Geriant Jones is selected as he is the better batsman. Chris Read, everyone says is the best of the two keeping wicket, a specialist position and vital if we play spinners. Jones could not catch a cold half the time, Read looks assured Warm up game, Read scores over 30, Jones a duck Therefore who should be wicket keeper for the next ashes test
Read seems more solid might not be as athletic but makes less mistakes so I'd definately choose Chris
Jones 33 tests 51 innings average 24.94 getting worse though - only reached 20 once in his last 14 innings. living on a reputation as a batsman gained many tests ago http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Players/PlayerBatGraph.asp?PlayerID=3165 Read 13 tests 19 innings average 20.31 fairly solid in his last 14 test innings reaching 20 6 times in his last 14 innings http://www.howstat.com/cricket/Statistics/Players/PlayerBatGraph.asp?PlayerID=2182 Absolutely everyone agrees Read is a significantly better keeper Maybe I dont understand cricket but on balance I think fewer dropped catches and missed stumpings - not to menition byes etc is worth the average loss of 4 runs an innings. For example in the last test didnt jones drop ponting on 31 - he only made another 111 after that - well worth the extra 4 runs And in any case Read has a higher average over the last 10 tests. Absoulute no brainer! but what do I know if I thought we had the best finger spinner in the world I'd play him instead of one thats not that good because he might get an extra 10 runs So in words that Keith Fletcher can understand - we are playing 2 inferior players for the sake of on average an extra 15 runs. (banghead)
