England's Test squad for SL...

Anyone who thinks that Harmison is going to come back into the England side and instantly be even somewhere close to good form, on a stinking hot away tour to Sri Lanka no less, dead pitches, homesickness and all, is kidding themselves. The guy needs bowling to find form, and he hasnt had any for the last 3 months.

Send him off with the A team and if he does well, then maybe consider him for New Zealand. Im not sure how much longer he can keep living off his 2004 heroics. He's averaged about 40 with the ball in the 3 years since.

Dello wrote:Both Tremlett and Broad have been named in the Academy squad - so it could well be that neither are on board.

I wouldn't read too much into the selection of the Academy squad. My money is on the five bowlers mentioned by Augustus with Tremlett missing out.

Dello wrote:At least that'll be plan A. Swanny might come in later on if things are going tits up.

So they may as well start off with Swanny and save all the time and effort of Plan A.

You've got to remember that, when he wants to be, Vaughan is a very handy off-spinner. I think he'll bowl in the series alongside Panesar for much of it.

Im not sure he's capable of bowling longish spells these days with that knee. If the pitches for the tests are anything like the one's that have been used for the ODI's, then we'll want 2 specialist spinners in the side. Id go with something like-

Cook
Vaughan(c)
Shah
Pietersen
Collingwood
Bell
Prior+
Swann
Hoggard
Sidebottom
Panesar

I dunno. Maybe we could even risk batting Prior at 6 and Swann at 7 to get the extra seamer in the team?

Prior
Swann
Tremlett
Hoggard
Sidebottom
Panesar

Looks a bit shaky, though. Murali would more than likely skittle them in 3 or 4 overs.

According to The Times a 16 man squad will now be selected as Flintoff isn't going. Originally they were going with 15 and beamer got it right -
they are taking
7 batsmen
2 keepers
2 spinners
5 fast bowlers

So it's Broad or Tremlett.

Two from Shah, Ramprakash, Strauss and possibly Bopara.

And a back-up keeper to, in all slap-headed liklihood, Prior.

Interesting that Rob Keys team today had Prior at 6.

FFS!

And Bob Willis had Mustard at 7 !

I missed that. Didn't Keysie pick himself? Stupid British reserve - get in there wide boy, big yourself up.

Should know by now that Gravenly David takes his cues from TV and print media when selecting the team...

JKLever wrote:Interesting that Rob Keys team today had Prior at 6.

FFS!

And Bob Willis had Mustard at 7 !

Even more interesting, Bob picked Prior as his reserve keeper then spent two minutes telling us how **** he was. What a guy.

When Scyld Berry starts hysterically calling for the administrators to overrule Gravo on Ramps, you know its a live topic.

But I reckon the high-risk nature of making the call will scare off Dave the Grave in the end. Even though practically everyone acknowledges Ramprakash is a better player of spin than Strauss or Bell, and that the latter two have done little to justify continued selection over the past 12 months, the safe selectorial option is to leave Ramps at home.

On the bowlers - I'd go for both Panesar and Swann. You need a second slow bowler in Sri Lanka - Croft and Giles were both essential to the win in 2001. A third seamer isn't likely to be much more threatening than Collingwood on those pitches. Jimmikins and Hoggard can open the bowling.

Oh, that's interesting - Berry thinks Tim Ambrose is in the frame as the second keeper.

The Sussexification of England continues apace...

Leo wrote:On the bowlers - Jimmikins and Hoggard can open the bowling.

I bet ODI 'Man of the Series' Ryan Sidebottom would love that.

I think Sidebottom has moved to the very front of the queue as far as the swing bowlers are concerned.

I think the seam attack will be him, either Anderson or Hoggard, and Harmison.

A bit of everything. Left arm in-swing to the RHBs, right arm out-swing to the RHBs and tall, bouncy fast random lucky-dipping from Harmison.

Throw in a spinner - Panesar bowling SLA, complimented by, say, Vaughan's off-spin - and you've got pretty much the most balanced attack imaginable.

Not that that's the be all and end all...

I can't believe we wont go in with 2 front line spinners given the heat we'll be playing in.