hopeforthebest wrote:Westley batting at 3 has just scored a century against them as he did against the Aussies last year. He's a free scoring batsman very much in the mould of the type of player everyone's talking about.
I once seen Hoppo slaughter Stuart Clark around Hove a few years back in a year where he literally couldnt hold a bat in the county championship. In fact he could barely hold a bat through his career, but Hilfenhaus and Clark jogged in at half pace and bowled what essentially felt like a slow pace net session as Hoppo tucked in for a feast. It was neither intense or worthwhile cricket.
Westley has scored 4 hundreds this year, but its worth noting two of those are in friendly matches. The game against Cambridge had 4 Essex centurions, so gives you a clue as to the quality of team they were playing. Similarly, the Worcs game had I believe 5 centurions, so probably a road they were playing on.
14 hundreds in an unassuming career, apparently we have one against SL (friendly), one against Australia (friendly), one against Cambridge (friendly) and according to Cricket Archive, he has scored two in first class registered games with the MCC (friendly) So in short, 9 hundreds in proper matches in a 9 year FC career. Playing at a lower level of cricket virtually all his career. His only journey into Division 1 he got battered routinely. Middling average that is inferior to many players, and the worst record in his full strength county line up.
The suggestion he gets picked for the test team is the most absurd pick since the dark days of "Are you English? Do you play for Surrey" style rubbish from the mid 90's.
But wait.... he must be good, after all his batting partner and mate is England Captain. Obviously has nothing to do with this insane promotion.
