Pick your England team for the first test next summer

[dp458]

1. Cook
but no longer captain, he just isnt good enough and its been starting to affect his batting
2.Root as robson needs another year imo
3.Bell cant see anyone else
4.Ballance
did nothing wrong
5.Morgan (C) XFactor player, was unlucky first time, declaration slogs etc pulling down his average and being the scapegoat for UAE
6.Woakes, as Stokes is showing now that he is too hit and miss, woakes is a much better playercompare county stats bowling as well, on much less helpfull wicket at edgbaston
7.Ali/Borthwick, cant decise between these two, but bith have potetial and with root its enough spin, until an actual spinner comes along
8.Buttler (Wk) Prioir is past it, so throw the kid in at the deep end
9.Broad
10.Anderson but only for a year or so and in english conditions
11.Finn providing he finds early season form, just definately not BResnan, he is no longer quick enough as a test bowler for od1 and t20 he does a job containing but after the elbow surgery he imo doent cut the test mustard


honourable mentions/next cabs off the rank

Robson
Stokes
Taylor
S.Davies(WK)
JOrdon

 

[SpitfiresKent]

1. Cook
2. Root
3. Trott
4. Bell
5. Ali/Morgan/Ballance
6. Stokes
7. Prior
8. Bresnan/Finn
9. Broad
10. Tredwell
11. Anderson

Root will flourish against both Sri Lanka & India I reckon as their seam attack is no way as good as the Australians. I can see Trott making a quick comeback, I'd love to see Moeen Ali get given a chance in the Test team as I like the look of him from what I've seen so far on the international stage. Woakes needs to stay away from the England team all together, terrible bowler and you're not going to select him purely for his batting are you.

 

[Dipak]

I'd go with

Cook*
Ali
Trott
Bell
Root
Stokes
Prior+
Broad
Tredwell/Kerrigan
Finn
Anderson

Moeen Ali is a solid player and might just do well opening in tests. Matt Prior has still got plenty of cricket in him and can save England like he's done many times. As far as Carberry, Woakes, Bresnan and Bairstow and concerned, they shouldn't be even near the test team.

 

[coolash1]

Cook*
Ali
Trott
Bell
Root
Morgan(he deserves place in tests also)/Stokes
Prior(He is good in tests) wk
Bresnan
Finn
Anderson
Parry/Briggs/Tredwell

 

[karolkarol]

Interesting that people think Trott should walk back in. My team for the early summer would be
Cook
Robson
Compton
Bell
Ali
Stokes
Prior
Bresnan
Broad
Anderson
Onions

Potentially Trott and a spinner would come in later in the summer. Ali could do a pt job early on.

As for Finn

 

[dp458]

can someone explain the aversion to woakes to me please, as his batting is far superior to any all rounder we have produced for years, he opens the bowling at warwickshire, and did very good against sri lanka a recently also opening the bowling for me it is silly that people are judging him on hid odi and t20i performances ask any warwickshire fan like myself who have seen him play county games, there have been calls for him to play as a batsmen who bowls a few overs in the one day games as he bowls length ala onions, so england picking him as a bowler who bats is ridiculous.

however in red ball cricket, he is a very good bowler consistently gets wickets, he has totallly outbowled england new boy rankin for years in all forms actually. and people say he bowls slowly he doesnt in the oval test he was quicket than anderson, and has touched 90 in county games, althouhg not express he is quick enough and does enough with the ball espcially in english conditions, i was concerned about overseas but lions tour he did well.
and batting most warwickshire observers i know rank him as our third best bat behind trott and bell, the chanpionship 2 years ago was effectively won off his runs!

 

[Dipak]

Woakes has been pathetic in international cricket. I know it's early days, but any day I'd prefer Stokes over Woakes.

 

[dp458]

I'd go with

Cook*
Ali
Trott
Bell
Root
Stokes
Prior+
Broad
Tredwell/Kerrigan
Finn
Anderson

Moeen Ali is a solid player and might just do well opening in tests. Matt Prior has still got plenty of cricket in him and can save England like he's done many times. As far as Carberry, Woakes, Bresnan and Bairstow and concerned, they shouldn't be even near the test team.

not sure ali has the solid technique of root so would prefer those 2 swithced in position

----------

Woakes has been pathetic in international cricket. I know it's early days, but any day I'd prefer Stokes over Woakes.

like i said he isnt anywhere near the stndard for odi and t20i even me being a huge fan will admit that he doesnt score quick enough, and for internationals e either needs to slow it down ala bopara keeper up to the stumps or speed up to proper bowler


and the oval test wasnt that bad for him, he just isnt a 3rd seamer yet, he bowled ok, and has test batting average of 40!

----------

Cook*
Ali
Trott
Bell
Root
Morgan(he deserves place in tests also)/Stokes
Prior(He is good in tests) wk
Bresnan
Finn
Anderson
Parry/Briggs/Tredwell

parry has played 8fc games ever, definition of not ready

 

[karolkarol]

Was there not chat that by building himself up physically to ramp up the pace Woakes lost his outswinger which was his main weapon? IMHO he needs to lower the pace, swing it and keep up his batting progression. Then he would have a chance.

 

[dp458]

Was there not chat that by building himself up physically to ramp up the pace Woakes lost his outswinger which was his main weapon? IMHO he needs to lower the pace, swing it and keep up his batting progression. Then he would have a chance.

sort of although he stopped opening the bowling if he had batted for a long time and generally the ball stopped swingning as much, although he seemed to have the outswinger back in full flow in sri lanka, he actuall supoossedly bowled better than onions, and captained very well

 

[karolkarol]

sort of although he stopped opening the bowling if he had batted for a long time and generally the ball stopped swingning as much, although he seemed to have the outswinger back in full flow in sri lanka, he actuall supoossedly bowled better than onions, and captained very well

Interesting to hear. I think the key to his progression is not pace after all but getting back to swinging it, if he gets that going consistently I reckon Bresnan should be looking over his shoulder.

 

[dp458]

Interesting to hear. I think the key to his progression is not pace after all but getting back to swinging it, if he gets that going consistently I reckon Bresnan should be looking over his shoulder.

he was batting till the end most times with the warwickshire top 4 minus its 2 best players. in english conditions for me he is a no brainer, and i think others will se it once the stokes ashes hype dies down, and although stokes was the best of a bad bunch he wasnt that great tbh

 

[karolkarol]

His batting is a bonus it's his bowling which will decide whether he is good enough I think.

 

[dp458]

got a feeling he will go the other way in the long run to what bopara is for the one day teams but for tests

 

[MUFC1987]

I really like Woakes in the longer form. His stats at Warwickshire have been incredible. For me, there are only two issues that he has to prove/solve.

The first is, can his batting in Domestic games be transferred to Test level? I mean, he's not likely to average 40 in Tests, but with his bowling he doesn't need too. If he can average 35+ in Tests, then I think that he's more than worth a go.

Secondly, his bowling probably makes him a 4th Seamer in the current England team. If he does that role, he needs to be able to keep it tight. I think he can take wickets, the bigger issue is, can he put together spells without the loose balls.

For me, both of those are things that he might be able to do right now, he just needs a chance to show it. Stokes probably deserves to get first crack at that all rounder spot, but if he's still injured come the first Test of the summer, then I'd stick Woakes in for sure. He's the type of young talented cricketer in the domestic arena that deserves a chance to show what he can do at the highest level.