West Indies in England

[BigCrickNan]

Dropping Cook just isn't an option, he is probably the greatest young batsman in the world. His innings for the M.C.C on Friday was simply brilliant, hitting 142 without taking any risks in pretty good time. Although it was just a one-off county game, it was a superb innings.

Here is what I think will be the team:

Strauss
Vaughan (Vaughan will probably picked as opener, which is great news as he averages 50 here)
Cook
Bell
Pietersen
Collingwood
Flintoff
Read (Most likely to be test keeper, I just don't see the selectors opting for Prior or Foster in test cricket at the moment)
Hoggard
Panesar
Harmison (Looking in good form this season, he'll probably get picked)

Not so sure about playing 6 specialist batsmen but there isn't one that deserves to be dropped, apart from maybe Vaughan but he is rated so highly by selectors. Although this may mean Collingwood may have to develop his bowling more with Bell and KP getting the odd bowl.

 

[Sureshot]

Against the WIndies we could afford to play 5 specialist batsman (plus Fred and keeper, though Prior would be a specialist batsman ). The WIndies attack is weak. Fred can bat 6 against them, they've got no spinners to tear him up.

 

[Animator!]

Right.
Tresco won't play in the whole summer, the ECB are dead pissed off about they way they messed him around, telling them he was fine and then leaving.
Simon Jones won't play because he has to show the selectors he can bowl overs, without injury. So I don't expect him to feature in the summer or at least till the second test series.
Vaughan has been our best test player in the past. He's the most technically correct player we have, and probably the second best bat we have. For some reason all of you seem to think coming back from 2 major knee injuries and some other niggles, then just finding form happens. It's laughable how some of you expect people to come straight back and score hundreds of runs at a time.

My Test Eleven.
Alistair Cook.
Andrew Strauss.
Michael Vaughan *
Kevin Pietersen.
Paul Collingwood.
Andrew Flintoff (Only if he can justify his place with the Bat and Ball)
James Foster
Saj Mahmood/James Anderson/Stuart Broad. It depends who'd coach.
Monty Panesar.
Matthew Hoggard.
Stephen Harmison.

ODI's.
Alistair Cook.
Matt Prior
Michael Vaughan *
Kevin Pietersen.
Paul Collingwood.
Ravinder Bopara.
Andrew Flintoff.
James Andersen.
Monty Panesar.
Stuart Broad.
Anyone from the county who has a good start.

 

[Skater]

I don't think England will have a problem in the tests. 3-1 to the home side if the weather is fine, 3-0 if it's wet in the 4th test.

 

[evertonfan]

Cook is bang in form anyway. I have no problem at all with him stepping in for Tres.

 

[MUFC1987]

Should be an interesting selection. Vaughan, Bell and Collingwood are essentially fighting for two places at the moment. Prior or Davies will start as keeper in my opinion, depending on who is in the best form at the start of the series. I can't see us struggling too much, barring something exceptional from the West Indies batting order.

 

[evertonfan]

I just take one look at the Windies bowling and know the England line-up are in for some runs. To be honest, if we don't reach at least 400 per Test against this lot then we should feel let down. I don't mean to sound Australian, but we really should look at no less than 4-0 this summer.

 

[RoboRocks]

I wouldn't get cocky Evo.
We screwed up the ashes and can screw up this series as well if were not careful.

 

[evertonfan]

I wouldn't get cocky Evo.
We screwed up the ashes and can screw up this series as well if were not careful.

True, the Ashes was an abomination but the West Indies are hardly Australia are they? We struggled against Clark and Warne (not as much as in previous series but still struggled) but were relatively comfortable against the rest. The West Indies have no one that are anywhere near the likes of Clark or Warne.

 

[Sureshot]

Andrew Flintoff (Only if he can justify his place with the Bat and Ball)

Forgetting the fact he has been our best player for the last 3-4 years?

 

[manee]

Yes. Not amazing in ODIs but certainly warrents a place.

ODIs

2004: Bat Av: 57.54. Bowl Av: 21.31
2005: Bat Av: 35.00. Bowl Av: 32.95
2006: Bat Av: 14.57. Bowl Av: 29.33
2007: Bat Av: 27.15. Bowl Av: 24.30

Tests

2004: Bat Av: 52.85. Bowl Av: 25.76
2005: Bat Av: 30.82. Bowl Av: 24.41
2006: Bat Av: 31.26. Bowl Av: 33.78
2007: Bat Av: 48.00. Bowl Av: 56.00

 

[Will_NA]

We need to use this series to get our confidence levels up and we need to be clinical against the Windies like we have in the past

 

[Dare]

have England ever thought about making KP their captain? i would think that KP could be a good captain for the future.

 

[evertonfan]

For the future maybe but I certainly think it's too early for him now.

 

[Animator!]

He shouldn't be captain, he's just not right.
He's far too outlandish, makes far too many comments in the media that can be twisted. Your captain needs to be someone calm and collected. Punter would never have been Auzzie captain if he hadn't turned it around after his drink problem.