Part two of the preview concentrates on the wicket keepers. Neither one would necessarily satisfy the Society for Pure Wicket Keepers, but both reflect the changes to the modern game.
Brad Haddin was a bit lucky to come straight back into the side given Tim Paine's good performances in both England and India, although that argument is now academic with Paine having been injured in a pointless Twenty20 match. At his best, as at Lord’s and Cardiff last year, Haddin is a free flowing batsman, easy on the eye and effective on the scoreboard, but he’s not so good at adjusting his game to more difficult conditions and his keeping can, sometimes, be a bit of a liability. With Paine out of the equation he can be confident of lasting the series providing that he can stay fit, but his long term future must be in question.
I could never have imagined writing this a couple of years, but it is more than likely that Matt Prior will be the more accomplished of the two keepers. Bruce French must take a lot of the credit for transforming Prior from a cymbal playing seal into a confident and composed keeper, but he has also clearly worked hard. He’s still far from blemish free, but he now looks like an international keeper rather than a second XI club player filling in because the regular keeper is stuck in traffic. He had a good summer with the bat and will be keen to add to his three test centuries, while the Australian bowlers will look to exploit the occasional wafty drive outside off stump.
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