India v England 2008

[King Pietersen]

Sidebottom's still injured for England, he's been sent for a scan on his back. Not played a game for England since July, can't ever see him getting his place back to be perfectly honest. If he loses anymore pace he'll just not be effective at Test level, and get spanked in ODi's. Happy with the attack we've got.

The XI for tommorow morning's game for England is supposedly:
Bell
Prior
Shah
Pietersen
Flintoff
Collingwood
Patel
Swann
Broad
Harmison
Anderson

Bopara has a stomach bug, and is subsequently replaced by Swann. I'd like to see Ravi in the side though tbh, when he's fit of course. He's definitely the replacement for Collingwood, and considering Colly's current form I'd have Ravi in right now. Just hope England can win a game tommorow, we've been majorly disappointing for the past few games, ever since the Stanford game.

 

[Leggie]

I don't know why we need to wait to conclude the Yousuf debate, i've seen enough of him to make an accurate judgement

Fine, Won't conclude it then. Let the battle commence!

 

[.Mob]

If only Sanjay could see THAT shot, eh, Rohit?

 

[nikhil_99]

I Sharma playing today,good news for India,so who will be dropped?RP or Munaf?Also Sachin will be coming for the 4th ODI

 

[Cricketman]

RP will be dropped.

 

[0601731]

rp for sure,he hasnt been at his best for sometime now.

 

[nikhil_99]

RP is not playing today,thats what they showed on TV,delayed start,so teams will play for 49 overs each.

 

[Cricketman]

Pietersen calls right and England bat first.

Darn, I wanted to get 400 today

 

[nikhil_99]

Pietersen light-heartedly said that they'd be looking at 450, because of Yuvraj's terrific form.So Eng batting after winning toss,India will be chasing total 1st time in this series.Zaheer will be effective here because early morning it was hazy,might just help a bit for bowlers at least for 30 mins or so.

 

[Highlander999]

Swann in for Harmy, Ravi opening, Prior down to 8, Shah down to 6 :confused: Very interesting, hope it works, with Ravi at the top

 

[Cricketman]

Looks like a better lineup this for England. I think they dropped the wrong guy though, Harmison would've at least gotten something off the pitch regardless of conditions, while a guy like Anderson relies on swing and hasn't done much at all so far this series.

Cricketman added 1 Minutes and 20 Seconds later...

Cricinfo said that this is the lineup:

1 Matt Prior (wk), 2 Ian Bell, 3 Owais Shah, 4 Kevin Pietersen (capt), 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Andrew Flintoff, 7 Ravi Bopara, 8 Samit Patel, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 Graeme Swann, 11 James Anderson.

"Will Bopara open today?" asks Sanjay. I doubt it, though he's quite wasted so low down in the batting order. But Thorpe thinks it's (Bopara coming up the order) a possibility, so I may be wrong!

Not sure.

I can't help but to feel that Collingwood shouldn't be there. He's been a walking wicket for a while now, gets fairly tonked with the ball, only reason to keep him in would be to field. I would certainly look for other options - personally I'd look for a Denly or a Key, get a specialist opener in, and move Prior down the order and Bopara up.

Denly
Bell
KP
Bopara
Shah
Flintoff
Prior/Other Keeper
Samit
Swann
Broad
Harmison

Looks so much more balanced to me. Still don't like Bell opening the innings, perhaps he could switch spots with Bopara?

 

[Highlander999]

BBC Sport is saying Bopara will open

Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Kevin Pietersen (capt), Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Owais Shah, Samit Patel, Matt Prior (wk), Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad, James Anderson.

 

[Cricketman]

England fans - Why isn't Panesar used in ODI's? He's so good, why not just play him?

 

[Highlander999]

I think, the issue was that he was getting tonked around, and needed to give the ball more flight, instead of darting it in with less spin. I'm guessing his poor batting and fielding put him behind Patel and Swann as well

 

[Cricketman]

Boy it is hazy..