Australia vs England ODI Series - 7 matches - Sep 4 to Sep 20

[The_gas]

Ok, im going for broke. Bring on the flames.

Here would be my squad.

Strauss
Denly
Trott
Colly
Anyone but Prior (even Carl Gazzard)
Napier
Wright
Swann
Broad
Rashid
Anderson

 

[Brook]

What I want to know is, why is no-one willing to shake up the bowling?

 

[Owzat]

What I want to know is, why is no-one willing to shake up the bowling?

Because the batsmen are more easily blamed with relatively low totals, even though England have taken only 20 wickets in the four ODIs so far and done little to help their batsmen. If giving an honest appraisal and rating of the batting and bowling so far, you might give the batting a 5/10 but I think the bowling wouldn't score much more than 5 or 6 either. They may not have 300+ to defend, but if they don't take wickets then it doesn't matter how many runs they have to defend unless it hits the realms of seriously unrealistic

 

[Ollie_H]

What I want to know is, why is no-one willing to shake up the bowling?

Put some names into the hat then.

We have only made one change? are you screwing with me?1?!?! We have been dire at best!

EDIT: I laughed out loud when Ponting said they were 'resting' Lee, who has played 4 games all summer

 

[The_gas]

The problem is the pitches have generally been pretty good. Its just our batsmen have all the talent of a turd, and so we're making the aussie bowlers look better than they already are.

 

[Jakester1288]

WTF is Lee resting for?

Dear god.

 

[King Pietersen]

We can't make any changes. There's no-one in the squad worth bringing in, bar Swann who should clearly be in the side.

The XI I'd love to pick would be:

Andrew Strauss *
Craig Kieswetter +
Kevin Pietersen
Jonathan Trott
Ravi Bopara
Andrew Flintoff
Luke Wright
Graham Napier
Stuart Broad
Adil Rashid
Graeme Swann

Other guys that would be close to the squad would be Alex Hales, James Foster, Ed Joyce, Ryan Sidebottom and Saj Mahmood. I like the bowling options when everyone's fit. Have 5 frontline bowlers in Broad, Napier, Flintoff, Rashid and Swann, and then there are other guys like Wright, Bopara, Trott and Pietersen that can chip in with handy overs. It's a miles better XI than this side.

The main problem would come if Flintoff never gets fit, as I don't think there's anyone else who can replace him. Masceranhas and Bresnan are ok cricketers but they're not Flintoff's, and I wouldn't want to bring in a bowler who can't bat, as I'm not 100% confident in Wright at 6 and Napier at 7 without more than Broad and Rashid below them, so I'd probably be forced to go with Bresnan, who tbf to him has done ok in this series.

For this series I'd have replaced Kieswetter with Steve Davies, as Kieswetter's not qualified, and then swapped KP with Hales. Maybe a risky pick, but I really like what I see with Hales. He's got a solid technique, is incredibly powerful and would give us some real impetus at the top of the order. Be a perfect replacement for KP. The above XI is the one I'd go with when everyone's fit/qualified though.

Edit: Eugh, that's a depressing stat. Shah is England's leading run-scorer in ODi's in the last 2 years. Shows how bad we are.

If Bumble mentions Trego in this section I'll be very annoyed.

Oh no, Hussain's beaten him to it.

 

[Ollie_H]

Time to reflect on the series, which is already dead. It's funny that each time you sit down to slam England's one-day team, you're gently reminded that they just won a series not too long ago. They beat (a full-strength) West Indies, at home and away, remember?

Interesting point made by Cricinfo, but it is only West Indies.

Team vs West Indies:
AJ Strauss* , RS Bopara, MJ Prior†, OA Shah, PD Collingwood, EJG Morgan, AD Mascarenhas, SCJ Broad, GP Swann, TT Bresnan, JM Anderson

Team vs Australia:
Andrew Strauss*, Joe Denly, Ravi Bopara, Matt Prior (wk), Owais Shah, Eoin Morgan, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Stuart Broad, Adil Rashid, Tim Bresnan, Ryan Sidebottom

4 Changes in that side. One beat the West Indies 3-2 and then 2-0. The other is losing 4-0 to Australia. I don't think this shows that we are a good ODI unit cos we beat WI but that the WI and England are at such a lower standard then Aus, SA and India.

EDIT: Napier looks like a better play than Trego.

 

[Howsie]

What's wrong with Tim Bresnan, I've actually been impressed with him tbh. He gets way too much flak.

 

[Brook]

What about Gareth Andrew, looked very good for Worcs last night and is equal highest wicket taker in Pro40 this year.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

What I want to know is why they won't give Napier a go! Surely he can't do any worse than this bunch of muppets.

 

[Ollie_H]

Now this is the way you should use the powerplay! Other countries, watch and learn!

 

[Brook]

England trying a new strategy: don't bother scoring any runs, it'll be over quicker.

 

[King Pietersen]

This is an interesting tactic. Bat the full 50 overs for 50/0. Not convinced it'll work personally.

 

[Will_NA]

What's wrong with Tim Bresnan, I've actually been impressed with him tbh. He gets way too much flak.

He doesn't get wickets and he can't bat. He seems to think hitting the wickets means he loses.