As said choosing a captain is a risk, given none of the team have experience doing it, Bell has captained Warwickshire occasionaly, but Im now convinced that Cook or Bell ie an experienced hand should be skipper. Although id go for Read or Foster batting at 8 to come in to skipper, but that wont happen and Buttlers glovework is slowly improving, and the keeper shouldnt be down at 8 anyway when only 1 'allrounder' is picked.
Philander example isnt pointless, he shows pace isnt a requisete to get wickets in Tests, for ODIS i agree pace can be key with the batsmen looking to attack.
A holding spinner is exactly what Giles did circa 2005, but no spinners are doing it in div 1(Jeetan PAtel is only international standard spinner in the CC1 and the english spinners dont compare) kerrigan or RIley are the long term options, but for overall balance of the team if a spinner is required Ali is the best allround package, his bowling is better than Borthwick, and about on par with Rashid, who has becomae a much better player by not playing, but Moeens batting is far superior. although like i said earlier in English conditions im not sure we need it, id prefer Taylor at 6 and Root to fiddle some overs. Samit is interesting as I rate him, but he isnt consitent enough, and didnt take his chances, plus i think he suits the one day arena more
Bolter is Zaf Ansari, batting at the top for Surrey, and his spin is decent, having played with and against him, i can say he is an excellent fielder aswell
Plunkett isnt that much quicker, but he offers agression, bowls a heavy ball, and hits the deck, although how we used him last year is not how to do it, Footit has div 2 going against him, JEsse Ryder is getting a stack load of wickets down there, so take it with a oinch of salt, look at how the promoted teams struggle. Gidman ie the standout in Div 2 over the last few years isnt exactly doing a lot at Notts. If we look at Div 1 then theres Brooks and Rankin both the wrong side of 30, Bresnan a step back although he looked good against warwickshire.Onions who has been extremely unlucky with injuries. But Harris at Middlesex is back to looking good and would be my bolter, otherwise i think the seam bowling squad stays as is on the tour plus woakes
The failure against the other teams is an indicment of our batsman, not soley the bowlers, and ODIS are totally different
Compton and Carberry i dont see a way back for, although they were harshly treated.
Robson has a chance along with Hales i reckon if Lyth fails, which i dont think he will.
Looking forward to the next ashes after this summer, i see this being the core of our squad not an order per say, just batters and bowlers split
Lyth
Hales
Ballance
Root
Taylor
Woakes
Wood
Jordan
Whilst looking at the ODI team, id like to see
Ali
Hales
Taylor C
Root
Vince
Stokes
Buttler WK
Woakes
Jordan
Wiley
Briggs
with Rashid, Morgan, Fottitt as the change ups
