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Post by davemorton on Jun 18, 2024 9:42:47 GMT
He had the world at his feet. At 17 he was alongside Rabada as the leading bowler in an U19 World Cup. You would have backed him to match, at least, the careers of Gough, Hoggard, Bresnan, etc.
Then came the injuries. Sam Curran went past him in the pecking order, then Saqib Mahmood, who himself proved just as injury prone. Now a whole host of young bowlers has overtaken him, some of them just as injured as he is. His talent is recognised. England still pick him for Lions tours, etc, whenever they can...but if you can't get on the field, you can't take wickets, and Matt has basically played 3 seasons worth of cricket for 9 years pay. This season, he seemed to be only trundling at medium pace, but still got crocked.
So, unless things change quickly, Matt is going to be remembered as Paul Jarvis and Paul Hutchison, a might-have-been.
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Post by newby on Jun 19, 2024 9:16:46 GMT
Different times of course but you are being a little bit harsh in bundling Paul Jarvis in with the 'might have beens'.
He did have his injury problems of course especially later on, but he did play 215 FC matches including 9 Tests and took 654 wickets at 28.94.
Added to his 276 list A games, including 16 ODI's and taking 399 wickets at an economy of 4.34. I would suggest he had a marvellous career in comparison with most, though I agree it could maybe have been phenomenal.
Paul Hutchison, I'll give you that one!
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Post by slowleftarmer on Jun 19, 2024 9:28:30 GMT
yes, the problem with Jarvis was he started so young that you then expected him to have a 15-20 career and be competing with Rhodes and Hirst in the statistical comparisons!
But fast bowlers who start young often end up being more injury prone if not managed correctly. In Jarvis's day there were no restrictions on the number of overs a young bowler could bowl, and for a fast bowler Pauls body was quite slight, perhaps best compared to a Tim Bresnan who also started young but was more solidly built and perhaps better equipped to stand the rigours require of a fast bowler. Hutch too seemed to be like Jarvis in being very slightly framed. Hoggard perhaps was akin to Bresnan.
The other thing is also the quality of the pace attack around them and sometimes a young talented bowler gets overbowled due to the weaknesses elsewhere. Hoggy and Bresnan benefitted from central contracts plus a better all round pace attack to share the workload
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Post by tykemania on Jun 19, 2024 17:28:09 GMT
Lord Hutchison should have been a 50 test bowler; when he first came into the team he bowled close to 90 and got sharp movement in the air.
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