Is Jade Dernbach Really That Bad? No, But The Selectors Are

Jade Dernbach - The worst international cricketer ever?

Jade Dernbach - officially the worst International Twenty20 (and ODI) bowler of all time. The fact that Dernbach has the worst economy rate ever is not an easy one to shake off. But is he really the worst ever, or merely a man put in the wrong place by those lacking the imagination to do otherwise?

Dernbach isn’t an easy bloke to sympathise with, having the air of a man who looks like he’s been dragged from the VIP area of a club in some God forsaken satellite town. That’s not to mention those tattoos that make him look like the lovechild of a lizard and a Liverpool defender.

Yet perhaps Jade is too obvious a scapegoat for England’s wider failings in the short form of the game – a player whose attitude and confidence leads him to take on burdens that shouldn’t perhaps be his, thus magnifying his own inadequacies while others’ shortcomings remain hidden.

Alec Stewart predictably sprung to his Surrey charge’s defence this week, telling The Guardian why England fans are wrong to target the hapless Dernbach, telling The Guardian:

“Jade has been seen over a period of time now as one of the very best white-ball bowlers in Twenty20 cricket both up front and, especially, at the back end of the innings. He bowls those tough overs, up front in the powerplay and then generally the 18th and 20th overs – the toughest times. So the selectors and the captain have seen him do that [for Surrey] and that's why he's earned the right to play for England.”

In this respect one has to concede that Stewart has a point – among England qualified fast-medium bowlers few have a better claim to a place than Dernbach. Only Boyd Rankin -streets ahead but injured, two left-armers - Harry Gurney of Nottinghamshire and David Willey of Northants, plus the out of favour Graham Onions are ahead of the much maligned Jade in terms of economy rate in the 2013 FP Twenty20. Dernbach possesses a superior average to all but Rankin and Willey.

Allowing selectors the selectors a degree of discretion to pick Dernbach over Willey (especially with the Captain Broad also being a left-armer), then it would seem that Stewart’s right – Dernbach’s place is completely merited, especially given Surrey's near success in the competition last year.

However the fact remains that the 28-year-old continues to struggle to do the job for which he’s picked – bowling at the business end of games against the best T20 players in the world.

In his interview, Stewart tacitly admits as much, saying: "If  he's bowling these tough overs he is going to be exposed at times, as we saw against South Africa with AB de Villiers – I don't care who was bowling the way AB was playing, with that hand-eye coordination and improvisation, he would've taken anyone to the cleaners.”

Again there is some truth to what Stewart is saying – few bowlers in the world would relish bowling to de Villiers, and one certainly wouldn’t be particularly confident watching some of Dernbach’s close companions in the stats, 38-year-old Jon Lewis and former England boo-boy Rikki Clarke trundling in to bowl to the likes of de Villiers, Jayawardene, Gayle and co.

Are we then doomed to mediocrity? To another few years of watching Dernbach dispatched? Perhaps – T20 cricket is, like a virus or bacteria a supremely fast evolving entity, and in its current phase it seems like fast-medium bowlers, unless possessing remarkable talents like Lasith Malinga, Dale Steyn and Mitchell Johnson, are little more than fodder for the world’s top batsmen.

The hard-working fast-medium bowler who works on his variations to try and catch a batsman out seems to have become redundant at a time when miscues fly over the boundary and even a player with the aggressive impulses of Chris Gayle has become far more selective in apportioning his destruction. The tactic of subtly varied seam bowling may work at county level, but it seems to have been worked out at the highest one.

Selection issue: Jade Dernbach with coach Ashley Giles and skipper Stuart Broad

Discounting the associate members, whose statistics are effected by the preliminary round, the only bowler who can be regarded as medium-fast in thetop 10 economy rates in the tournament is New Zeland’s Trent Boult. The only other to make the top 20 is Malinga.

The question then doesn’t become “Why on Earth are England picking Jade Dernbach?” But, “Why are they picking a type of player like Jade Dernbach?”

The most potent sides in Bangladesh have strangely enough been those loaded with tweakers. This isn’t a surprise when the most potent weapon in T20 cricket is the ‘mystery spinner’, but the story of this World Cup has been the impressive performances of their more orthodox support acts (in particular leg-spinners) – Samuel Badree and Imran Tahir have been two of the bowlers of the tournament, while Ashwin and Mishra could make a case. The performance of the tournament so far was by the old stager Rangana Herath, who destroyed a confident New Zeland’s hopes of the Semis.

England’s starting XI sans Dernbach contains three fast-medium bowlers in Broad, Bresnan and Jordan. All of these to varying degrees offer something other than just their bowling. Again, even given his status as one of the premier English exponents of his specific craft, why is a player like Dernbach necessary to the team? Surely Stuart Broad is capable of ‘death bowling’, while another spinner or all-rounder works with Moin Ali, Bresnan, Bopara and Jordan to fill the 20 overs?

Strangely, given their two decade long lesson in how not to run a cricket federation, one only has to look to the West Indies to see how to do things properly. Knowing that they lack a Malinga or Steyn the Windies have realised that there’s little point in picking Ravi Rampaul, with seam duties taken by capable lower order hitters Andre Russell, Darren Sammy and Dwayne Bravo, alongside left-arm swing dobber Krishnan Santokie, a player who is yet to play a single first-class match. All those classified as similar bowlers to Dernbach offer something to the team besides their bowling, meaning one can accept a slightly poor economy rate, given the fact that they could also rescue a flailing innings with a succession of lusty blows.

With an inventive selection tailored to the conditions The Windies have produced a team capable of competing with the sub-continental super-powers, despite their lack of a top seam bowler. English cricket fans meanwhile are left wondering why we’ve picked a team so uninspired in its composition that in T20 terms it's positively Neolithic, with Dernbach carrying the can as the most visible symbol of our inadequacies.

The West Indies: Reaping the rewards of an inventive selection

It’s almost enough to make you feel sorry for Jade, despite his questionable body-art. The Surrey man has been offered a fool’s errand and is now taking all manner of abuse for it. Perhaps we shouldn’t be attacking ‘the worst international cricketer in the world’ and be serving up some more ire to the ineptitude of those setting him up to fail, as well as those unprepared to take up the responsibilities he to his credit, doesn’t shirk.