England in West Indies

[King Pietersen]

This whole tour has been pretty shambolic. The team claim Flower's doing a good job, same with Strauss, but they're clearly not. We were beaten in the Test series thanks to some deeply negative captaincy from Strauss, and this ODi series I blame once more Flower's coaching, but also the selectors and Strauss for picking this awful side. We've got some decent players, but we just need to make a few changes. It's the mindset that needs to be changed, and the batting order. I'd be bold and bring in a few new players, picking an XI of:

Trott
Shah
Bopara
Pietersen
Patel (When he pulls his finger out and gets fit)
Flintoff
Mascheranhas *
Foster +
Broad
Swann
Anderson

Move Shah up to opening. He's capable of hitting in the air early, can manipulate the infield well, and alongside Trott could do a good job. Then Bopara bats in the position he bats for Essex, batting at 3. Pietersen comes in at 4, as he's clearly not comfortable at 3. Patel replaces Collingwood, who seems to have hit a serious rut in ODi cricket. His fielding is good, but you can't pick a player on fielding alone. Patel also offers more bowling than Collingwood. Collingwood averages 24 in the last 12 months, no hundreds, and his average is only 31 in the last 2 years, with a top score of 91* in 2 years. So no hundreds, 7 half centuries in 38 innings isn't good enough. Get Samit in.

Flintoff at 6, with Dimi at 7. I also gave the captaincy to Dimi. He's the Hampshire captain, and has done a decent job, and with KP seemingly unwilling to take it back at the current time, Dimi's the only option, as frankly Strauss is not an ODi batsman, 100 in the last game or not. Then Foster comes in, he's the best lower-order Keeper in England, and can catch. The other 3 then pick themselves.

Hopefully we'll bring Mickey Arthur in, he'd be my number 1 target easily, and I'd be wanting to offer him as much money as he wants. He's said he's interested, but followed that with the usual contract with South Africa rubbish. He's done a great job with South Africa and could have a similar effect on England, as we've got a good enough pool of players.

Also, apparently, the reason Trott's not been selected yet is because of his personality. Similar to the reason Read couldn't get in. Apparently he just rubs people up the wrong way, and doesn't have a great rep on the county circuit. I'd still pick him anyway, but if the ECB really don't want to select him, then it'd have to be Denly for mine.

We just need to make changes to the side, we're simply not a good enough team, and the system has to change. It's pointless sticking with Flower, who clearly isn't going to change anything. He seems a nice enough bloke, but England Coach? Think not. Strauss needs to be ditched as ODi captain though, possibly as Test captain as well, bring KP back!

 

[The_gas]

Gas in Bob Willis revelation shocker?

Lol, its annoying though isn't it. I actually think Bob talks a lot of sense, well some of the time.

 

[Dare]

Dan you were beaten in the tests because WI were better...

Sammy needs a wicket, his figures in these 1st 3 ODIs are great he just needs some more wickets.

Chris needs to bring Edwards on for his final few overs.

 

[Leicester Fox]

 

[King Pietersen]

Dan you were beaten in the tests because WI were better...

Lol. If you believe that then fair enough. You're wrong though. We'd have at least drawn that series if Strauss wasn't such a pussy. We never needed 500 at the ARG. It was a flat pitch, but West Indies were never going to chase 400, let alone 500. That should have been 1-1, and then you could argue that Strauss should have pulled out about 20-30 minutes earlier in the final Test, which could have got us enough time to win 2-1. West Indies only bowled us out in 1 Test, West Indies were not better, apart from the comprehensive win at Jamaica.

 

[Chetan0304]

Already 8 down the current RR is not even 3 .

Great bowling by Bravo

 

[Ollie_H]

Dan you were beaten in the tests because WI were better...

Sammy needs a wicket, his figures in these 1st 3 ODIs are great he just needs some more wickets.

Chris needs to bring Edwards on for his final few overs.

You were better in one test and that was the first one, As Dan has said we lost due to negative captaincy twice we had a huge chance to win and twice Strauss botteld it!

holdenator added 1 Minutes and 1 Seconds later...

Surely we have a better spinner than this:

                 Mat  	Inns  	Balls  	Runs  	Wkts  	BBI  	BBM  	Ave  	Econ  	SR  	4w  	5w  	10
First-class  	 124  	 	24138  	11656  	358  	7/52  	 	32.55  	2.89  	67.4  	 	15  	1
List A 	         168 		6521 	4930 	144 	4/14 	4/14 	34.23 	4.53 	45.2 	5 	0 	0

The reason Batty doesn't have a BBM for the first class match is probably cos he has never bowled well...

 

[King Pietersen]

We do, but he's having elbow surgery. The second one that's better, James Tredwell, was picked for a series a while back, but has been forgotten. He's not great, but bettter than Batty Boy. The 3rd is too fat.

 

[Dare]

Lol. If you believe that then fair enough. You're wrong though. We'd have at least drawn that series if Strauss wasn't such a pussy. We never needed 500 at the ARG. It was a flat pitch, but West Indies were never going to chase 400, let alone 500. That should have been 1-1, and then you could argue that Strauss should have pulled out about 20-30 minutes earlier in the final Test, which could have got us enough time to win 2-1. West Indies only bowled us out in 1 Test, West Indies were not better, apart from the comprehensive win at Jamaica.

In no test from 1-5 were England better, WI were better if only in just one test. Dont take the credit away from the WI, they played better than anyone from England thought they would and won the test series.

You were better in one test and that was the first one, As Dan has said we lost due to negative captaincy twice we had a huge chance to win and twice Strauss botteld it!

You need to go and look at the 1st page of this thread and your 1st post in it. For that same reason your team lost the Tests and re losing the ODIs, thought they would run over the WI.

 

[King Pietersen]

We were 1 wicket away from victory at Antigua, you were saved by your tail enders, we were better than you there. We were 2 wickets away from victory in the final game, but your tail enders came to the rescue once more. We were better than you in both those Tests, with West Indies only saved by some ridiculously flat pitches and some good batting from Sarwan. We deserved to win that series and you know it.

 

[Ollie_H]

I dont think you have improved since last time we played you, You still lack a quality bowling attack with a spinner and only one of your players ever really performs.

Tbh you were probably better back then than you are now, I still don't think you have improved. England are just terrible.

 

[Dare]

We were 1 wicket away from victory at Antigua, you were saved by your tail enders, we were better than you there. We were 2 wickets away from victory in the final game, but your tail enders came to the rescue once more. We were better than you in both those Tests, with West Indies only saved by some ridiculously flat pitches and some good batting from Sarwan. We should have won that series and you know it.

No you shouldn't have, now you are just thinking like the players before they got a rude awakening. As it turns out it is hard for the England fans to accept that the poor old crap WI beat them.
The WI bowled and batted on those same pitches Dan, its not like we got to bowl on some other pitches.

Tbh you were probably better back then than you are now, I still don't think you have improved. England are just terrible.

Actually we are way better now, half the team is different and so is all the coaching staff. Way better than we were last time.

 

[The_gas]

99 runs from 34 overs, jesus, thats slow even for English test match cricket.

 

[King Pietersen]

See, this is what experience in OD cricket brings with Dimi. This calm, collected, sensible innings is exactly why I think he'd be a good guy to lead the team. He's captained Hampshire, he's a very useful batsman, a handy bowler and good in the field. Can't be any worse than Strauss, at least if Strauss's captaincy is taken away he'll get dropped. Give Dim the captaincy in ODi's and T20's and we'll move forwards, not backwards which has what this performance has been. We even played better in India, were just beaten by a class side there, played well, but India played better.

No you shouldn't have, now you are just thinking like the players before they got a rude awakening. As it turns out it is hard for the England fans to accept that the poor old crap WI beat them.
The WI bowled and batted on those same pitches Dan, its not like we got to bowl on some other pitches.

Yeh, and you bowled poorly, failing to bowl us out once after Jamaica. The performance in the final Test was shocking from West Indies, and if it wasn't for yet another flat deck you'd have been mauled. Crap bowling, awful fielding, negative field placings, negative batting, playing for a draw from the off. We also played better at the ARG, hence why you needed your tail-enders to save you again. After Jamaica we outplayed your whole side bar Sarwan and Edwards, and we should have won the series. It's nothing to do with 'poor old crap WI beating us', it's stating the facts. We should have won the series, and would have if Strauss wasn't such a conservative captain.

 

[Sureshot]

Fringe player to be captain?

You think the selectors would ever be that bold?

I think your team has two major errors. Dropping Colly and bringing in Foster. Davies is next in line, Foster has the luxury of playing half his games at Chelmsford.