A team of seamers

If we had all our players fit and available, we can field a whole team of seam bowlers/allrounders. We have 6 in the present side, if you add TC,SC ,Worrall, Atkinson,Topley and Taylor and Kimber,that’s 13. We will find it hard to give them all enough playing time to keep them all fit and happy. I think that next year we sign two overseas batsmen,including or not including Amla .I think any young seam bowler would think twice before signing a contract with SCCC. Let alone a spin bowler!

On the contrary Overton and Topley have rejuvenated their careers and won England caps after joining us, while Tom Lawes has been sensational so far, so there are always opportunities for those who grasp the moment. Maybe Nathan Barnwell will be next, and you've also missed out Matt Dunn, so that's 15! The bottom line is that all those seamers are never likely to be available at the same time with all the international call-ups, plus the ever-spreading cancer of franchise cricket.

As for the possibility of fielding an entire XI of seamers, the one thing I don't think we've ever had is a seam bowling wicketkeeper!

I appreciate that they all won’t be available at the same time, but sometimes they will bel. Just thinking that keeping them all fit and happy at the same time will be difficult

dougieginn wrote:I appreciate that they all won’t be available at the same time, but sometimes they will bel. Just thinking that keeping them all fit and happy at the same time will be difficult

Yet we'll be down to the bare bones for the RL50 next week when most of those players are absent for the franchise/parasite tournament. I dare say one or two may leave in search of more game time but they will need to be replaced, either from our own academy or by picking up 2nd XI players from elsewhere as we did with Taylor and Kimber.

I think what we need is a top quality overseas spinner. Question being who may be available? We certainly don't need batsmen.

If we had a top class spinner Batty wouldn’t pick him any way. Mind you the new head coach hopefully won’t be so seam bowler obsessed.

dougieginn wrote:If we had a top class spinner Batty wouldn’t pick him any way. Mind you the new head coach hopefully won’t be so seam bowler obsessed.

Assuming he wants the job, I think Batty has given a pretty effective audition so far. I'll take that over mid-table mediocrity with two spinners in the team.

Let's say Hampshire beat us into 2nd place this year; it would still be only the second time since 2003 we've finished higher than 4th. We have plenty of attractive batsmen and effective bowlers, it's not like we're a boring team to watch. (Or at least I don't find it boring.) I just don't get some of the criticism of this team.

Where is my criticism of the team?? I put most of the team’s improvement is in the bowling department,which I put down to the influence of Azhar, not Batty. There is also no evidence that the absence of spinners has improved the team’s performance. MDV and Solanki were initially full time appointments,but not Batty!! They must be a reason why Batty is an “Interim Coach” . Pretty sure I know why, but the answer is obvious. Just hope we can avoid him doing to much long term damage to our playing staff by freezing out Moriarty and Virdi.

dougieginn wrote:If we had all our players fit and available, we can field a whole team of seam bowlers/allrounders. We have 6 in the present side, if you add TC,SC ,Worrall, Atkinson,Topley and Taylor and Kimber,that’s 13. We will find it hard to give them all enough playing time to keep them all fit and happy. I think that next year we sign two overseas batsmen,including or not including Amla .I think any young seam bowler would think twice before signing a contract with SCCC. Let alone a spin bowler!

I would have thought that with the signing of Sibley would be to move Patel further down the order, whether that be to replace Amla, who will be 40 by the season starts next year, or even further down the order to replace the likes of Pope and Foakes not being available

dougieginn wrote:If we had all our players fit and available, we can field a whole team of seam bowlers/allrounders. We have 6 in the present side, if you add TC,SC ,Worrall, Atkinson,Topley and Taylor and Kimber,that’s 13. We will find it hard to give them all enough playing time to keep them all fit and happy. I think that next year we sign two overseas batsmen,including or not including Amla .I think any young seam bowler would think twice before signing a contract with SCCC. Let alone a spin bowler!

Interesting how different people see things. I personally would like more overseas bowlers. Whilst we're loaded in the area and have certainly improved, we rarely seem to have more than 4/5 available and have been pretty toothless without our lead bowlers at points this season. If we lose the title it won't be because of a lack of runs, but the failure to bowl out some of the worse teams in league during early stages. Gloucs and Kent batting for days.

On paper, we have more than enough seamers. Experience shows many of them are injured at any one time. Atkinson, Worrall and now Overton are the latest. Roach and Clark missed chunks of the season. Taylor hasn't been seen for months. And Dunn is ...Dunn.

dougieginn wrote:Where is my criticism of the team?? I put most of the team’s improvement is in the bowling department,which I put down to the influence of Azhar, not Batty. There is also no evidence that the absence of spinners has improved the team’s performance. MDV and Solanki were initially full time appointments,but not Batty!! They must be a reason why Batty is an “Interim Coach” . Pretty sure I know why, but the answer is obvious. Just hope we can avoid him doing to much long term damage to our playing staff by freezing out Moriarty and Virdi.

I was referring to criticism in general, not specifically yours. "Worst ever signing" (Steel) and "shouldn't be anywhere near the team" (McKerr) are two comments that stick in the memory from the last few days alone, although I don't recall who made them. Some people were clearly fortunate enough not to be watching Surrey during the 2008, 2009 or 2013 seasons, or even the last two seasons when there was no jeopardy in terms of performing poorly in the Championship, otherwise they might recognise rubbish when they see it.

I know there's always room for improvement but this is a team that's unbeaten at the top of the Championship and won its Blast group by a distance. The head coach must be doing something right and I find it odd to apportion all the credit for the coaching elsewhere. It's not as if he's inherited a winning team, the last 3 years were pretty mediocre to say the least.