England’s Ashes struggles show county pitches are not producing Test cricketers, says Rob Key | Cricket News

Where are the batters who can rack up big scores? Where are the fast bowlers who know how to deal with little assistance from the surface? Where are the spinners?

These are the questions being asked with England 2-0 down in the Ashes and battling to avoid another harrowing series in Australia after a 5-0 sweep in 2013/14 and 4-0 reverse in 2017/18.

That makes it 11 defeats out of 12 for England in away Ashes Tests.

Sky Sports Cricket pundit and former England and Kent batter Rob Key attributed a lot of blame to county pitches, saying they are not producing ready-made Test cricketers…

“I sound like a broken record on pitches as that’s absolutely where I see it,” Key told the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast.

“Less so with the time games are played, although that is a factor, as I think pitches are bad mid-season, as well at the start and the end. If you look at the runs scored last year, there were more in April than at other periods.

“So it is the pitches and you have to understand the real problem. It’s not just about counties wanting results pitches.

“There is a bigger problem than that and that’s why we are not producing cricketers. Batters, spinners in particular.

“My career spanned the good and bad of county pitches. I started when the pitches improved and then, in 2005, you ended up with some of those cricketers that came out of that system.

“From 2010 onwards, I was standing there batting and getting nicked off for fun. Mainly because I was inept but also because it got a lot tougher. The cricket wasn’t as hard, the bowling wasn’t as good.

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Paul Farbrace says England don’t have enough batters who are able to cope with the scrutiny of Test cricket

“In the early 2000s, there were Kolpak players and two overseas players at every county on good pitches.

“You learnt your trade – the different paces you had to bat at. In a day’s batting you had so many different things you had to deal with. That just doesn’t happen anymore.

“What I would suggest to people at the ECB is to really try and work out why these pitches are really not great.”

England captain Joe Root said his seamers bowled too short during their 275-run defeat to Australia in Adelaide – which led to former Baggy Greens captain Ricky Ponting saying Root should have been more forceful with his bowlers to make them change their approach.

Sky Sports Cricket pundit Michael Atherton, who spoke with Ponting during the Adelaide Test about bowling in Australia, believes England’s lack of experience on flatter surfaces told.

Atherton said: “Good pitches produce good bowlers.

Australia’s bowlers were not fazed by a flat track but England’s were, says Michael Atherton

“Australia’s bowlers are not fazed by a flat pitch on a hot day with no or little lateral movement whereas England generally are because they don’t have the opportunity in the English game so much.

“I was chatting to Ricky and he said that because the ball moves for 80 overs in England you can almost bowl quite conservatively at the start, rein in your figures, in the knowledge that you are going to be in the game all day long.

“Ricky said that in Australia you have to flip that around because you are only going to get movement for 15 or 20 overs. You really have to attack and risk going for runs at the start and then move to that slightly more attritional, grinding phase.

“Pitches are really important, I think. New Zealand really hammered the pitches to become a much better side. They improved the standard of pitches to improve the standard of play.

“We heard a lot about England’s planning before this Ashes series and I think a lot of the overthinking is to make up for there not being obvious players to pick coming out of a county game which has generally been pushed to the margins and is played on iffy pitches.

“What you want is a steady supply of top-class cricketers and then the cream rising to the top due to natural competition but I don’t think that is there at the moment.”

England did not pick Jack Leach (pictured) or fellow spinner Dom Bess in the second Ashes Test

England opted against the frontline spin of either Jack Leach or Dom Bess on a dry Adelaide surface, instead playing five English-style seamers in James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes, Ollie Robinson and Ben Stokes.

Atherton and Key’s fellow pundit Nasser Hussain believes that is a sad indictment of England’s view on their spin-bowling options – but says producing turning pitches in country cricket is not the answer.

“Pitches may also address why England get to Adelaide and leave out a spinner,” said the former England captain.

“The stats will tell them that finger spin doesn’t do well in Australia – unless you are Nathan Lyon. Especially English finger spin since Graeme Swann.

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Graeme Swann gave an insight into the mind of an off-spinner on an episode of The Cricket Show

“But I’d love to know how English cricket has got to a stage where you see that pitch in Adelaide – where Lyon got turn and bounce and went past the outside edge ball after ball – and they don’t feel they have a spinner good enough for those conditions.

“It goes to pitches and your seamers doing all the work in country cricket – but it’s also turning pitches.

“If you produce a real turning pitch at Taunton, for example, then Bess – who I know has now moved on from Somerset to Yorkshire – gets away with his lengths, gets away with the drag-down and the full toss as he knows that, sooner or later, one will turn and bounce.

“Leach, who plays at Taunton, can get away with not getting the drop Lyon gets. He doesn’t have to deceive the batter before it bounces because that Taunton pitch will look after that.

“When we had Swann on The Cricket Show last year, he said the best thing for him was moving from Wantage Road at Northampton where it spun to Trent Bridge at Nottingham where it didn’t. He had to learn to deceive the batter, learn to get drift and drop.

“Pitches also bring spinners and playing of spin into it and I think that is something we need to look at.”