EXCLUSIVE: Owais Shah Reveals He Had To Vacate His Position For Jonathan Trott In England's ODI Setup
Published - 20 Apr 2020, 01:56 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 07:56 AM
Table of Contents
England’s former middle-order batsman Owais Shah has said that even after doing good for the country in ODI cricket, he couldn’t fix his spot as he had to vacate his seat for Jonathan Trott in the side. Owais is widely considered to be a wasted talent, and many times, questions have been raised over England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) for not doing justice with his potential.
Owais played for England from 2001 until 2009 and couldn’t scale the heights that he was destined to. He made his ODI debut in the year 2001 against Australia and had the privilege of playing against one of the greatest teams in cricketing history.
Although Owais was considered to be a prodigious talent growing up, his international career did not reflect the same. Owais last played for England in the ICC Champions Trophy 2009 and has now lifted the lid on why he didn’t get any further chance.
He Had To Make Way For Jonathan Trott In ODIs: Owais Shah
Speaking exclusively to CricketAddictor.com Owais said, “Looking back, ECB were focussing more on Test cricket and I wasn’t the number 3 batsman in Test cricket. I think Ravi Bopara and Jonathan Trott were the number three players. Ravi had one series and then by the end of that Ashes series Trott came in and got a hundred.”
Owais added, “So I guess he was the Test number three and I think there was a push from ECB trying to push the same guy to bat at number 3 in both formats and I had to make way for Trott to come in and play both forms of the game as Test cricket was the priority for England cricket at that time.”
Owais Shah Remained An Unsettled Figure In The English Team
Owais Shah never really sealed a spot for him in the England setup. Although he went on to play 71 ODIs for the English team, he could never really settle for longer stints. He made his ODI debut in 2001, and after a few games, he was dropped from the team. His Test debut came in the year 2006 and even after performing exceptionally well in his Test debut, he had to wait for almost 15 months to get a chance in his second Test match.
