[GBDG1]

There's alot of negativity surrounding England's trip down under. However with odds of 4/1 I am quite tempted to have a punt. So can people think of reasons why we should all be positive and why England will win the ashes?

[Harj]

FLintoff will get injured, allowing Strauss to rightly take the captaincy, he will win 1 test matches, Flintoff will return as vice captain, score a hundred and and take 5 wickets making it 2 tests up, with the rest being washed out.

Basically, Strauss needs to be captain.

[Ian J]

Originally Posted by Lawrenzini

So can people think of reasons why we should all be positive and why England will win the ashes?

The Australians will all go down with food poisoning

Trescothick doesn't perform as well overseas, hasn't played cricket for a while and was out of form anyway.

Michael Vaughan our inspirational captain is absent.

Simon Jones who is made for Australian conditions is also absent.

Steve Harmison wouild like to forget about 2006

James Anderson hasn't played competitive cricket for over a year and neither Mahmood nor Plunkett are consistant enough.

If everyone in the England team play to their best abilities and the Australians play badly we are capable of winning but whilst that may happen in one test (usually the last one) I can't see it happening in every match.

I'd love to be proved wrong though

[miceri]

I'd like to think that the Aussies will be under a bit of home pressure to perform. But in reality I bet they are seriously chomping at the bit to blitz us into dust during the 1st test...

All those nice dusty hard wickets, and us with no premier fast bowler / bouncer...

[CFC1]

Agree with all Ian J's points - I can't see anything other than a whitewash, I'm afraid.
Hate to admit it, but England haven't a hope!

[Leej]

Originally Posted by Lawrenzini

So can people think of reasons why we should all be positive and why England will win the ashes?

Warne and Lee will tread on a cricket ball during warm up

Looking back at last summer the reason England failed to beat Sri Lanka was Murrali. Whereas Pakistan were beaten as they hadn't got a world class spinner.

Kevin Pieterson (mainly) and co will hopefully destroy Shane Warne, with him out of the equation then England have a good chance of victory.

[DJT75]

Originally Posted by CFC1

I can't see anything other than a whitewash(

That's where my money's gone.

[Ian J]

According to the BBC today there are doubts over Flintoff's fitness to bowl so we may go in with five bowlers which will leave us with an unbalanced side as well as an awfully long tail.

[Johnny Thunder]

The Aussie side is OLD. The likes of Warne and Mcgrath will get injuries.
We will retain the Ashes.

[Ian J]

It was noticeable in 2005 how much worse the Aussie side was without McGrath so hopefully he will trip on another ball in the warm ups and rule himself out of a couple of the games.

[Ian J]

England XI suffer heavy defeat

Shaun Tait stormed into the first Test calculations with a withering fast bowling performance as England XI succumbed to a 166-run defeat in their opening Ashes tour match at the Manuka Oval in Canberra.

England XI were hammered for a record 347 for five off 50 overs by a Prime Minister's XI and in reply they were skittled for just 181 off 38.4 overs. It was a worrying performance with the first of the five Ashes Tests, in Brisbane, just 13 days away.

The rest of the article here makes very worrying reading too.

[NWhiteley]

After watching the PM eleven v England game live last night, i just cant see how we can win any test against the Aussies this summer, let alone the series. With the exception of Freddies bowling, they were awful.

[rio1981]

Originally Posted by Ian J

The rest of the article here makes very worrying reading too.

Watched a little bit of it last night, and some highlights this morning - I just hope it's a case of getting the rust off before the real games begin, but this kind of spanking isn't really the way to prepare, is it?

Too many cases of poor shot selection in terms of batting, at a time when you need some decent time in the middle we miss out on batting for nearly 12 overs out of the 50? I just hope this truly is the one-day form, and not test match form...

[Ian J]

Oh bugger, I didn't know that it was on TV although it doesn't look as if it were worth watching anyway.

I wonder if that means Sean Tait has booked his berth in the Test team. I remember his one game in the Ashes 2005 series as he was quite a handful and it will take a brave and determined man to stand up against him and Brett Lee bowling in tandem.

[Tsunami]

Luck & lots of it.

[NWhiteley]

Originally Posted by Ian J

Oh bugger, I didn't know that it was on TV although it doesn't look as if it were worth watching anyway.

I wonder if that means Sean Tait has booked his berth in the Test team. I remember his one game in the Ashes 2005 series as he was quite a handful and it will take a brave and determined man to stand up against him and Brett Lee bowling in tandem.

I wish i hadnt watched it, but a bad back forced me to.
Sean Tait did bowl very well, but i was more impressed with Phil Jaques, although he was aided by some woefull English bowling.

[scrapbook]

It is reported on the BBC that Fletcher and Flintoff have decided that Geraint Jones will be reinstated as the WK / No7 batsman for the first test.

I can't say I am a particular fan of either of them long term, but you would think they would make a decision like that based upon form in the practice matches rather than half a dozen one day games.

[Ian J]

The only glimmer of hope that we have from these practice matches is that Mike Gatting's Ashes winning team in the late eighties made a real pig's ear of the practice matches too earning public comments like "Can't bat, can't bowl and can't field" but they went on to play well where it mattered.

[Geege]

I am already stocking up on beer and party poppers to celebrate the Ashes 5-0 whitewash to Australia!!!

[Ian J]

Looks like our batsmen are starting to show a little form with Pietersen and Flintoff 80no and 48no respectively and Cook and Strauss making 59 and 50 respectively.

Let's hope that the bowlers start to find some form too as it was the English bowling unit that was the envy of the world in 2005

[rio1981]

I'm a fan of Geraint Jones, think he's a good keeper, was obviously part of the side that beat them last time (whereas Read wasn't) and there IS a train of thought that the wickets will suit him over there. What doesn't wash is Fletcher's reasons for picking him.

Fletcher has said that the recent one-day scores from Read have gone against him - whereas Read had three(?) consecutive half-centuries in test match innings in the summer. Surely this is what counts?

Bold move though...

[Ian J]

I still think that we should play the better gloveman rather than the more technically proficient batsman. In the warm up game Jones pulled off quite a difficult catch but dropped an easy one.

I'm reminded of Chris Scott's (Durham's wicket keeper) comment in 1994 when he dropped Brian Lara on nought and commented "Damn, I suppose that you'll go on and score a century now." If he hadn't dropped that catch I think that Durham may have won the game instead of which it petered out into a draw after Brian Lara broke the world record by scoring 501 runs.

My guess is that as three batsmen into two batting slots doesn't go, Cook and Bell will probably get the nod ahead of Paul Collingwood and if catches do indeed win matches we are handicapping ourselves by having our best wicket keeper & best fielder sunbathing instead of playing.

[KevD]

Originally Posted by Ian J

Looks like our batsmen are starting to show a little form with Pietersen and Flintoff 80no and 48no respectively and Cook and Strauss making 59 and 50 respectively.

Quite impressive bearing in mind the attack they were up against, McGrath, Lee. Clark, Bracken and McGill.
Trescothick is a bit of a worry only facing 14 balls

Originally Posted by Ian J

Let's hope that the bowlers start to find some form too as it was the English bowling unit that was the envy of the world in 2005

Looks like there was an improvment today, altough Harmy still went for a few

[GeordieSquires]

I would think that Colly would get the nod ahead of Cook. He has been our Mr. Consistent and is a superb fielder.
I believe Jones is the better choice keeper as the tails runs last year won us the ashes and Jones is the better batsman. He may drop some but he catches more than he drops.

[KevD]

Originally Posted by GeordieSquires

I would think that Colly would get the nod ahead of Cook. He has been our Mr. Consistent and is a superb fielder.
I believe Jones is the better choice keeper as the tails runs last year won us the ashes and Jones is the better batsman. He may drop some but he catches more than he drops.

Its a difficult one, they all have pretty impressive records (albeit young) and whoever misses out will be hard done by,

Cook - 9 matches, averaging 54.35
Collingwood - 15 matches, averaging 41.08
Bell - 18 matches, averaging 47.66

I would prefer Bell & Cook getting the nod

I remember, not 10 years ago, nobody in the side averaged 40 (Atherton & Stewart were just under) now they all do, except Flintoff (Trescothick 43.79, Strauss 46.37, Pietersen 48.39, Flintoff 32.91 who is better than that!).

[KevD]

Pietersen completes century & Flintoff half century.

KP made 122 before being caught by Lee off Braken's bowling, Freddie bowled for 62 by Stuart Clark. Geraint Jones done himself no favours making only 13 runs from 62 ball before getting out to McGrath (Were you watching Dunc ).
England are 340/8 as I write this so the bowlers should get a few more overs behind them later on.

Panesar Racially abused during game

As predicted Monty has already come under fire from the Aussie crowd. Idiots asking ""What are you doing playing in the English side? You're not English." and "Give us a wave, Monty. You can't speak English you stupid Indian, I'll have to say it in Indian"

Just to be clear Monty was born in Luton and speaks the English language better than most.

This was heard by an Aussie journo who reported in his paper the following day but failed to mention it to the groundstaff when it happened

BBC link

[Ian J]

Encouraging performances with the bat by four English batsmen with Anderson also showing late signs of form with the ball

Originally Posted by KevD

As predicted Monty has already come under fire from the Aussie crowd. Idiots asking ""What are you doing playing in the English side? You're not English." and "Give us a wave, Monty. You can't speak English you stupid Indian, I'll have to say it in Indian"

I was at the Trent Bridge test in the last Ashes series where a couple of boorish Englishman were continually shouting to Glenn McGrath who was fielding at fine leg about his wife's perceived sexual preferences. McGrath took his annoyance out on the English batsmen by bowling with a little extra bite and taking a hatful of wickets.

Monty isn't as experienced as McGrath but let's hope that abuse of any kind will motivate him that little extra too as even if the Aussies don't racially abuse him they sure will remind him of his great fielding prowess.

[KevD]

Here is one reason England can win, Trescothick is out of the Ashes with a reaccurance of his "stress illness".
While I think he is one of our finest batsmen at his best, he is woeful at the moment and this can allow Bell, Cook and Collingwood to play.

Rob Key, Ed Joyce or Owais Shah seem likely to be called up to the squad.

[Ian J]

This must mark the end of Trescothick's international career as it's now the third time that he's pulled out with whatever these problems of his are.

It's a shame as he used to be able to pile on the runs very quickly when on form, despite everyone saying that he had a poor technique as he didn't move his feet enough. He was also a fairly safe pair of hands in the slips.

Rob Key should be next in line but the selectors have been doing some odd things lately.

[KevD]

Originally Posted by Ian J

Rob Key should be next in line but the selectors have been doing some odd things lately.

Owais Shah was last player not in the initial squad who played in the test side (and done pretty well!) and I would prefer to see him called in to cover than Key.

Shah managed a couple of good scores in both innings of his only test appearance, whereas Rob Key has a very poor record over a number of tests, only saved by his double century against a mediocre Windies attack a while back.

I really would like to see Tres return , I feel he was vital to the One Day team to do well in the WI.