Pick your England team for the first test next summer

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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.

I like your thinking, we do need an allrounder because we like to play 4 seamers and with the retirement of Swann, for us to play 4 seamers and only have broad who can through the bat means that our tail starts at 8 which is low. Having that allrounder means we have a bit of batting depth for when our top order have a normal day at the office and forget which end of the bat to hold.
 
For England I think a spinning allrounder is currently more valuable purely because there isnt a good enough front line spinner in the country. Hence I would be inclined to pick Moeen Ali at 5 (or 6 if Stokes isnt fit) allowing you to play 4 genuine seamers - Broad, Anderson Onions and AN Other, probably a fast shit-your-pants merchant like Mills or Overton. Having a spinning allrounder allows you the luxury of this quick (if raw) bowler.
 
I've been following Borthwick recently. He did quite well for the lions over in SL (both with bat and ball) so would he fit your spinning all-rounder criteria?

Plus he's a leggie which will just confuse the opposition - since when do england ever field a leggie!
 
I've been following Borthwick recently. He did quite well for the lions over in SL (both with bat and ball) so would he fit your spinning all-rounder criteria?

Plus he's a leggie which will just confuse the opposition - since when do england ever field a leggie!

ali did well in the first game as well before going to the windies, plus he has a doosra, and atm is probably a better bat,
borthwick needs to leave durham, and go to a county where he can bowl as i dont think he will do a steve smith an become a batter who u can chuck the ball too

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I like your thinking, we do need an allrounder because we like to play 4 seamers and with the retirement of Swann, for us to play 4 seamers and only have broad who can through the bat means that our tail starts at 8 which is low. Having that allrounder means we have a bit of batting depth for when our top order have a normal day at the office and forget which end of the bat to hold.

are u proposing no spinner just 4 bowlers?
jordan is handy with the bat, but if wanting 4 quicks then sa ali at 6 id pick stokes at 8, 6 was too high, and he has more potetntial than woakes to become a 3rrd seamer

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For England I think a spinning allrounder is currently more valuable purely because there isnt a good enough front line spinner in the country. Hence I would be inclined to pick Moeen Ali at 5 (or 6 if Stokes isnt fit) allowing you to play 4 genuine seamers - Broad, Anderson Onions and AN Other, probably a fast shit-your-pants merchant like Mills or Overton. Having a spinning allrounder allows you the luxury of this quick (if raw) bowler.

generally agree, although there isnt many of them around, and ali is a good enough bat look at his stats. a seaming allrounder for english conditions would be huge as long in imo they can bat top 6, whihc rules out stokes he is a 7 at best atm

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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.

thing is i genuinely believe he would average high 30s with the bat if put in now, and he will only improve with exposure, his batting is coming on at an astonishing rate.
Also has the mental capacity to play as well captaining lions being an all rounder must be tough, and he is the favourite to captain the bears early season with troughton out. Although CHOPRA will probably end up getting it.

he does pick up wickets, and i agree atm a 4th seamer or a 3rd when two spinners in the sub continent imo, much better suited for that than stokes. his bowling is alsi a lot tighter in red ball tahn stokes who will give a bad bowl, CW probes a length and he has cut out the loose ball in fc, sstill throws it in one day where he tries to hard

and why does stokes neccesrily get first go, woakes did nothing wrong at the oval and then didnt even make the tour to oz. also woakes generally does well early season as well
 
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I think Stokes is perceived as a batting allrounder and Woakes as a bowling allrounder, a 6 and an 8 if you will. Personally I don't see that much between them but I reckon Woakes probably needs close to a 1000 run season and demonstrate he can still swing the ball and take wickets to get a sniff.
 
I think Stokes is perceived as a batting allrounder and Woakes as a bowling allrounder, a 6 and an 8 if you will. Personally I don't see that much between them but I reckon Woakes probably needs close to a 1000 run season and demonstrate he can still swing the ball and take wickets to get a sniff.

at least we will have an allrounder as i think its vital to team balance
 
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!

Well Woakes wouldn't be the 1st English player to look good domestically in the last 20 years & even be dominant in a specific role - but at international look short of quality.

Unfortunately although it was just one tests in the Ashes, Woakes looked that way. Maybe he could improve, but at the moment he comes across as another good looking county all-rounder than is not test standard like David Capel, Chris Lewis, Mark Ealham, Rikki Clarke, 98-2000 version Flintoff, Douggie Brown etc were.
 
and why does stokes neccesrily get first go, woakes did nothing wrong at the oval and then didnt even make the tour to oz. also woakes generally does well early season as well
Just purely because he's played the last few games and hasn't done anything wrong. Like I said, I like Woakes, but I'm also a fan of giving guys a run to see how they go. Stokes did well in the Ashes so doesn't deserve to be left out for me. I probably wouldn't have chosen him over Woakes for the Ashes before the squad was picked, but he was and deserves to keep going.
 
team without

cook
robson
trott
bell
moeen ali/root (spin)
bopara /root
prior
stokes
broad
anderson
finn

* morgan * panesar * borthwick * ballance looking to get in

unless picking panesar wouldnt say theres a great deal of difference between moeen or root and borthwick, think stokes at 6 has potential but not yet, wouldnt fancy him at 6 away in india etc! moeen looked good and is a better spinner then root depends how many more runs root would get, think bopara is a good 6 underestimated bowler
 
Kevin Pietersen and 10 wooden pieces.
 
cook
robson
trott
bell
moeen ali/root (spin)
bopara /root
prior
stokes
broad
anderson
finn

* morgan * panesar * borthwick * ballance looking to get in

unless picking panesar wouldnt say theres a great deal of difference between moeen or root and borthwick, think stokes at 6 has potential but not yet, wouldnt fancy him at 6 away in india etc! moeen looked good and is a better spinner then root depends how many more runs root would get, think bopara is a good 6 underestimated bowler

I don't think we can ignore Jordan's form at the moment. So I would bring in Jordan for Finn who just needs a couple of months good competitive cricket behind him before a test recall. Maybe for India, but probably not SL.

My team so far would be:

Cook
Robson
Trott
Bell
Ali/Root
???
Prior/Buttler
Stokes
Jordan
Broad
Anderson

I just don't know who should play at 6. One idea would be to play Morgan at 4, and drop Bell & Ali/Root down to 5 & 6.

That line up is looking very strong on paper and if we can hit form I reckon we can get back to being competitive. Although the real test will come in the winter.
 
I'm going to adjust my initial post after events since. So the team I would liked to be picked is:
Cook
Robson
Compton
Pietersen (c) Trott
Bell
Stokes
Buttler (wk)
Tredwell
Broad
Finn
Anderson

I really don't think Jordan is good enough yet, and Root needs to focus on getting runs and get himself out of the Team England bubble. Compton isn't a proper opener, but is an excellent number 3, and Bell is better after the new ball has wearer. Still don't think it's a great team though. And I'm intrigued to see what Stokes will be like now his honeymoon is over. He's partly in for his bowling, as England don't have any great spinners. I think Panesar is a liability at times.

Anderson is on his last chance, but Rankin looks shot to pieces.
 
Alistair Cook *
Sam Robson
Ian Bell
Joe Root
Gary Ballance
Ben Stokes
Matt Prior +
Stuart Broad
James Anderson
Simon Kerrigan
Tymal Mills

Robson and Ballance have to play, had superb starts to the season, and Robson's been plowing runs for a while. Prior comes back in due to lack of options, and the fact he should never have been dropped in favour of Bairstow in the first place. Bairstow should be nowhere near the test side.

Then, for the bowlers, I'd give Simon Kerrigan another chance. He might have had a shocker against Australia, but he's the best spinning option we've got in terms of wicket-taking ability. His figures last season were excellent, and he deserves another run. Moores will have seen a lot of him too, and worked with him closely, so is likely to get the best out of him. Finally, Tymal Mills gets in. I like the option of a left armer, I like his pace, and he could be a good option as a strike bowler.

I can't see this side actually getting picked. Top 7 will likely be as I've selected, but doubt those bowlers will get a go. Can see Jordan, Bresnan, Tredwell or Borthwick getting in ahead of Kerrigan and Mills, but I'd like to see them given a go, especially Mills.
 
I do not think Cook is captaincy material.. I feel someone with more influence should be made a captain and KP should be persuaded to come back. A stupid decision to fire him , really. He is the only world class batsman in the middle order. Bell , based on recent form , cannot be trusted. And Carberry , I feel was joint the best batsman with KP.

So this is how the team should look
Cook
Carberry ( or Robson )
Comps
Bell
Ballance
Rashid ( not many will agree with me , but he has been doing very well recently)
Prior
Woakes
Broad
Anderson
Finn ( he has been doing well , too.)
 
To be honest, there's no right or wrong answer. We're looking to pick an XI from a pool of players with no obvious leader (sorry, Chef), no obvious number three, a plethora of middle-order batsmen on a plateau, no viable specialist spinners, and no idea how many seamers we want. Which is why I'm going to name two teams and explain my reasons for each.

Cook :c:, Davies :wk:, Ali, Bell, Morgan, Ballance, Woakes, Borthwick, Broad, Finn, Anderson
In this side, I shoot two birds with one stone by picking Davies to fill both the keeping and opening slots. Moeen Ali gets a go at three, as well as the opportunity to fill a role as the stock spinner. Meanwhile, Scott Borthwick has the job of being the wicket-taking spinner, but if he loses his rhythm there's cover for him. Gary Ballance, incumbent middle order bat, and Eoin Morgan, prolific and aggressive run-maker, bat five and six. Chris Woakes comes in at seven and is the fourth seamer. Steven Finn's Championship wickets get him a re-call.

Debuts: 2


Cook :c:, Robson, Compton, Bell, Ballance, Woakes, Prior :wk:, Rayner, Broad, Jordan, Anderson
The prolific Robson comes in for Carberry, who isn't the future. Ollie Rayner, the only spinner with decent career stats other than Kerrigan, gets his cap too. Nick Compton adds to his Test caps and finally gets the chance to bat in the spot where he gets all his runs for Somerset. Woakes covers for Stokes again, while Chris Jordan completes his rise into the Test side. This side keeps plenty of continuity, while also bringing in some fresh blood.

Debuts: 3


You can make reasoned arguments for each, but one thing that seems certain is that the total of debutants in England's last seven Tests will go up to around eight or nine (Woakes, Kerrigan, Stokes, Ballance, Borthwick, Rankin, and more) and the spinner count in that time might even go up to five.

Of course, I still haven't said what team I'd select. That is due, at least in part, to the fact that I have stuff all idea who should be there. Would there be a shit-ton of debutants (Cook :c:, Robson, Ali, Bell, Ballance, Woakes, Buttler :wk:, Rayner, Broad, Jordan, Anderson) or not? Pretty much anyone could force their way in if they start the season well.

I'm not going to chicken out, though:
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:bat: Alastair Cook :c:
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:bat: Sam Robson
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:bat: Nick Compton
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:bat: Ian Bell
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:bat: Eoin Morgan
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:ar: Chris Woakes
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:wkb: Matt Prior :wk:
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:bwl: Ollie Rayner
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:bwl: Stuart Broad
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:bwl: Steven Finn
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:bwl: James Anderson​
 

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