Australia in England - 2009 Ashes Tour

[Therbs]

I'm disappointed that Kreszjckczxkszja ( or Kraaaazzzze) doesn't fit in. We need more crazy eastern Europeans.

 

[Covvy]

Well i better start getting behind the aussie from now. I hope Hilfenhaus plays. He could be a factor with his swing.

 

[jordox]

I thought I would do a quick un-biased rating of each posistion.

Cook-Hughes
Strauss-Katich
Bopara-Ponting
Pietersen-Hussey
Collingwood-Clarke
Flintoff-North?
Prior-Haddin
Broad-Johnson
Swann-Hauritz
Sidebottom-Siddle
Anderson-Clark

4-3 to Aus.

Hate it when people do this.

Sport doesn't work like this, especially cricket. It's not a case of who is better than the opposing number, it's a case of who does good on the day. Sure, Ponting is better than Bopara - but what does that even mean in the context of the match?

Absolutely nothing.

 

[Howsie]

Hate it when people do this.

Sport doesn't work like this, especially cricket. It's not a case of who is better than the opposing number, it's a case of who does good on the day. Sure, Ponting is better than Bopara - but what does that even mean in the context of the match?

Absolutely nothing.

Of course it means something. If Bangladesh were playing Australia and I was to take the whole Australian team do you think people would say things like well of course Ponting is better then Ashraful but on the day does that mean anything. The guys in bold are the players I think will do better then thier opposite number.

 

[evertonfan]

I agree with Jordox tbh. Ponting is definitely better than Bopara but what if Bopara scores two hundreds in a match and Ponting scores none and England win, then Bopara outclassed his man. Does it mean Bopara's the better player? Absolutely not. It just shows that in cricket anything can happen.

 

[King Pietersen]

Ravi is a better player. He's English

England are for some strange reason announcing a 17 man squad for the Series later this week. Hopefully they'll pick the right 17 and ignore Vaughan, Panesar and Bresnan, but I can see them all making the squad. The 17 man squad I'd pick would be:

Andrew Strauss *
Alastair Cook
Ravi Bopara
Kevin Pietersen
Paul Collingwood
Matthew Prior +
Andrew Flintoff
Stuart Broad
Graeme Swann
Ryan Sidebottom
James Anderson

Graham Onions
Tim Ambrose/Steven Davies
Samit Patel
Ian Bell
Adil Rashid
Stephen Harmison (has decent enough figures in FC games this year)

No Panesar, no Vaughan and no Bresnan for me. Harmison scrapes his way in after checking out the FC stats for this season and he has outperformed Hoggard, so gets in ahead of him. I can see the selectors making a balls up of the 17 though and including MSP, Vaughan, Bresnan, ignoring Rashid, Patel and Harmison. Hopefully not though, hopefully they'll pick the right squad for once, although I don't see the need for a 17 man squad for a home series tbh.

 

[evertonfan]

The England selectors have always lacked bottle and always will lack bottle. Vaughan and Panesar will be playing at Cardiff I guarantee you.

 

[Gilly Fan]

Do you know if it's being shown around the world?

It's on Fox Sports here in Australia.

 

[Yorkshire_No1]

I agree with Jordox tbh. Ponting is definitely better than Bopara but what if Bopara scores two hundreds in a match and Ponting scores none and England win, then Bopara outclassed his man. Does it mean Bopara's the better player? Absolutely not. It just shows that in cricket anything can happen.

Exactly it's all on form and confidence.

I can see Bopara having a really good series though, he just has this attitude and natural talent to swat the Aussie bowlers around the park.

 

[King Pietersen]

I'm not sure. I'm yet to see him play a chanceless knock for England. He was lucky to score those 3 hundreds against West Indies, with them dropping a catch in every innings. He has got alot of talent, but he needs to keep his concentration for the whole innings and stop playing loose strokes to square leg.

 

[Mercules]

No Panesar, no Vaughan and no Bresnan for me. Harmison scrapes his way in after checking out the FC stats for this season and he has outperformed Hoggard, so gets in ahead of him. I can see the selectors making a balls up of the 17 though and including MSP, Vaughan, Bresnan, ignoring Rashid, Patel and Harmison. Hopefully not though, hopefully they'll pick the right squad for once, although I don't see the need for a 17 man squad for a home series tbh.

They won't drop Rashid after dragging him all over the Windies.

They'll definitely pick Panesar over Patel though and find some way to fit Vaughan in.


I'd prefer Owais over Bell though.

 

[Gilly Fan]

Haven't the selectors learnt from the previous Ashes?

They selected Giles and Jones and they were pathetic. It took until the series was over to pick Read and the series was more or less over when Monty was chosen. Will they stuff it up again by picking Vaughan?

 

[RoboRocks]

Ravi is a better player. He's English

England are for some strange reason announcing a 17 man squad for the Series later this week. Hopefully they'll pick the right 17 and ignore Vaughan, Panesar and Bresnan, but I can see them all making the squad. The 17 man squad I'd pick would be:

Andrew Strauss *
Alastair Cook
Ravi Bopara
Kevin Pietersen
Paul Collingwood
Matthew Prior +
Andrew Flintoff
Stuart Broad
Graeme Swann
Ryan Sidebottom
James Anderson

Graham Onions
Tim Ambrose/Steven Davies
Samit Patel
Ian Bell
Adil Rashid
Stephen Harmison (has decent enough figures in FC games this year)

No Panesar, no Vaughan and no Bresnan for me. Harmison scrapes his way in after checking out the FC stats for this season and he has outperformed Hoggard, so gets in ahead of him. I can see the selectors making a balls up of the 17 though and including MSP, Vaughan, Bresnan, ignoring Rashid, Patel and Harmison. Hopefully not though, hopefully they'll pick the right squad for once, although I don't see the need for a 17 man squad for a home series tbh.

The squad is to see which players will be considered for The Ashes, then the squad will be narrowed down to the usual 12 before the first test.

Two spinners in the squad will have to be a certainty and hopefully they both play since we all know what the Cardiff pitch is going to be like.

Vaughan shouldn't be apart of the 17. He's made no scores of note for Yorkshire and there must be a thought now that Vaughan is in the past.

Bell and Shah should be apart of the 17 but won't be apart of The Ashes.

They also might look at Tim Bresnan as a back up all rounder for Flintoff but really Broad, Rashid and Swann all can bat, so probably no real need.

 

[King Pietersen]

I'd take Patel ahead of Shah tbh. Offers a genuine bowling option and is probably better in the field. Screw the fitness, he's a good enough player, and he is fit enough to play regular cricket for Notts, so he's fit enough to do it for England. FC average of almost 48 with the bat and a bowling average of 33 which is only 1 short of Monty Panesar's bowling record. Get him in the 17 man squad and then once Colly's past it get him in the XI.

 

[King Pietersen]

Three Test centuries in a row from Ravi Bopara did not impress Shane Warne, who doesn't think the allrounder is good enough for the international arena. Bopara starred against West Indies in his previous three matches, including two hundreds at No. 3, but Warne doubts his temperament.

"Bopara is a good first-class cricketer, but he is not an international cricketer,'' Warne told the Daily Mirror. "I think he's got all the talent in the world, but I just don't think he's got the temperament.

"He can be put off his game too easily and he's too worried about how he looks. Let's hope England aren't relying on Bopara [for the Ashes] because they could be in trouble.''

Don't rely on Bopara for the Ashes - Warne | Cricket News | The Ashes - England v Australia 2009 | Cricinfo.com

Hopefully these'll be just the sort of comments to fire Ravi up and get him playing as well as he can. I don't agree with Warne's statements at all. Not many guys would have been able to get over such a poor series against Sri Lanka at a young age and come back and score 3 hundreds in 3 innings. Sure they were against the West Indies, but it takes alot of mental strength and ability to make 3 centuries in 3 innings irrespective of the opposition. Man I hate Australians......