Squad for the first Test against West Indies

Ian J

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The squad for the first Test against the West Indies will be announced on Sunday. This will be the first team selected by Peter Moores and will be interesting as normally captain and coach have the final say but Michael Vaughan will be out injured.

Looking around at who's available and who's in form I can't really see that there will be many changes as no one is exactly setting the world alight in the early County Championship season but replacements will have to be found for Vaughan and Pietersen who are both out injured.

It would seem that the choice for captain is between Strauss and Colly and I would plump for the former as he's a known quantity and last time he did the job his batting actually improved.

Nixon is getting on a bit in cricketing terms but he's the man currently in the seat and he's one of the few players that didn't let the team down in the recent World Cup and I would retain him as wicket keeper.

Many would like to see Harmison dropped for letting us down recently but he's started the County season well and in my opinion leaving him out would be cutting off our noses to spite our faces.

I would also pick his county colleague Liam Plunkett as the final seamer as he has also started off the season well and outbowled his more illustrious team mate in the current game against Kent.

My 11 would be as follows with James Anderson as the standby bowler

Strauss
Cook
Bell
Collingwood
Bopara
Flintoff
Nixon
Plunkett
Hoggard
Harmison
Panesar
 
Is Pieterson out ???

Touch and go mate - done his calf playing against Ireland on monday.If i was a betting man I'd say very doutbful.

Would like to see Stuart Broad given a chance if Plunkett/Anderson/Harmison don't show much in the openeing test or two as I think he is a massive talent and could prove to be a valuable to us as McGrath has been for the kangaroo chasers.
 
I think that Stuart Broad is one for the future. I was listening to Paul Allot commentating the other day and he was saying that youngsters like Plunkett and Mahmood are still learning and should be learning their craft at county level by playing every week and not by being thrown to the lions at International level before they are ready.

Stuart Broad and Adil Rashid the 19 year old leg spinning wunderkid probably need at least one more season on the county circuit before making the big step up.

I'm afraid that despite forking out over £100 for a pair of tickets for the ODI against West Indies at Edgbaston I can't really get excited as they are hardly the big draw that they once were and although it was worth it in recent years to see Curtley Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and Brian Lara playing, Chanderpaul and Sarwan don't quite have the same magical qualities.
 
Without an in-form Vaughan and Trescothick, I can't envisage England getting a really big score. When was the last time for instance, that two, let alone three of our batsmen made big tons? Whilst on the other hand, I can't see any of our bowlers being a consistent threat in the series. They just lack potency ATM, and although Hoggard and Harmison have taken 6 or 7 wicket hauls in the past, I can't see that happening again... What's happened? :confused: :rolleyes:
 
I can't see any of our bowlers being a consistent threat in the series. They just lack potency ATM,

Oh ye of little faith :)

Harmison and Hoggard have been warming up well in County Cricket having both played a few games already and have each taken quite a few wickets. reports say that both are bowling well.

Plunkett is currently in the Durham side playing Kent and on a docile and slow pitch took five wickets yesterday including those of the South Africans Martin van Jaarsveld and Andrew Hall.

My guess is that England will whitewash West Indies as long as the weather doesn't interfere
 
Trescothick has ruled himself out of the first test at least, as he doesn't feel ready to get back to playing tests quite yet, after his "stress related" illness.
 
Wish they'ed bring back Joel Garner and Andy Roberts. They'er soon skittle those guys out :D :D :eek:
 
Has Flintoff got himself any runs since coming back from the WC?

I think I would prefer to see him at No 7 at the mo and with Bopara in your '11' as well it would be an additional excuse to do so.
 
Wish they'ed bring back Joel Garner and Andy Roberts. They'er soon skittle those guys out :D :D :eek:

I think that most of the paying public would agree with you. I now pass away a few interesting evenings watching the West Indian greats on ESPN Classics.

I agree that Flintoff on recent forum isn't worthy of batting at 6 but I'm not sure that Paul Nixon is a 6 either
 
I think that most of the paying public would agree with you. I now pass away a few interesting evenings watching the West Indian greats on ESPN Classics.

I agree that Flintoff on recent forum isn't worthy of batting at 6 but I'm not sure that Paul Nixon is a 6 either

Forgot one M.Holding ( Rolls Royce of fast bowling)
 
All of the speculation seems to be on the wicketkeeping position with the favourite according to the press being Matt Prior.

Prior's first class scores so far this season in five innings are an uninspiring 14, 3, 18, 4 and 35

Not only does Paul Nixon not deserve to be cast aside he also brings other dimensions to the game due to his chirpy nature and constant encouragement which could be very useful if we have to go into the Test with a stand in captain
 
I haven't personally seen Bopara hit a ball yet... is he up for it?

What tools' he got in the bag?


I know about his knock against SriLanka, but is he gonna be doing that on a regular basis?

:)
 
I know about his knock against SriLanka, but is he gonna be doing that on a regular basis?

He seems to have a good technique and no nerves at all but there's only one way to find out if he has what it takes and that's to throw him in at the deep end
 
Sounds like he has just the right tools then, as you say, lets see what he can do with them. :)


I'm fairly confident too for this series, we're a different team at home it seems.
The bowling's looking good as you mentioned, and with an extra pair of hands in the middle order, then that gives us enough options to take care of the Windies I think.
 
I agree that Flintoff on recent forum isn't worthy of batting at 6 but I'm not sure that Paul Nixon is a 6 either

I was thinking we could lose a bowler with Bopara and Collinwood able to chip in with some additional overs.
 
I've just managed to secure a ticket for Thursday!:clap: It's great living in the town that is Vodafone (Newbury).
 
Every year I have the same moan but as it was a year ago that I last mentioned it, I'll have another moan.

When England go to Australia we have a couple of warm up games against the state sides and they always put out their strongest sides in the hope of inflicting a humiliating defeat on us so that we go into the Test series already on the back foot.

When the touring sides come here they play a couple of warm up games against County sides but we take the opposite view and our senior players can't be bothered to turn out if there isn't anything at stake and by playing the second team's bowlers we give the touring test batsmen a chance to play themselves into form.

West Indies only have one warm up game and this is against Somerset which is already one of the poorest county sides but having left out their two front line bowlers Andy Caddick and Charl Willoughby the West Indian batsmen are helping themselves to runs and playing themselves into form.

These matches against the touring Test sides are quite lucrative for the counties and I believe that they should be told that unless they put out their strongest side they won't be given one of these fixtures in future.
 
Pretty much as IanJ called it, with Vaughan out but Pietersen is in :) Another wierd keeping decision to drop the Man is possesion of Gloves who has done well. Graveny also hinted that Pothas will be selected over the summer once his Citizenshop comes through.

Squad:

Strauss (Cpt)
Bell
Cook
Collingwood
Pietersen
Flintoff
Prior
Hoggard
Harmisson
Panesar
Plunkett
Shah

Anderson (Standby)
 
One has to feel sorry for Paul Nixon who was probably our best player in the World Cup yet like Chris Read before him has been dropped whilst doing nothing wrong. Matt Prior, like the new coach, is a Sussex player but has had a poor start to the County season in terms of run scoring and hasn't exactly set the world alight when playing for England in ODI's in the past.

Likewise one must also feel sorry for Ravi Bopara who again performed quite well in the West Indies yet has moved down the pecking order in favour of Owais Shah. Still Bopara is young and his time will surely come.
 
How is it, that regardless of who picks the team, we still manage to select the 'wrong' keeper almost every single series we play? :confused:

:rolleyes:
 
I don't know who is supposed to pick the team any more. The coach should have some input but traditionally the captain has the final say as it is he who takes to the field with his team.

Chris Read was the wicket keeper for the last series held in England (against Pakistan) and when he was dropped everyone said that it was wrong to drop him as he performed well.

Strauss was the captain for the Pakistan series so I guess that he had some input into selecting Read.

The full time selectors who picked Read for the last home series are exactly the same people this time round. Strauss is again the captain so I assume that he had some input into selecting the wicket keeper this time around too. The only person different on the selection committee is the coach and I wonder how co-incidental it is that both the incumbent wicket keepers have been cast aside in favour of someone not only previously in the frame but also from Peter Moores' club, Sussex.
 
Isn't Prior supposed to be more of a batsman first, than a specialist WK? ... More in the mould of Alec Stewart?
 

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