England in West Indies

[RoboRocks]

Agreed, he's just had problems with fitness lately and hasn't been able to bowl with the pace he previously showed. Hopefully he's proved his fitness now and we'll see the Sidebottom that was so brilliant in 2007.

 

[Dare]

anyone know of any updated scorecards? I see on cric info that WI A are 18/1 but it doesn't show who the openers are.


edit: wow 155/1, youngsters doing really good.

 

[Themer]

Swann looks like he's been poor/under par so far 55-0 from 15 overs will probably mean Monty keeps his place especially after he bowled well in the first match.

 

[King Pietersen]

England back to normal Warm-up game form. Swann's been spanked, Harmison's got similar treatment. Sidebottom and Anderson have done Ok, Sidebottom's been nicely economical. Simmons is clearly batting well out there, 98 from 157 balls is very decent, especially against a fairly good attack. Can see the attack for the first Test being Anderson, Broad, Sidebottom, Flintoff and Panesar. Probably our best attack tbh, Harmison seems to have lost it again, doesn't ever seem particularly threatening anymore.

 

[.Mob]

Wow. It could be just a very flat track, but England's attack seem so light without Fred, you need to be better than this to have any hope of winning back the Ashes. I guess you could put it down to a bad day or just a very good partnership etc, but it's still the WI A team.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

Swann's getting totally destroyed at the moment, which is not good as Monty's place is pretty much guaranteed. I'd have preferred Swann in the first test over Monty to be honest but who knows, Monty might do well.

 

[King Pietersen]

This won't be the attack that goes into the Ashes though, not anywhere near. Sidebottom's just come back from a long spell out with injury, there's no Talisman in Fred, Panesar's not playing and there's also no Broad, who although his Test record currently flatters to decieve, he does have the potential to be a class act in Test cricket. I'm guessing it's a pretty flat track though tbh, especially for Swann to be smashed around with such ease. Can't take it away from the Windies boys though, they've clearly batted well!

Mani, why would you have preferred Swann? Monty just had a bad tour of India, one which he came into lacking match practise. He's also been working hard with Mushy, and the results proved that in the 1st Warm Up. Monty would definitely be in my team, when he's on top form he's a class act.

 

[.Mob]

Yeah, that's true, but what it just looks so much weaker without Freddie. Plus, it could be a flat track, but you'd still expect a supposed Test bowling line up to do better against, well, first class cricketers.

 

[King Pietersen]

Yeh, but it's England, and we're crap!

 

[.Mob]

Damn straight.

 

[WestIndian]

anyone know of any updated scorecards? I see on cric info that WI A are 18/1 but it doesn't show who the openers are.

edit: wow 155/1, youngsters doing really good.

Yes decent batting by the young ones, Simmons is no stranger to the game at the level and am happy for Barath, he is finally getting a taste of bowlers at the highest level, sadly none of the forms part of the first test squad!!!

 

[Dr. Pepper]

This won't be the attack that goes into the Ashes though, not anywhere near. Sidebottom's just come back from a long spell out with injury, there's no Talisman in Fred, Panesar's not playing and there's also no Broad, who although his Test record currently flatters to decieve, he does have the potential to be a class act in Test cricket. I'm guessing it's a pretty flat track though tbh, especially for Swann to be smashed around with such ease. Can't take it away from the Windies boys though, they've clearly batted well!

Mani, why would you have preferred Swann? Monty just had a bad tour of India, one which he came into lacking match practise. He's also been working hard with Mushy, and the results proved that in the 1st Warm Up. Monty would definitely be in my team, when he's on top form he's a class act.

Swann's been bowling quite well recently and I think he deserves the place more than Monty. Yeah I see where you're coming from with Monty having been working hard with Mushy. If they go with two spinners for a match and Monty performs the way he did in the tour match, then yeah, he definitely deserves a place but I think that Monty needs to show a little bit more for me to be completely for him.

 

[King Pietersen]

Even if I wanted Swann to play, he won't. We won't go in with 2 spinners, not with Freddie possibly carrying a slight injury, and as we'll be going in with 1 spinner, and the England team remains the old boys club, Monty will play, but this time I agree with it, and feel he deserves to play. If he regains that form he showed early in his career, and the form he had in the 2006/7 Ashes then he's far better than Swann. He's just lacking confidence and overs. He'll come good.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

Yeah when he's in full flow he can really do damage. But wouldn't it be better if Monty worked with Mushy a bit more before playing in a test so he's totally ready for it because otherwise, if he does badly again, his confidence will go down and he'll go back to square one. What are people's opinions on this? I'm just wondering.

 

[.Mob]

I was confident that Swann would get a go, he impressed me a lot in the India series, whereas Panesar did not. Perhaps Panesar really was lacking form/confidence, but it's like what Nasser said, Panesar depends on the odd one spinning, and thus creating a mystery for the batsmen, nothing he bowls is different and is fairly easy for batsmen to bat against (unless on a spinner friendly pitch, of course).

Swann's performances in India, even on the flat tracks were encouraging, and it looked as if he could get people out, or even just do a containing job with variety in pace, flight etc. Having said that though, apparently Monty has started getting some good varieties in, after working with Mushy, so who knows.