Luke Wright can be England's new all-rounder in test matches!

Has Luke Wright played in any test matches since he first played for England? And if not, I feel he should as he can be England's answer to Australia's Shane Watson as an all-rounder who not only can bat in the top/middle order but can also provide good, solid support for the other 4 specialist bowlers in England's test XI.

First class
Batting 35.70 - Bowling 39.61 - Wright
Batting 37.54 -Bowling 25.77 - Woakes

Not going by averages.....but qualititatively...what i have seen of wright.....yes he could be a good 5th bowler-batting allrounder.

and that's why he was so high on my IPL_price list

No, not at all, not ever.

Chris Woakes considerably better in each aspect.

Why have Luke Wright when you can have Chris Woakes?

Or we could just stick with the plan that got us to the top in the first place, 6 batsmen and 4 bowlers.

Woakes has not looked like a test match bowler or batsman, albeit in ODI's. As for Wright. A decent T20 player but not a test one.

Obviously this thread is less than serious but it does make you wonder: there is a player out there who might be even worse than Ravi Bopara in Tests

Stella, you really cannot compare Woakes in ODI's to how he would be in Tests. Have you seen his First Class record?

Also, he bowled pretty well in the NZ ODI's - 2nd best bowler after Anderson.

You can hardly judge his batting, either, when he's been in in the midst of a 6 or 7 over slog at the death. He's a high quality batsman.

Fists

I can only judge on what I see. Of course I am presuming but you can normally tell if a player looks test class by watching how he bats and bowls, whatever the format.

Jetty wrote:
First class
Batting 35.70 - Bowling 39.61 - Wright
Batting 37.54 -Bowling 25.77 - Woakes

But Luke Wright can offer England something that Woakes can't and that is the ability to open the batting for England. I don't think Woakes has even opened for his county side Warwickshire in any format since the start of his first class career.

Open that batting?

And the bowling?

Woakes is a much better 4-day prospect than 1-day prospect. It still remains to be seen if he can make the grade though. His batting is promising, but we've seen with Broad that we can't guarantee continued improvement.

When Broad first came on the soon some people were quite seriously comparing him to David Gower, and saying he might find himself in the top 6 or even opening.

Shelsey93 wrote:Woakes is a much better 4-day prospect than 1-day prospect. It still remains to be seen if he can make the grade though. His batting is promising, but we've seen with Broad that we can't guarantee continued improvement.

When Broad first came on the soon some people were quite seriously comparing him to David Gower, and saying he might find himself in the top 6 or even opening.

Not only that but around 2010 when Broad made that excellent century V Pakistan, people were even comparing his batting to Garry Sobers!

Sobers is 76

Even by Lord's 2010 there was probably a sense of disappointment in Broad the batsman. And since then its probably got worse, not better.

Shelsey93 wrote:
When Broad first came on the soon some people were quite seriously comparing him to David Gower, and saying he might find himself in the top 6 or even opening.

Weren't the Gower comparisons a bit tongue in cheek? Don't remember him being touted for anything higher than 7 either. Anyway, the point is he has regressed to a level not far above Alan Mullally and Devon Malcolm.

Cricket is such a great leveler. I do remember someone saying that when Steven Finn was producing that wonderful innings as a nightwatchman in the second test V NZ that he was compared to the late Tony Greig, yet the following test match he failed to score in both innings!

Personally I think Woakes will end up being a better ODI cricketer for England than he will a Test player. I can't see either his batting or his bowling progressing far enough to see him justifying a place with either of them (I'd love to be proved wrong here), so unless we are desperate to shoehorn a all rounder in I can't see him getting a go. However, I can see a future for him in a four pronged pace attack + Swann in the 50 over stuff, what with the need for batting depth. He might not be a better ODI player yet, but I think he will be before long.

JDizzle wrote:Personally I think Woakes will end up being a better ODI cricketer for England than he will a Test player. I can't see either his batting or his bowling progressing far enough to see him justifying a place with either of them (I'd love to be proved wrong here), so unless we are desperate to shoehorn a all rounder in I can't see him getting a go. However, I can see a future for him in a four pronged pace attack + Swann in the 50 over stuff, what with the need for batting depth. He might not be a better ODI player yet, but I think he will be before long.

Well if England are wanting a player to bat at the number 7/8 position in the test team who can also bowl well in support of a 4/5 man bowling attack, they should in the absence of a genuine world class all-rounder like a Ian Botham or a Andrew Flintoff just select a specialist bowler who can provide useful runs with the bat e.g. a Tim Bresnan or the lad from Kent Mat Coles. Also does anyone know what situation Adil Rashid is in as he looked a couple of seasons ago to become England's future all-rounder in all formats of the game.

First class
37.54 - 25.77 - Woakes - still the best
32.82 - 34.81 - Rashid
27.61 - 31.47 - Bresnan
21.26 - 29.42 - Coles

Just putting this and the Tremlett thread together, surely this is gboycottnut's team for the Ashes:

Wright (as our answer to Shane Watson)
Cook
Trott
Pietersen
Root (put him over Bell as he offers a bowling option)
Prior
Finn (batting at 7 like Tony Greig)
Swann
Broad
Tremlett
Anderson


I'll stop biting soon, but I love how bad that team is!

VTR wrote:Just putting this and the Tremlett thread together, surely this is gboycottnut's team for the Ashes:

Wright (as our answer to Shane Watson)
Cook
Trott
Pietersen
Root (put him over Bell as he offers a bowling option)
Prior
Finn (batting at 7 like Tony Greig)
Swann
Broad
Tremlett
Anderson


I'll stop biting soon, but I love how bad that team is!

Actually this is my team for the Ashes !:-

Wright
Morgan (play the David Warner crash band wallop and out role!)
Taylor (England's answer to Phil Hughes!)
Bell
Bairstow
Prior
Finn
Broad
Anderson
Tremlett
D. Pattinson (as a counter to Australia selecting his brother James Pattinson!)

Excellent team!

Luke Wright is certainly better than Ian Botham or Andrew Flintoff at this stage. He has the makings of being the world's best ever all-rounder. It has confounded me as to why the England selectors haven't seen this obvious fact.
Sack Miller, Cook and Flower!.

Fists of Fury wrote:Stella, you really cannot compare Woakes in ODI's to how he would be in Tests. Have you seen his First Class record?

Also, he bowled pretty well in the NZ ODI's - 2nd best bowler after Anderson.

You can hardly judge his batting, either, when he's been in in the midst of a 6 or 7 over slog at the death. He's a high quality batsman.

Err... Finn was the best.

VTR wrote: Excellent team!

Cheers. I forgot to also include Adil Rashid in my Ashes XI. He could play the role that Steven Smith plays for Australia as a bits and pieces leg spinner who can bat just a little bit.