England's cricketing conundrum

Most of England keepers in recent years have one of the following batting styles: unothodox accumulators of ones and twos, limited to one great shot, or hard-hitting bludgeoners. The similarity between all these three groups – which includes read, jones, russell, ambrose, mustard and probably even knott – is that they are good for test fifties now and again, and will average around the late-20s. I saw Prior on debut, when he made a century against the West Indies, and it was clear he was not a batsman which fell into any of these categories. I personally think that he is better than Collingwood and most of the rest in the wings: without a doubt he should bat at 6 in the test team. Furthermore, Alec Stewart has said all season that his keeping has improved dramatically and from the one-dayers he seems to be right. I can’t remember Foster’s batting too well, but I recall it seemed a cut above the competitors (no pun intended), and his keeping is brilliant: he should deputise.