Thursday 29 December 2011

Scout Report: Ed Cowan

Watching the first day of the Australia versus India series gave everyone a good chance to analyse the newest opening batting partnership, and gave me a first look at Ed Cowan. He's a very traditional opening batsman, in that he sees his job as to blunt the new ball to allow the middle order stroke-players to play around him.

Cowan started his fist innings in test cricket pretty slowly, at one point having only 2 runs off his first 23 balls but this didn't panic him. He kept leaving good balls on length and started to expand his scoring, with one beautiful straight drive the pick of his shots.

He's not the most technically excellent, his open stance means he loses out on a lot of free balls on leg stump and the fact his stance is so wide can hamper him in going fully back and fully forward. But his mental strength is such that he can overcome these faults, and he made a battling 68 from 177 balls before getting a stinker of a decision, given caught behind when he clearly didn't hit the ball. 

In the second innings, he was LBW leaving a ball from Yadav alone. Hawk eye showed him to be a little unlucky with that decision too, but the perils of leaving the ball too much when it's swinging came to the fore. This dismissal shouldn't overshadow a very decent test debut, he's a player who seems to have all the tools to be part of a solid opening partnership.

Performance 7/10
Potential 7/10

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