England in New Zealand

[punterpupnroy]

i havent seen or heard much of flintoff whats happend to freddie.

 

[Ollie_H]

Hes injured probably out till the summer..If he doesnt get it right this time that could be it.

 

[Animator!]

Currently undergoing rehabilitation on his ankle surgery, hoping to give it one more crack with the ball for the season coming, if not and he breaks down again he intents to return solely as a batsman.

 

[Leicester Fox]

We need him and SoJo back badly, and Tres Squads tomorrow, I wouldn't mind seeing Ramps, it was apparent that most of our batsmen just weren't good enough in Sri Lanka. Will be interesting to see anyway but hopefully KP will come back to form. Really theres only 2 places in the starting XI up for grabs. Chances are they'll go with Bopara which I won't have an issue with in New Zealand where the conditions are completely different to Sri Lanka where Shah should have played and they got it wrong. Still the experience our younger players are getting on these tours is invaluable. For the third seamers spot it'll go to Harmy and I can't really argue with it although I'd go for Broad every time, can bat and is much more reliable. My targets for the series are
a) the batsmen try
b) the bowlers actually get wickets
c) we actually catch the ball when it's doesn't bounce

It'll be tough bt at the minute I'd say these are just about within reach of exteremly poor bunch of cricketers. Their pathetic, I'm still angry about that batting performance at Gaulle. Their crap.

 

[King Pietersen]

Galle. They're.



We only failed badly in 1 innings in Sri Lanka, the batsmen are professionals, and worked their socks off. If you believe that Cook, Vaughan, KP, Belly, Colly, Ravi and Prior didnt try their utmost in Galle then you're very mistaken. Every team has the odd shocker, i'm sure even Australia have had the odd just over 100 score in the past few years. The team are commited, pro cricketers, i'm sure they'd find it incredibly insulting that you think that they didnt try.

We WILL win the NZ test series though, mark my words .

 

[Leicester Fox]

the batsmen didn't try hard enough, if they'd concentrated harder they wouldn't have gotten out, reading Steve Waughs book recently has pretty much confirmed htis in my mind, unless you get a jaffer getting out is your fault and because your attitude wasn't right, they could have survived that ball. Someone should have stood up but they didn't because our team has no character.

Australia haven't had any low scores, the lowest in recent times that actually mattered was 250 and that was because Monty's a legend. Even if they did bat as appalingly as we did no that they ever would, then the bowlers would have bounced back and given them a chance.

 

[Animator!]

Bopara should get left out at the expence of Strauss coming back into the side. He had a chance and was appaulling, even his fielding was dire, therefore it'd be unfair to drop Shah as he wasn't given a chance to prove himself. Mustard should be left out of the squad as well, hopefully with Foster coming in as second choice and eventual first choice if Prior doesn't score big and keep brilliantly in the first test.

 

[Sureshot]

http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/england/content/current/story/328905.html

Prior dropped. No idea why he can't be back up to Ambrose though, having 2 inexperienced keepers is quite a stupid decision imo. I'm surprised, I thought Prior had done enough, I understand the reasons behind it though. I'm still unsure of Strauss though.

 

[Ollie_H]

I think the reason is mostly the same as why Mustard backed Prior up in Sri Lanka, If Mustard and Ambrose go to the ODI's then they both know the players and the conditions and it then doesnt mean that they have to bring in another keeper who then has to aclimatize,

Looks like Mustard will keep in the ODI's and Ambrose in the Tests

Also it doesnt look like Graveny is bothered with the nationality background so it may be chance for other who are gaining their British Citizenzhip

 

[rabeta]

I'm not too pleased with that squad. I don't think Prior should have been dropped, he should have been back-up to Ambrose if that's the way they wanted to go. Mustard should not play test cricket for a while yet when looking at his first-class average compared with Prior's. A good idea that Monty goes on the Lions tour as it gives him a chance to prove that he did in fact learn a lot from the tour to Sri Lanka. Going back to Strauss is a negative choice imo, and also shows how the selectors do not believe we have much depth batting wise.

Other than that the squad kinda picked itself.

 

[Sureshot]

Mustard is a fad, I'm not happy with those two being keepers tbh. We've practically wasted all that time we've spent on Prior. Given how our senior batsman have been poor, we need a run scoring keeper, Prior average 40 in Sri Lanka and did well imo. Ambrose is good though, don't know much about his keeping. I just hope Mustard doesn't play, cos he ain't good enough.

 

[usy]

Guys tell me more about Luke Wright . Looks like a sussex player .

 

[Ollie_H]

As Bob Willis said though he may have cost us over 1000 runs in Sri Lanka with his drops and extras

 

[Sureshot]

Bob Willis is a senile fool who should be in a home with wardens. His keeping wasn't that bad, a scapegoat for a poor team effort. Where's the lambasting of the awful batsmen? or Monty?

Usy, Wright is a batsman (who bowls a bit of RMF, about 80ish), he came about in last years 20-20. His selection is a surprise, can't see him being anything more than back up.

 

[rabeta]

Basically, the selectors have just given into media pressure by dropping Prior. They should have more faith in the coaches to help improve players, such as Prior.