Rob Smyth can't understand how Owais Shah has the dropped from the one-day squad to South Africa. Smyth writes in the Wisden Cricketer that Shah has scored more runs, made more fifty-plus scores and hit more sixes than anyone else in England since Shah's recall to the one-day side in 2007.
The simple fact is that, with the bat, Shah does everything England don’t do in one-day cricket. He hits sixes, huge ones too. He has a force that, at its strongest, cannot be contained, which was demonstrated only three innings ago with his match winning 98 against South Africa, when he creamed 45 from his final 20 deliveries. He milks spinners effortlessly, a traditional failing of England (If you compare the 55 matches since Shah’s recall in 2007 with the 55 matches before, opposition spinners have conceded 0.44 runs per over and 6.30 runs per wicket more), and has the confidence to confront them, as he famously did on his Test debut in Mumbai. He looks the opponent in the eye and ask them what they’ve got.
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