Underestimate Jonathan Trott at your peril

 
Ok, hands up those who have been guilty of underestimating Jonathan Trott?

We’ll sheepishly admit to being guilty not one, not two, but three times since the England selectors made the brave decision to pick him for his debut Test in the Ashes decider of the 2009 series at The Oval.

Like many, we questioned how sensible it was to pitch a debutant into the furnace of a winner-takes-it-all Test, especially as the Australians had their tails up following their pulverising win at Headingley in the previous Test.

But not for the first time Trott proved us wrong. Not only did he score 41 and 119, but he was utterly composed and unflappable at the crease – as the sporting cliché goes, Trott was ‘in the zone’.

Then at the beginning of last summer, after an average series in South Africa where Trott looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights at Johannesburg, we suggested that he was not suited to the number three spot in the Test side. How wrong we were there.

In his 11 Tests since, Trott has scored 1114 runs at 85.69. If that wasn’t impressive enough, then the fact that his four hundreds during that time have all been big ones is – 226 against Bangladesh, 184 against Pakistan and 135* and 168* in the recent Ashes series. That is exactly what you need from your number three in Test cricket.

You would think that after being proved comprehensively wrong by Trott as far as Tests go, we’d have learnt our lesson when it came to his place in the one day side. Not a bit of it, as we didn’t pick Trott in our World Cup XV – citing that we thought he was a bit too one-paced for the 50 over game.

Since then, Trott has held England together in Sydney with 84* and followed that up with 102 in the win in Adelaide. We still think Trott struggles to change gears during an innings, but his strike rate of 73.87 in his ODI career is better than Bell and is not much worse than Prior, Collingwood or even Strauss.

When you factor in that he has an impressive ODI average of 54.38 to go with his stellar Test average of 61.53, we’re just about done with doubting Trott’s place in either XI.

We’re off to the kitchen now to bake another humble pie.

Where next?

What Cricket can learn from Football in staging a World Cup

Reaction to England's World Cup Squad

In defence of Jonathan Trott

Does Trott's runfest further complicate who should bat at 3?

The best Test XI of 2010

Check out all our Reverse Sweep heroes and zeroes

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Comments

[Howe Zat]

Remember that time you said Anderson couldn't take wickets in Australia, Bresnan shouldn't play Tests for England, Mike Hussey was finished and you'd eat a stack of Wisdens if Doherty plays in the Ashes?

I'll be honest, I've started waiting for you to make predictions before making any bets. If you know what I mean :P

[The Reverse Sweep]

Im guilty as charged on all counts Howe Zat, but I did also tip Chris Tremlett to be Englands dark horse, KP to score a ton at Adelaide, that Johnson would perform at Perth and that Ian Bell was finally going to deliver against the Aussies. On Doherty, I failed to account for the utter stupidity of the Australian selectors - I think its fair to say he didnt quite show he was Test standard!

 

I guess I am still in deficit though!

[Howe Zat]

All right then, I'll let you off!

Still feeling smug as ever about Trott though. You weren't alone in doubting him.