AN ENGLAND SELECTOR believes that Ed Joyce’s scintillating form with Sussex would have earned him a place in England’s Test team.
Angus Fraser has been watching closely as Joyce racked up 770 runs in a blistering start to the season — at an average of 96.25.
The Dubliner was a part of England’s Ashes squad in the winter of 2006 but never featured and returned to play for Ireland in 2010 without ever making his Test debut.
England got their first summer Test against Sri Lanka off to a flier today in Lord’s as an unbeaten 102 from Joe Root took them to 344-5 at close on day one.
Despite that solid scoring, Fraser believes Joyce’s form would have turned the selectors’ heads.
“Ed is a wonderful player,” he told The Slog Sweep podcast.
“If I’m being honest, we had a selection meeting for the first test against Sri Lanka a week or so ago and if you look at the figures and the players performing in county cricket at this moment in time, no one is performing better than him with the bat.”
Had Ed still been eligible for England this coming summer, he may well have been in the shake-up for Test selection because he’s been in wonderful form.
Fraser first saw Joyce play while working as a journalist and remembers how he was glowingly compared with one of English cricket’s great batsmen — David Gower.
“Ed is a beautiful player, very elegant,” Fraser added.
I’ll always remember Ian Gould who was the second-team coach when Ed came over for the first time. It’s a big comparison and when you make big comparisons they get knocked down, but he said there was a touch of David Gower about him in the classy way that he moved at the crease and the effortless way that he moved when he struck the ball.
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Click here to listen to this week’s episode of The Slog Sweep, hosted by Mark Robinson and Andrew Leonard.
This week’s visit to ‘Club Corner’ takes a bit of an international twist as Phil Thompson from Cregagh Cricket Club in Belfast explains their globe-trotting exploits.
We also hear from Barry Chambers, Ger Siggins and David Holmes in ‘Around the Grounds’, this week’s ‘Performance of the Week’, the O’Neills ‘Team of the Week’, #AlmostCricketLegend stories and much, much more.
