Tuesday, September 3, 2013

2013 Ashes draft: The Results

Two weeks after the conclusion of the Ashes, it’s time to evaluate the Ashes draft that took place before the series began.  In that draft, Dave Siddall and I selected sides with the object of evaluating who the series’ best players might be. 

The results and their performances over the course of the five-match Test series are listed below.

Siddall’s Squad
Player
Draft no.
Runs
Dism.
Avg
Wkts
Conc.
Avg
SR Watson
5 (10)
418
10
41.80
2
179
89.50
EJM Cowan
11 (22)
14
2
7.00



IR Bell
7 (14)
562
9
62.44



JM Bairstow
8 (16)
203
7
29.00



MJ Clarke
4 (8)
381
8
47.62
0
6

UT Khawaja
9 (18)
114
6
19.00



MJ Prior
2 (4)
133
7
19.00



SCJ Broad
6 (12)
179
7
25.57
22
604
27.45
JL Pattinson
3 (6)
72
2
36.00
7
307
43.85
TT Bresnan
10 (20)
103
4
25.75
10
296
29.60
JM Anderson
1 (2)
36
5
7.20
22
651
29.59
NM Lyon
12 (24)
12
2
6.00
9
303
33.66
PJ Hughes
13 (26)
72
3
27.66



Totals
-
2299
72
31.93
72
2167
30.10

The Other Mob
Player
Draft no.
Runs
Dism.
Avg
Wkts
Conc.
Avg
AN Cook
1 (1)
277
10
27.70



JE Root
6 (11)
339
9
37.66
3
34
11.33
CJL Rogers
9 (17)
367
9
40.77



IJL Trott
2 (3)
293
10
29.30
1
28
28.00
KP Pietersen
3 (5)
388
10
38.80



SPD Smith
12 (23)
345
9
38.33
4
106
26.50
BJ Haddin
13 (25)
206
9
22.88
-
-
-
GP Swann
5 (9)
126
5
25.20
26
755
29.03
PM Siddle
4 (7)
84
8
10.50
17
537
31.58
MA Starc
7 (13)
114
6
19.00
11
357
32.45
ST Finn
8 (17)
2
1
2.00
2
117
58.50
JM Bird
11 (21)
2
0

2
125
62.50
JP Faulkner
10 (19)
45
2
22.50
6
98
16.33
Totals
-
2588
88
29.41
72
2157
29.96

I think based on the above stats, we can suggest that Siddall’s Side narrowly edged the contest as Shane Watson’s 176 ironically led his side to victory and made for a far closer contest than the actual Ashes series. 
Had either side taken a flier on Ryan Harris, however, the result would have been very different.  Given the draft took place just prior to the firing of a coach who favoured youth over experience, Harris’ injury history made him a difficult selection.

The no. 1 selection overall (Alastair Cook) was probably the biggest failure of the draft,  but Jonathon Trott was also disappointing.  Without question the best late-round “finds” were Chris Rogers and Tim Bresnan, while the player of the series – Ian Bell – was Siddall’s seventh pick.  This suggests that all the pre-series “form” guidelines were based almost entirely on educated guesswork.
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