2018 County Championship Preview

Welcome back, county cricket! It may not open with a Bollywood dance spectacular but hopefully the County Championship will be more substance than style. This week the players will shrug off their winter rustiness, transfer strategies from paper to pitch, don three layers of sweater and hope to put some runs, wickets and victories under their belts before the summer really takes off in May.

Recent weeks have seen the usual pre-season news: newly-promoted Worcestershire will be wearing wetsuits and snorkels thanks to New Road flooding, most of England’s stars are under orders not to play at all, others are in India to warm the IPL benches and various overseas internationals have been paid to parachute in for a few games later in the year. But what impact will these have on the counties’ performances in 2018?

Last year’s champions Essex were a revelation under coach Chris Silverwood but how will they cope under his replacement Anthony McGrath? The former Yorkshire captain has sensibly downplayed expectations but, if Jamie Porter and Simon Harmer continue to bowl sides out twice, backed by first Peter Siddle then Neil Wagner and solid batting, they will surely be there or thereabouts come September. James Foster had been winding down towards retirement but last year’s success has revived his passion for playing, which can only be a good thing for the county.

Lancashire finished a distant second but the arrival of Durham duo Jennings and Onions will bolster the squad. Liam Livingstone’s improvement with the red ball has won him the captaincy but Haseeb Hameed could do with rediscovering that early promise once more. Yorkshire underperformed in 2017, their ageing attack surprisingly toothless. Ryan Sidebottom has retired but Tim Bresnan trundles on wonderfully and seamer Ben Coad looks to be a real find after enjoying a breakthrough season. Cheteshwar Pujara should provide runs alongside Ballance, Lyth, Lees and Leaning, and then Kane Williamson arrives in July.

Moneybags Surrey have lost the incomparable Kumar Sangakkara but runs and wickets should not be a problem. The Curran brothers were less consistent last year despite Tom’s international debut and for me Surrey’s strengths are not their England stars; it’s the contributions of Rory Burns, Ben Foakes and the venerable all-rounder Rikki Clarke which will decide whether they compete for the title.

Hampshire have struggled in recent summers but Hashim Amla’s early-season signing and Sam Northeast’s permanent transfer from Kent will boost the middle-order, especially if James Vince is away on England duty. However, Kyle Abbott apart, I’m not sure where the wickets will come from.

I fear for Somerset. We avoided relegation for a point last year by beating Middlesex in the final match and now Jack Leach has impressed in New Zealand he could well be absent for long periods, as will Craig Overton. Young spinner Dom Bess is a potential all-rounder but it is at the top of the order where genuine problems exist. Marcus Trescothick can’t go on forever and the signing of Cameron Bancroft which had seemed so promising has bitten us on the bum after his leading role in the Australia ball-tampering affair. I predict Somerset’s relegation every year (!) but this year, with wholesale backroom changes, I think it’s absolutely inevitable.

Nottinghamshire deservedly bounced straight up from Division Two and surely won’t drop back immediately. Chris Read has retired but they have signed Sussex veteran Chris Nash and NZ batsman Ross Taylor for 2018. Paul Coughlin looked a useful recruit from Durham but a shoulder injury on Lions duty in the Caribbean will delay his debut. Worcestershire have relied more on their homegrown talent in recent years, and in the ever-reliable Daryl Mitchell, Brett D’Oliveira and young batsmen Joe Clarke and Tom Fell, they have plenty of runs in the side. They have also placed heavy weights on captain Joe Leach’s shoulders, needing his wickets and late-order runs in the promotion push. Steve Magoffin’s wickets and miserly economy have been vital to Sussex for several years but, at 38, can he really be the answer to Worcester’s bowling issues? I think not.

As for Division Two, I think Middlesex’s promotion is almost a no-brainer, despite the lack of genuine superstars. Dawid Malan will have captaincy responsibilities added to his contract, although he will probably feature in England’s Test plans. Most of the county’s youth potential has grown up now. Roland-Jones, Rayner, Finn, Simpson and Morgan are all aged 30-odd so need another crop to step up. Batsmen Gubbins and Eskinazi could do it, while one-time wonderkid James Harris merits an injury-free season just for a change.

I’m not convinced Warwickshire are such certainties to bounce back. Their squad is almost unchanged so, unless the likes of Bell, Barker, Trott and new skipper Jeetan Patel are all firing at the same time, the squad looks a bit stale and stodgy. Kent will miss Northeast and surely Darren Stevens can’t continue to dominate second-tier payers as he scampers towards middle-age! He was incredible last year and Kent must be wrapping him up in cotton wool.

Jason Gillespie will need all his powers to build a depleted Sussex side into a First Division outfit again and Northamptonshire need to improve consistency. Sanderson and Gleeson are capable of picking up wickets but Rory Kleinveldt’s all-round contributions will be missing for April. Levi, Duckett, Wakely and Newton form a useful top order but there’s not much strength in depth.

Glamorgan must hope their young players like Selman, Salter and Carlsen will continue to mature, but the overseas/Kolpak contingent of Cooke, Hogan, de Lange and Shaun Marsh will be vital to the county’s chances of promotion and one-day success. Leicestershire, Gloucestershire and Derbyshire are bound to struggle, the latter having made a hefty clear-out. Then there’s Durham. Financial troubles having dumped them in the second tier after 2016, the Division One vultures have now picked off almost all their best players, while Jack Burnham is serving a year-long ban for his coke habit. The former champions are having to start almost from scratch. I wish them well.

Now for my all-important (and probably all-wrong) predictions:-

Champions: Essex or Surrey

Relegated: Somerset and Worcestershire

Promoted: Middlesex and Kent

Pakistan join England in the Doldrums

England's humiliation at the hands of New Zealand was almost matched by Pakistan's abject batting performance last night against the West Indies. At Christchurch, Andre Russell's final overs blitz with the bat ultimately proved irrelevant as most of the Pakistani XI capitulated to the Windies attack. Jerome Taylor and Jason Holder left the opposition reeling at 1-4 before Sohaib Maqsood and Umar Akmal steadied the ship. However, by that time, they had no chance of overhauling the 300+ target.

Skipper Misbah gave an honest appraisal that his side were well beaten, and it was an encouraging response from Holder's team following their embarrassing defeat against Ireland. It boosts their chances after all of qualifying for the quarter-finals.

Progressing from the group stage is still possible for England, despite being hammered by both hosts in their opening fixtures. Scotland, Afghanistan and Bangladesh should be easier opposition and even if they lose to Sri Lanka six points should be sufficient to go through. However, the sheer scale of their walloping at Wellington must have hit their confidence.

Tim Southee's masterclass in swing bowling put even Jimmy Anderson into the shade. His 7-33 was a Black Cap best and the third most impressive bowling performance in World Cup history. Joe Root, not for the first time, was the only England batman to demonstrate the right temperament to set any kind of challenge, but the wickets fell quickly at the other end. 122 all out in 33 overs was simply pathetic.

Their misery was compounded by Brendon McCullum's dazzling onslaught when he and Guptill came out to bat. The England pacemen had nowhere to hide and Steven Finn's generous helpings of off-stump deliveries were thankfully thumped for four consecutive sixes. Finn's two overs went for 49 and the NZ captain struck the third fastest ODI hundred. Had Chris Woakes not been introduced to dismiss both openers, nobody would have betted against McCullum beating AB De Villiers' recently set record as fastest ODI century.

As it was, the speed of the successful run chase (74 balls) was one of the swiftest ever, and probably the worst experienced by England in this form of cricket. It began and ended with wides and there was no hiding place for Eoin Morgan. At least as a batsman he had got off the mark for a change but 17 runs in 41 balls did little to restore his barely deserved reputation as a world-class 50-over exponent. He now has to steer a demoralised outfit against the lowly Scots to get off the mark as a World Cup captain. Mommsen, Coetzer et al must be licking their lips!

Can Pakistan still 'own' the UAE?

It's only two Tests but the imminent contest between Pakistan and South Africa is deservedly attracting some attention. The Proteas don't play many series so any opportunity to watch Steyn, Smith et al should be relished. At the same time, Pakistan have plenty of talent, from the young guns and world-class spinners to veteran batsmen. The familiar refrain is that you never know 'which Pakistan will turn up' but on their adopted 'home' territory they have a pretty impressive record.

Twelve matches: six wins, four draws and two defeats read the statistics since 2002. Early that year, Pakistan got off to a great start by thrashing Carl Hooper's Windies at Sharjah. If it was a spinner's paradise, the results didn't reflect it. Centuries from Yousuf Youhana and Rashid Latif set up a 170-run victory, further abetted by wickets from Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar rather than star slowies Danish Kaneria (before his fall from grace) and Saqlain Mushtaq. It was an even bigger winning margin a week later with Younis, Waqar and Shoaib again calling the shots, along with a rare Test century from a young opener called Shahid Afridi.

However, Pakistan's next Test in the Middle East resulted in humiliating defeat at the hands of Australia who bowled out Waqar Younis' side for less than 60 - twice! In under two days! To make matters worse, Matthew Hayden outscored twenty-two Pakistani innings on his own while Shane Warne returned match figures of 8-24. The following week, Steve Waugh's all-conquering Aussies wrapped up another innings victory, Glenn McGrath and Warne being far too good for a side which included Misbah-ul-Haq, then an inexperienced international aged only (!) 28.

It was several years before Test cricket returned to the UAE following the security issues which have now robbed Pakistan of home advantage for four years. Three years ago, South Africa came to Dubai and swept to 307-2 before Umar Gul and the spinners pulled them back into the match. The second half of the game was dominated by batsmen with unbeaten centuries from Amla and Kallis then that man Younis Khan again so a draw was the predictable outcome. It was the same result at Abu Dhabi although this time the runs were mostly scored early on. AB De Villiers made 278 not out, still a career best, although Younis failed.

In 2011, Pakistan edged a three-Test series against Sri Lanka, clinching the second by nine wickets thanks largely to eight wickets from Saeed Ajmal. The same bowler added seven more victims at Sharjah and shared the player of the series award with Sangakkara. Oh, and Younis Khan struck a first-innings 122. Then in 2012 came the series that England would prefer to forget. Yes, that was one of the most spin-dominated Test series for years. Saeed Ajmal and Abdur Rehman cleaned up, even if Swann and Panesar also put on a show in the concluding two fixtures. In the finale, Azhar Ali and - guess who? - Younis Khan shared a double-century stand which demonstrated that runs were actually possible.

Younis and Taufeeq Umar have each played in every Test played in the UAE and the former needs just 83 more runs to reach the 1000 mark. With the ball, Saeed Ajmal has 45 wickets to his name at only 23.73 apiece, so it will be interesting to see if Abdur Rehman (33 at 30) is preferred this time around. Will the pitches turn? If so, will Graeme Smith and his Saffer batsmen have the upper hand? It could be a fascinating showdown, but unless the pitches are prepared specifically for spin, South Africa could well inflict the first desert defeats for Pakistan for eleven years.

Pakistan avoid a double low

In their 61-year cricketing history, Pakistan have been bowled out for under 100 only 14 times. Six of them have occurred in the past three years, culminating in that embarrassing dismissal for 49 yesterday. I wrote a few days ago that the South African pacemen could be spurred to do their worst but I couldn't have predicted figures of 6-8 for the sensational Steyn! Nevertheless, Graeme Smith chose not to enforce a follow-on and risk the match ending inside two days. That has had the benefit of treating the crowd to some typically entertaining innings from Amla and centurion AB De Villiers and the opportunity for Pakistan to set a more positive record by achieving the record fourth innings run chase.

I'm being generous here! Of course Pakistan were never going to knock off 480 to win, especially when Younis Khan's wicket left them gloomy on 82-4. Steyn, Philander et al could have blown them away inside an hour so hats off to skipper Misbah-ul-Haq and Asad Shafiq for battling their way to a century partnership and take the game into a fourth day. For all their recent batting collapses, the nation stands at a creditable fourth in the ICC rankings so they must be doing something right.

However, let's hope they avoid any more frightful failures in this series. On the controversial tour of England in 2010, which left half the team in jail, Pakitan were bowled out for 80, 72 and 74 in the First, Third and Fourth Tests, respectively. Needless to say they lost all these games heavily. For Steyn and Kallis, read Anderson and Swann! Only once have they been dismissed for a double-figure score and won. Fast forward to Dubai in 2012, and Pakistan were 2-0 up when Anderson, Broad and Panesar left them reeling at 99 all out on day one. Abdur Rehman's 5-30 kept them in the game, but when Younis and Azhar Ali blazed a double-century third-wicket stand to set England 324 to win, it was Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal who did the damage and completed an impressive victory from the jaws of defeat.

The Middle East was the scene of possibly Pakistan's nadir back in 2002. In the Second Test at Sharjah against Australia, Waqar Younis' men were skittled for 50-something not once but twice! Younis and Misbah were both playing that day so yesterday's disaster must have stirred memories best left forgotten. At that time, the Aussie line-up was pretty much as strong as any we've witnessed in my lifetime: Langer, Hayden, Ponting, both Waughs, Martyn, Gilchrist, Warne, Lee, Bichel, McGrath. About the only thing that went right was Waqar winning the toss.

Both openers were back in the pavilion after 7 balls. It went from bad to worse. After McGrath and Lee came Bichel and the maestro Warne. Pity Abdul Razzaq, the only man to reach double figures as Pakistan plummeted to 59 all out. The second highest contribution came from extras (14). The performance was put into context by Australia's response. In particular, Matthew Hayden doubled Pakistan's score all on his own! However, Saqlain and Razzaq did well to restrict the Aussies' lead to about 250 but come the second innings, it was groundhog day for Waqar et al. This time, poor Taufeeq Umar's 'pair' was completed without facing a single ball (run out by Ponting)! A Lee lifter meant Razzaq retired hurt, then the highest partnership was shared by opener Imran Nazir and Misbah - a mighty 19 runs. The whole sorry sage was over in two hours. Australia had won by an innings, Pakistan had scraped a pathetic 112 runs in two innings and Warne's match figures were 17.5-6-24-8.

As for 2013, best write off the Jo'burg opener and re-gather strength for Cape Town.

Pakistan snatch an unlikely win

Well, I left the house earlier this afternoon with England needing another 150-odd with all ten wickets standing. Surely a formality, with Strauss, KP, Bell and Morgan due a good score, and Cook and Trott already looking in reasonable nick. Plenty of time to defend the good balls and punish the bad; standard Test match target chasing. I was ready to write about the rebirth of Monty Panesar, England's match-winner....

Yes, but this is Test cricket 2012 and the usual rules no longer seem to apply. England had been murdered in the 1st game and they were on top after the first session of this week's Abu Dhabi duel in the desert. Of course I came home to find England committing the hari-kiri of old. Here I'm being rather unfair to Pakistan. Dubai had demonstrated the importance of intelligent spin bowling, with Pakistan offering a three-prong attack of off-spin and left-arm which left the world's number one team scratching their collective heads. Play back, get lbw. Sweep and miss, same outcome. Attack and you'll mistime and be caught. Time to get stuck in.

Cook and Trott showed the way in the first innings, establishing a lead of 70. Then when Monty wheeled away for more than 38 overs to take 6-62, it seemed that England had succeeded in playing Pakistan at their own game and sensible batting would give them the 145 they required. However, Misbah's men took the initiative straightaway, Mohammed Hafeez opening the bowling as he might in one-day cricket. He elicited a leading edge from Cook and took a low return catch himself. Saeed Ajmal landed Bell's wicket soom after but when left-arm action was introduced, both KP and Morgan fell within three balls, leaving England reeling at 37-4.

No worries, captain Strauss was still there, and both Trott and Prior to come, plus Stuart Broad's beefy strokes. Abdur Rehman simply continued where Panesar had left off that morning. The ball regularly beat the bat, thudding into either stumps or pad and the impossible was about to happen. The final five wickets tunmbled in ten extraordinary balls and Pakistan had won not only the match but the series.

Now they can really believe in themselves. The multi-spin attack has bamboozled the very best but can they reproduce that in South Africa? Australia? England? For England, there was the encouraging sight of Monty Panesar being deadly in accuracy and manic in celebration. He probably wouldn't even have played but for Tremlett's injury, yet he can be assured of a place in the next match. As before, I can't see any point in drafting in new blood with the bat. It's about application. The sides are fairly well matched but Ajmal and Rehman must be super-confident now, and the mental advantage is on their side. I can't see Pakistan making it 3-0 but their bowlers have performed admirably so far, the tails are up and spin is king!