South Africa vs England, 1st Test, Centurion, Dec 16 - 20

Enough of all this other tripe, real cricket is a month away. What will the England team be? Will "Ian Bell, Ashes Hero" maintain a spot in the side? Will vice-captain Alastair Cook, with scarcely any runs to his name of late, keep his place through to the tour of Bangladesh? Who will Pietersen replace? Will Plunkett return? How much of a disaster will batting Broad at 7 prove to be? Anyways, team:

Strauss
Cook
Trott
Pietersen
Collingwood
Bell
Prior
Broad
Swann
Anderson
Onions

Four bowlers and just three seamers in South African conditions?

Broad at 7 would in all likelyhood mean Ian Bell gets jettisoned though.

But yes - Sturat Broad at farkin 7.

7 & 8 is one place too high for both Broad & Swann. Having Swanny coming in at 9 to biff a few certainly helped during the Ashes.

1 match in and already Freds absence is causing a headache.

Fred's availability, due to his shittening batting form and bone-china ankle/knee joints, were causing a headache for the last four years, too...

The last attack for England in a test in SAF was,


Hoggard
Harmison
Simon Jones
Flintoff
Giles

That was winter 04. Bloomin' long time between tours. I'm sure we've been to NZ about six times since then...

Back then we had the privilege of a 5 test series (outside of the Ashes).

Is this one not a five-Test-er?

edit: no. Four Tests. They obviously needed to wrap it up quickly before the important tour to Bangladesh that they're not taking a proper team to...

4fer.

You couldn't possibly play a 5 test series. You'd need to cut the 23rd, 24th and 25th ODI from the schedule, and only an idiot would do that.

Christ! Three weeks until this starts.


Reckon we could get this Rikki'd? It'd still get more hits than any of the ODI's.

I'd rather see Morgan than Bell at 6 if we're going to play a batsman.
Four bowlers and Colly, KP and JT to share the 5th bowler duties seems like the best option without a bowling all-rounder that can bat 6. Otherwise bat Prior there and live with Broad at 7 to accommodate the extra bowler. Same old..

I reckon that Broad will be at 7, but Bresno CA will come in:

Strauss
Cook (if fit!!)
Trott
KP
Colly
Prior
Broad
Swann
Bresnan
Anderson
Oignons.

It will bolster the tail - I reckon they'd prefer 2.5 decent number 8s and five bowlers than the other option.

If not, f*ck Bell. Qunt.

Probably will be that side.

Don't fancy that tail digging us out of 70-5 but it could be the difference between posting 300 and 400.

Ideally you would all want them shunted down one place.

Ideally, one could trust the four bowlers and stick an extra batsman in place of Bresnan. Still, if we want to win matches, that's just not possible.