, you're done for good. Because hey, you need to people need to feel as though they've got a chance when you're playing domestic cricket. Everybody needs to feel that if they put an unbelievable run together, then the opportunity is there to get selected again. Otherwise domestic cricket y w what's the point of playing kind of thing? So I don't believe in shutting the door, but from his perspective , he's got to get back not get back because he's he's not never been a heavy run scorer in that sense. He's got to try and find a way of doing that. I mean whether he should move down the order is an interesting call, but he's always been an opener , and he probably feels that with the England team being Bethel uh Root, Brooke, and Stokes, that middle order is completely locked in, and the opening slot is the one where you have more chance of getting him. One name we haven't mentioned much. No Joffra Archer on a central contract. Hasn't played since the ashes. Red ball cricket has been away, white ball cricket, IPL. Rob Key in his notes when the squad was announced said that he he couldn't select him on the back of no red ball cricket. What are your thoughts on Joffra Archer? Well, first of all, I can I understand why that he'd need to get his loads up. So he's been playing IPL as you say, it's white ball cricket, four overs a game, five over four overs a game. And so loads for a test match that's coming around very quickly uh given that the IPL runs basically up to the first test. I completely understand that, but I find it incredibly frustrating, and I'm sure England supporters do as well, because you know you've got central contracts there , a player, all the players who are under central contract. The point of the central contract is to kind of arrange and manipulate a player's workload so that injum you were right and ready and bang on ready to go for England. Now it's five months since the last test that England played, and between January and June, a centrally contracted bowler would get to the first test of the summer against New Zealand , and he's not ready and right to go as a centrally contracted player. That's an immense frustration. Now it's a frustration set against just the practicalities and pragmatic nature of of how it is. The players are allowed to go to IPL. Basically England have have down tools for those two months and have no control over those players. The players make their own choices , but it means you have this situation where your premier fast bowler is not available for the first test. That's frustrating, surely. Absolutely. Just go on to the spinners then. The two spinners they have selected. Which spinner would be disappointed out there? Which of the spinners? Because these two have played before. Ryan Ahmed came in, was brilliant on debut. I think he's played 10 test matches. Obviously, Shoeb was the one they had selected for a long time and then didn't in the ashes. Which of the other ones out of the squad would be disappointed this afternoon? Well it's fair to say that as far as spin is concerned, the selectors are not bless blessed with uh huge uh options . They could have gone back. They've shown with not by not picking Dom Sibley, they're not particularly keen on going back to very experienced players. Ollie Robinson apart will come on to him. So they could have gone back to Jack Leach or Liam Dawson. Didn't want to do that. Spinners who've been going relatively okay at the start of the season, a leg spinner like Mason Crane, who has taken wickets, bowls kind of inconsistent ly but is a dangerous bowler. Then you could look at a finger spinner like Jack Carson. There are other wrist spinners as well by the way, Calvin Harrison were sat here at North Hans and Calvin Harrison is a good all-round cricketer. I think what they would have been thinking as far as spin is concerned is why they've picked two is they're not quite sure yet of the f make-up of the final eleven . So if for example they pick three bowlers , say Tong, Fisher someone else who can't bat so well. They might want a batter, a bowler who bats in that number eight position, in which case Ray and Ahmed would be the pick. I personally see Ray and Ahmed as more of a batting all rounder than a bowling all rounder. But if they pick Atkinson and Robinson, who both bat Atkinson's had a test match hundred and Ollie Robinson scored a hundred this year as you mentioned in first class cricket. Then you can afford to go for a spinner like Bashir who doesn't bat. So the balance of the side is yet to be decided and that's probably why they've picked those two spinners. I mean, Bashir is a very interesting call because through they they'd invested so much time into him ahead of the ashes, and yet they got to the ashes, and when the crunch came in that second test match, um the pink ball test at Brisbane, they went with an all-seam attack at Perth. When the crunch came, they didn't go with Bashir, who then didn't play throughout the Ashes. Will Jacks played and Jax did a kind of okay job, but you'd say in somewhere like Adelaide he he kind of looked what he is, which is a part-time spinner, a batter who bowls, and clearly they probably won it out of the two spinners they, want to get a kind of genuine spinner then. Bashir's bold okay for Derby at the start of the year. Um, who would have been your choice as spinners ? I'd have probably gone Bashir simply because they've invested so much in him and he's playing and it's coming out okay. I don't think he's the finished article. I think he's far from the finished article, and that's why with a young cricketer you will get the curve and the graph that goes so much higher and lower, and the low point happened to come at the moment they'd prepped him for for a number of years, and that was the ashes. And on two pitches that did spin, he was unselectable. But that doesn't mean as you've just said about other cricketers that rules him out forever. I think if you have invested in his young, if you've invested and you're 35, then you've probably got to move on. But if he's invested and he's young and you're speaking to people who are watching him bowl and he's hungry to get back in, then I think it's right and he'll still come up and he'll still bowl and people will say, well why Bashir? But it it is that long term thinking. Otherwise you do end up going round in circles the next cab off the rank who happens to be bowling okay. I do think you have to have a long-term uh view on selection. Um couple of areas we've not talked about. Wicket keeper. There was some thought at the start of the summer that because of Jamie Smith's rather indifferent ashes that his place might be under threat. He's got a boatload of runs, a torrent of runs for Surrey at the start of the year. And he's actually been keeping wicket because Ben Fokes went in the side didn't he in a in one of those bowling yeah boring high scoring games that they've seen a lot of at the Oval lately and and he got injured bowling. So um I mean well that was a pretty straightforward selection. wise after the event I said on our first pot of the summer about a month ago. You just got to remember what you said about certain cricketers before the ashes. If you ask me or you before the ashes, is Jamie Smith an international cricketer? Is he a serious cricketer? Yes. Is Ben Ducket a seriously good opening batter? Yes. They both had average Ashes series at best. And some of the decision making from Jamie Smith, if you remember the shot off Lab ershayne in Sydney, etc. And Duckett getting found out outside is off stump. Um but are they very good cricketers? In my opinion, they are and I think they they will come again. They've had good season Duckett's just got a double hundred So I don't think that was debatable. That's my point, really. It's really one batting spot. After all the failings in Australia and the way they batted at times, it's only Crawley that's gonna go. Otherwise the top seven uh injury permitted will be the same. Um couple of other things to talk about. Ollie Robinson's return at thirty two years of age, having been um jettisoned after the India tour in early 2024 when I think most people assume that would be the end of his career. He's back in, Sonny Baker, who uh was a wildcard pick really in the one day games last summer. He's impressed at the start of the season. He's in. Um just a thought or two on those and then we'll talk about Marcus North who whose first squad this is as as as national selector, although he Well I like Sonny Baker. I've seen him for a couple of years now. Um white ball cricket, real pace, real good attitude, uh love the way he runs and he played for England the end last summer and he went round the park. So you always see how people react to that. And he's gone back and you look at the footage of him this summer and he's steaming in on some pretty flat pitches uh and and getting it through and I do like Olly Robinson. I always have and Ollie Robinson for me was not left out because of the bowler that he is. Ollie Robinson, you know, by his own admission can be sometimes difficult to manage, but his stats are phenomenal. Maybe the leadership this season at Sussex has realized and made him think of what it's like to be on the other side of the fence when you have to lead people and you have to look at people in the eye and say you're there every single day for me, he's got runs, he's got wickets, and England lacked that control bowler. It was odd what happened in the Ashes. I said to Rob Key when we interviewed him twice, you almost prepared a side for an Ashes series of the past when you needed pace and aggression . When actual recent series in Australia is about skill and accuracy. And that times, that attack, lacked skill and accuracy. And then Ollie Robinson they have a very accurate and very skillful bowler. Um yeah just to add to that Baker, Sonny Baker, I watched him play against Glamorgan a couple of weeks ago and I thought he bowl really well. His figures didn't reflect the way that he bowled, but very, very sharp, enthusiastic, and skillful, particularly with the old ball. Very good round of wicket to the left handers. Not sure he made the final eleven. Was having a bit of a and a think of what what they might go. What do you think, Nas? Duckett Gay, Bethel Root, Brooke, Stokes, Smith, Tong Atkinson, Robinson, Bashir. Just a spinner. bench in the IPL so how much would he have bowled? At least show it Bashir is bowling so I might go with him. And if they go Atkinson and Robinson there with Tong, you've got enough batting, you go for the spin the the better spinner as it were. Yeah, and fifteen . Very rarely do they pick a fifteen man squad. They've got the camp, haven't they? At Loughbrand Lions games, would you r release any of those to go and play if James Roo, for example, keep him batting or not? Well, I was expecting them to pick the Lions squad today as well. Maybe that will come very shortly, but they've got Lions games against South Africa and um the this fifteen man squad is going to a camp in uh Lofborough on the twenty-fifth, I think. So Bethel and Ray and Ahmed will be released when their IPL duties are done for that. Um would I release anybody? I'd kind of play it by ear a bit really and something like I'm assuming they've made the decision though to go with Emilio Gay, but wouldn't be against people getting match time. Uh Marcus North confirmed as the national selector today. He beat a few candidates. Stephen Finn was in the running. Darren Goff, our old mate, was in the running, one or two others. But a couple of things I like. One, he's been in and around the county game, he's been doing a serious job at Durham as the director of cricket there for the last what seven or eight years, so he knows the county game. Uh like the back of his hand. He's also played a fair bit of county cricket. So although he's an Aussie and uh he comes from abroad, he kinda knows the English game. And I also like the fact that he knows enough about international cricket. He's played I think he played twenty one tests for Australia. He was a good player, but he's not a Ricky Ponting, a superstar. And I think the best selectors I've seen, people like Jeff Miller, who we work with a little bit, are those who know the game, but they're not the kind of the biggest names, the ones who'll kind of create headlines. You want somebody really to be diligent and stay in the background. Yeah and and I hope he's strong with Stokes and McCullum in particular. I think they are two very strong characters, aren't they? Who know their way and know what they want. So at times you can just be, oh okay, you have what you want. And you mentioned Jeff Miller there, who was a selector when I was captain. Dusty would walk into a selection meeting and say, this is who I think you should pick. These are the lads that are really impressed me and he was very consistent. He didn't just flip from one to another. He if he saw someone he liked he would stick with them. But he would say your captain, your coach, and if you can choose the 11, you want to take on the park who you believe in. So I just hope he keeps nudging Stokes, McCullum, and Key and says, right, it is not just about the type of cricketer you're looking for. You have to that the game, I'm afraid, is about statistics. You get more runs than the opposition, you win, you take your catches, you bowl better, you win. So it's about who are the ones that are performing. You have to keep an eye. There is a difference between domestic cricket and international cricket. We've seen it at the start of the season. There is a difference. So it's not just about picking domestic cricketers who are who who are getting runs and wickets. You do have to keep an eye on the type of cricketer, but really your currency has to be runs and wickets . So that's uh England's squad, 15-man squad for the first test against New Zealand. Just to reiterate that uh Rob Key is going to speak in a couple of hours' time, so we'll probably you can ignore the last half hour by the time he' spsoken he'll probably he'll probably um kind of contradict everything we've said