England in West Indies

[Leicester Fox]

Looks like the next England games then. Would be good to talk about some cricket so. Teams.

My team would have Cook and Strauss opening. No reason to change that atm. The middle order is a problem. For now I would go Bell, KP, Colly, Fred. It's not exactly ideal imo but will do for now, however the next year is make or break for Bell and Colly imo. If they don't perform we need to find some players who will do it when we need them.

Then the bowlers.
Rightio, Monty has to play and that leaves 3 quicks. Harmison has to play imo, especially after his last tour here. Then I would play Anderson too. This leaves 1 spot, I'm not a big sidebum fan and I think Broad's more suited to these conditions so I would play him here, although personally I would want Hoggard back. Can't just forget a bowler who has about 250 test wickets and is only 31!

Too keep I would have Ambrose. Don't see why he should be dropped. There are loads of fans who bitch and whine about every keeper we have andwill carry on doing so for the rest of eternity. About time we gave a keeper a real chance. In ODI's fair enough we can drop Prior if he's not opening anymore because if he's not picked for his batting then he shouldn't be in the team but in tests Ambrose deserves a chance because he can be good enough if we give him the chance imo.

 

[Themer]

Agree with most you have posted bar the Ambrose keeping part he isn't good enough with either bat or gloves for International cricket. Aslong as you pitch the ball up and keep it relatively straight then he can't score at all. I'd stick with Prior at the moment he isn't a paticularly good keeper but he is easily capable of batting at International level as proven so far, average of 40 batting at 7 is very impressive.

 

[King Pietersen]

Cook
Strauss
Shah
Pietersen
Bell/Collingwood/Bopara
Flintoff
Prior
Broad
Harmison
Anderson
Panesar

Shah was in too good form to not play for me. He's one of the few consistet county pros who's in the squad and not picked just because he's on central contract. Bell and Colly haven't been in remotely good form, so for me Shah has to play. Then the final place in the middle order goes to one of Bell, Collingwood or Bopara. I'd personally go for Bell, I rate him highly, and i think the conditions in the West Indies, with pace on the ball could suit his style far better than India. It's a make or break series for him though, if he fails then it's Collingwood or Bopara for the Ashes for me.

 

[WestIndian]

Ok so England/India is done and gone. We soon will be done in New Zealand. And then it West Indies v England.

 

[evertonfan]

I think James Anderson will have a class time in the Windies. He was unlucky against India but I reckon we'll see the best of him over there.

 

[Sureshot]

He was better in Mohali than he was in Chennai. What is the position of Monty for this tour? Can't see us playing two spinners, and Swann bowled a lot better. He's also a decent #8 (well #9 if Broad plays) and a good fielder.

Then again, might we want both of them for the Ashes?

 

[Kev]

The thing with Monty is he played very little first class cricket before being snapped up to join the England setup. Which doesn't have to spell trouble, but coupled with the ECB's reluctance to let England players play for their counties is it any wonder that Monty looks rusty and isn't really improving. He needs to play more games and gain more experience. He'll go to the Windies they wont risk dropping him and hopefully before he faces the Aussies he'll have been given some practice.

 

[manee]

He was diabolical in County Cricket last year, which must be noted - he is in generally pretty poor form if he can't take wickets in Division 2.

The fact that England wouldn't shell out £7,000 for Monty to play in Sri Lanka to gain valuable match practice though is an absolute joke considering the lack of match practice he was in.

Left-arm spinner Panesar, not a member of the England Twenty20 squad currently competing in the Stanford Super Series in Antigua, had been cleared by the ECB to play for Bloomfield in a bid to gain more experience of bowling on sub-continental pitches.

However, following reports the ECB were unwilling to pay a fee of £7,000 that Bloomfield were allegedly demanding for hosting Panesar, the board announced the 26-year-old would warm-up for the two-Test and seven ODI tour of India with the England Performance Programme (EPP) squad.

Monty Panesar to forego Sri Lanka for ECB's performance squad Indian camp: Cricket - Telegraph

On that note, my I express the general opinion that giving spinners some net practice is utterly useless in comparison to match practice. Spin bowling in Test cricket is all about the temperament of batsmen and placement of fielders - is there much of that in the nets, no! Is there any of that in the nets, no!

 

[Kev]

Yep nets are next to useless for a spinner, although didn't the performance squad play sort of competitive matches against local sides?

Lucky for me I'll be getting some practice at watching second division cricket next season

 

[manee]

Not to my recollection, no games against state sides or state associations, perhaps a few against club sides, I'm not sure on that front.

 

[Kev]

Oh I'm pretty sure they'd have been club sides. I guess it shows how highly the ECB rates the domestic setup in SL. Either that or they really are blind to domestic cricket in general. Looking at some of their recent selections I'd say that the latter may actually be the case.

 

[manee]

Indeed, the Kabir Ali situation really is a joke. There simply is not one good reason why he wasn't selected for the performance squad over the jokes that are Plunkett and Mahmood.

 

[Sureshot]

I've been shocked by Plunkett's decline. There was a period where he looked a part of England's attack. Completely agree with the Kabir Ali situation, very good bowler, albeit in D2. Probably needs to move club, as sad as that is.

 

[RoboRocks]

I've been shocked by Plunkett's decline. There was a period where he looked a part of England's attack. Completely agree with the Kabir Ali situation, very good bowler, albeit in D2. Probably needs to move club, as sad as that is.

He's not moving club!

Yeah, no idea why he's not being given another go. He bowled superbly with Simon Jones for Worcs last year and yet England select Mahmood and Plunkett.

It will be interested to see if Monty gets selected since we only need the one spinner and this will be a great chance for Swann to make his spot permanent.

 

[manee]

I've been shocked by Plunkett's decline. There was a period where he looked a part of England's attack. Completely agree with the Kabir Ali situation, very good bowler, albeit in D2. Probably needs to move club, as sad as that is.

Plunkett never performed in County Cricket though, which should be the initial criteria for international selection. In 10 First Class seasons, he has averaged under 30 once, 19 wickets in 2006 at 27.15...

One Day cricket is a slightly more promising story, as he performed strongly in the CB Series a little while back and had a strong 2007. This being said, he had a poor season this year.