To be fair, we've been beaten by a much better side than us, who should have always beaten us. However our curious selections didn't really help.
I accept Flintoff coming back into the side as he is somewhat of an enigma, but the decision to bat him at 7 placed increased pressure of Tim Ambrose who has already been blasted by sections of the pressure for his seem inability to bat against anything other than bowlers feeding the cut shot. It wasn't wise at all to place even more pressure on someone already seemingly fighting for his place. However the way he responded in the second innings was promising, and whilst I'd prefer a different man in his role, he has up to this point, barring not getting past 20 in the next two innings almost nothing wrong in the test arena.
Pattinson was also curious. Especially considering his age, and taking into account his lack of experience. The selectors cannot even argue on form as someone such as Simon Jones, who has plenty of previous international experience, has to this point taken more wickets at a better rate, and is a much more obvious threat (pace, reverse swing etc).
In an ideal world, although this may not be until the end of the series I'd like to see a line up composing essentially this;
Alistair Cook.
Andrew Strauss.
Michael Vaughan.
Kevin Pietersen.
Ian Bell.
Andrew Flintoff.
James Foster.
Stuart Broad.
Ryan Sidebottom.
Simon Jones/James Andersen.
Monty Panesar.
Whilst its' not especially desirable to have Flintoff at number 6, we do not have a keeper in the country who is capable of fofilling the role of a number 6 batting wise (averaging 40+) and can maintain a high enough standard with the gloves. I feel James Foster is the perfect marriage of those two ideals. He averages 38ish in First class cricket, so he is far from a bunny, and he showed he could handle international cricket when he got a battling 30/40odd in the Ashes series in Australia in around '03, when we were up against probably one of the best bowling attacks to ever live. He is also an incredibly talented and consistant keeper. Anyone who has seen him on Sky this summer can tell you that for themselves. Not many keepers in the land could stand up to David Masters bowling mid 80's with the ball moving around and still seem comfortable. He also, doesn't miss chances.
That line up would obviously be ideal, but it does require Michael Vaughan scoring some runs. I think we all know how class a player he is, but he is prone to troughs like this and we just have to hope he see's this one through, like he did against India last year. Tbf, I don't understand the overwhelming pressure concerning him, it wasn't actually that long ago he got a big score. It seems now that 2 bad test matches can lose you your place, which doesn't happen anywhere else in the world. Matthew Hayden had 9 horrible innings against England in the 2005 Ashes. By rights, in England he would have been dropped on the back on that, however the Australians showed the loyalty that these players deserve, he came out and got a ton in the final Ashes test and has been one of the best batters in the world average and form wise ever since.
