England tour of South Africa 09/10

[Sureshot]

Nice to see our Luke get a test call up.

 

[King Pietersen]

Although Howsie will obviously disagree, it was pretty hard not to pick him tbh. Had an excellent season. Averaging 47 with the bat with 2 hundreds and 21 wickets at 33 in the Championship. Pretty hard to argue with those figures.

 

[RoboRocks]

Wright will probably come into consideration for the first test as well. England want to play 5 bowlers and Broad not scored enough runs for England to be confident of him at 7, Wright's seam bowling is a real option since conditions won't suit Rashid.

 

[Leicester Fox]

Wait...is Luke Wright now the new Flintoff, not Broad?

 

[King Pietersen]

I really hope they don't. I hope we go in with 6 batsmen + Prior and then 4 bowlers. Wright's not going to offer much more than Trott and Collingwood could provide, and I'd be abit worried about a batting line-up in Test cricket with Wright at 7. Much rather see 6 batsmen.

 

[pcfan123]

Good positive moves with the dropping of Harmy and Bopara, but why are we taking a step back with recalling Plunkett and Mahmood?

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

plunkett falls into the jimmy anderson category of thrown in too early at the deep end, he was 22 when he was last dropped. way too young to make any assesment on his ability.

he's also played domestic cricket in south africa for the Dolphins so knows a little bit about bowling over there.

he's also a handy bat, with broad and swann, the strength of englands tail is becoming ridiculous.

 

[aussie1st]

That is a massive rise for Cook, his place was still under question at the end of the Ashes with commentators saying he should be dropped to work on his game.

 

[evertonfan]

OMFG LIAM PLUNKETT IS BACK.

Best hair in international cricket. What a guy. I don't even care that he's crap so stfu Hooper before you even start.

evertonfan added 1 Minutes and 3 Seconds later...

Oh yeah and Stephen Moore should be in the team. Lancashire's finest...

 

[Sureshot]

I really hope they don't. I hope we go in with 6 batsmen + Prior and then 4 bowlers. Wright's not going to offer much more than Trott and Collingwood could provide, and I'd be abit worried about a batting line-up in Test cricket with Wright at 7. Much rather see 6 batsmen.

Which you have with Prior playing. Don't you worry about his ability with the bat or the ball, the lad is in excellent form and deserves a chance in the long game.

 

[McLOVIN]

predictions

[T20] SA-1 ENG-1

[ODI] SA-4 ENG-1

[TEST] SA-2 ENG 1 Tie-1

 

[pcfan123]

^ my your quite generous towards England

 

[Howsie]

Although Howsie will obviously disagree, it was pretty hard not to pick him tbh. Had an excellent season. Averaging 47 with the bat with 2 hundreds and 21 wickets at 33 in the Championship. Pretty hard to argue with those figures.

Too right, as far has I'm concerned he'd be lucky enough to even make the one day team, but the test team....

He's just your typical bit's and peices player, not to shabby with the ball or bat but no where near good enough to make the team with just one discipline. As far as I'm concerned his bowling isn't even that great, it's probably on par with Jesse Ryder's although it's a tad quicker. I really don't see the point of picking a player to bat at seven and bowl five or so overs a day, stupid selection.

As for the rest of the test squad, well I quite like it tbh. I'm not going to comment on Plunkett because I haven't seen him play in years but I'm happy with the rest of the bowling line-up, good to see they've finally gotten over the Monty love. It's also good to see that they've dropped Bopara completely from the squad, at the moment he isn't anywhere near international standard, I very much doubt he has the mental fortitude to have a good international career.

The one day squad is a head scratcher though. Why keep faith in Matt Prior who has shown absolutely nothing in his ODI career to date, but get rid of Owais Shah?

I'll stick by what I said about Onions to and that's that he'll struggle in one day cricket if the ball isn't moving around, I can't see him having a very long ODI cricket career.

 

[Iridium]

predictions

[T20] SA-1 ENG-1

[ODI] SA-4 ENG-1

[TEST] SA-2 ENG 1 Tie-1

Wow! A tied test match! Rare or what :laugh Don't worry I get what you're saying.

 

[Owzat]

The four picks that perhaps are most 'controversial', or at least I won't be the only one with a twitchy eyebrow from much raising, have to be Mahmood, Plunkett, Davies and Wright

SI MAHMOOD - 73 ODIs, 46 wkts @ 34.54
OD Career - 121 matches, 170 wkts @ 26.47

Not convinced of this choice, maybe he will do a James Anderson and make something of his career, but I doubt it. Are England so desperate for bowlers they are scraping the bottom of the barrel for bowlers who've been tried and failed before?

LE PLUNKETT - 9 Tests, 126 runs @ 11.45 & 23 wkts @ 39.82
FC Career - 2067 runs @ 46.55 & 266 wkts @ 30.15
FC 2009 - 471 runs @ 36.61 & 64 wkts @ 24.96

Not much to suggest he will succeed this time around, a decent 2009 season but perhaps another 'all-rounder' that won't succeed.

SM DAVIES - 1 ODI, 5 runs @ 5.00
FC Career - 4281 runs @ 37.22
FC 2009 - 1023 runs @ 40.92

1000 runs by a keeper in a FC summer used to be something to be impressed by, is it anymore with the clampdown on bad pitches etc? I'd prefer him to play a few more (home) ODIs before touring

LJ WRIGHT - 25 ODIs, 414 runs @ 22.44 & 7 wkts @ 49.00
FC Career - 2402 runs @ 35.85 & 78 wkts @ 42.96
FC 2009 - 866 runs @ 54.12 & 23 wkts @ 38.34

Sure Wright has had a decent domestic season, but that's not that difficult given there is a gulf between the two levels. Just look at Chris Read who averaged 75.18 in 2009. He's not really a frontline batsman and his bowling wouldn't get him in the side so bits n pieces sums him up. England would be best advised playing six batsmen, their record since 2000 playing five bowler theory is abysmal.

Four selections, three in the Test squad that worry me