Nah it is. We bat deep; shouldn't be needing me to average 50 with the bat, and despite last season I don't expect to. This is my 11th season of BS cricket and I've only averaged over 40 in 3 of them. I just consistently average high 30s. The fact that I open the batting throws people a bit. I've a pure allrounder, and my bowling has always been my stronger suit. The fact that we have a frontline bowler opening the batting means we can afford to pick an extra batsman and bat deeper than other sides. But if you're expecting me to be anything more than decent opening the batting consistently then you'll be disappointed. Averaging 10 isn't good enough and it's annoying but I've never been one to worry too much about my batting because it's not what's getting me into the side; it's just an added bonus to our balance.
Where did I mention you averaging 50? We all know thats a pipe dream I realise you've always been a better bowler, and that in general we need it more than your batting. Just that as long as your opening, I don't think your bowling is "way more important" when we're playing away from home, and our batting depth is nullified by tricky conditions. Realise this is me being something of a pedant but anywho!
Well I averaged 57 last season; it sort of came across like you were trying to hold me to those standards. It was as much an outlier as averaging 10 is tbh.
When the extra batsman isn't scoring any runs then you really need to pull your weight tbh Cribb. You afford us a luxury we don't really have.
And completely ignore the 16000 runs @ 40? My point is if you and the extra batsman could both average 30 then it'd be fine. We'd be doing well but when you average 10 apiece then we're still effectively a batsman short despite two people doing the job of one.
As in, if you don't start scoring runs then you'll take Paddy's place down the order and he'll be cut for someone who can score runs. As it stands we're playing 5 bowlers but batting one in the top 6 and it's not working.
Yeah I agree with that. Just starting to get a bit annoyed by people saying I'm not playing well because I'm not scoring any runs, when I'm still performing perfectly fine as a frontline bowler. I may not be performing to expectation or to ability or anything like that, but I'm still contributing a valuable role to the side. In a side of 11 I'm definitely still pulling my weight, so I have a lot of improvement in me and I'm underachieving but I'm not playing badly. I've added more to the side this season than Jackson, Orr, Faithful, Howell, Phlegm and arguably Chung as well; that's my point.
Yeah, it's just that we expected you to perform to a certain level and picked our team balance based upon that but because you haven't we've been found out.
Yeah, with MF actually batting 8, you're right. It's not how we used to pick the team though; I guess it's come about due to the fact that I did average 57 last season. I reckon we'll probably have to address that whether I start making runs or not because Paddy is batting 9, the fifth bowler, and not actually much if at all better than the 6th or 7th bowlers. For the first 12 rounds last season, MF batted 9 and we made use of the fact that I was a frontline bowler opening the batting by having our 8th best batsman in the side and batting 8. The fact that myself and Howell had such good seasons made us change that though and we carried that balance into this season. Something we need to think about really. Even if I do go back to averaging 35-40 instead of 10, it's kinda wasted a bit with our current balance IMO.