You call them inexperienced?

First there was American guitar legend Jimi Hendrix and his band The Experience Now we have England cricket coach and selector Chris Silverwood and his inexperienced groupSilverwoodrsquos rationale for Englandrsquos abysmal batting displays against New Zealand was the inexperience of the players involved This assessment especially considering Silverwood chose those batsmen doesnrsquot bear much scrutinyA glance at the opposition lineup immediately peels back the layers of credibility surrounding Silverwoodrsquos excuse New Zealand opener Devon Conway made a double century on debut at Lordrsquosmdashit didnrsquot take him long to acclimatiseConway is one of seven players to make a double century on Test debut and hersquos not even the first Kiwi as Matthew Sinclair achieved the feat against the West Indies in 1999Chris SilverwoodWill Young New Zealandrsquos No 3 at Edgbaston made an accomplished 82 in only his third Test innings when he was drafted in to replace injured skipper Kane WilliamsonWilliamson is another centurymaker on debut he did it against India in 2010 and currently has 24 Test hundreds overallAlso ReadWTC Final Day 3 Kyle Jamiesons fifer sinks India NZ 1012 at stumpsNo guaranteesMaking a century on debut doesnrsquot necessarily lead to a long and successful career In 1973 New Zealandrsquos Rodney Redmond made 107 and 56 on debut against Pakistan but inexplicably was never chosen againNevertheless there have been some outstanding debuts that have led to glittering careers Australiarsquos Doug Walters and Indiarsquos Mohammed Azharuddin are two prime examples Walters made 155 on debut at the Gabba against England and followed it with another century in the next Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground He scored 15 Test centuries in all three of them coming in a sessionAzharuddin in the parlance of Waltersrsquos favourite cardplaying pastime went see you and raise you one Azhar scored centuries in his first three Tests and then amassed a further 19Coming back to Silverwoodrsquos claim If you leave aside Joe Root the one topclass Test batsman in Englandrsquos lineup how inexperienced are the restRory Burns has three Test centuries in 46 innings including one in the first Test against New Zealand Fellow opener Dom Sibley has two Test centuries in 35 innings Both Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley have scored a Test century in their short careers with the latterrsquos being a doubleThat leaves only Dan Lawrence among the toporder without a Test century He was denied the chance of one in the first innings at Edgbaston when the lower order left him stranded on 81 not outGenerally the completion of a first Test century is not only a relief but also provides a batsman with the belief hersquos good enough to compete at the highest level Not always but often this then leads to a successful careerRather than resorting to the lame excuse of inexperience Silverwood ought to look at the system that produces these batsmen and some of the ludicrous theories that are evolving from that environmentOf the four leading Test nationsmdashIndia New Zealand England and Australiamdashthe county competition is the one that suffers most from the escalation of shortform cricket and the convoluted scheduling that produces This is often cited as the reason for some overambitious strokeplay from young English batsmen Irsquod counter by saying if yoursquove scored a Test century then you should have a rough idea how to construct an inningsSome of the English batting techniques defy logic their performance in India recently is the worst Irsquove seen against spin bowling The tendency for taking offstump guard as standard procedure is a recipe for failure as itrsquos designed to avoid dismissal rather than what batting should be aboutfinding a method to score runsPorous defenceShortform cricket may be to blame for some of the England batsmenrsquos lack of discipline at Test level but so to is a porous defence which often leads to panicstricken shot selectionIn 1967 Hendrix released an album titled Are You Experienced The answer for a batsman who has scored a Test centurymdashreasonably