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*Official* England Squad discussion thread

Furball

Evil Scotsman
Be interesting to see what the consensus is with regard to England's squad make up.

I'm of the opinion that both Bopara and Shah should definitely be in the squad, if not the final XI, as they're both amongst the best English T20 batsmen around.

Bowling wise, I've no idea who goes - there really isn't much quality outwith the current team set up. Certainly no-one in the domestic competition who demands inclusion based on domestic performances.

My squad:

Pietersen
Bopara
Kieswetter
Morgan
Collingwood
Shah
Mascarenhas
Swann
Broad
Wright
Anderson
S. Davies
Trott
Tredwell

15th man is a problem, if Flintoff were fit I'd have no hesitation including him.

I'd be tempted to take Jamie Dalrymple, had a decent season last season for Glamorgan.
 

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
Fortunately Mascarenhas is injured.

Wouldn't put Shah anywhere near my team - useless fielder and runner and takes far too long to play himself in.
 

King Pietersen

International Captain
Hopefully now that Onions is injured, Napier could get himself into contention. I'm amazed that someone with his T20 record and experience isn't even in the 30. He'd definitely be in my side.

I'd like to see a 15 of:

Jonathan Trott
Craig Kieswetter
Kevin Pietersen
Paul Collingwood
Eoin Morgan
Luke Wright
James Foster +
Graham Napier
Graeme Swann
Stuart Broad
James Anderson

Steven Davies
Ravi Bopara
James Tredwell
Tim Bresnan
 

GIMH

Norwood's on Fire
Hopefully now that Onions is injured, Napier could get himself into contention. I'm amazed that someone with his T20 record and experience isn't even in the 30. He'd definitely be in my side.

I'd like to see a 15 of:

Jonathan Trott
Craig Kieswetter
Kevin Pietersen
Paul Collingwood
Eoin Morgan
Luke Wright
James Foster +
Graham Napier
Graeme Swann
Stuart Broad
James Anderson

Steven Davies
Ravi Bopara
James Tredwell
Tim Bresnan
Not convinced Napier will get a go, rightly or wrongly. I like that attack, just worried about the third seamer.
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Don't think Napier's in the 30 man squad, tbh. But having said that I don't know if we're limited to selecting from those 30 either.

So bascially the point of this post = zero.

I like posting, me. :ph34r:
 

King Pietersen

International Captain
Napier's not in the 30, nor's Foster, was just picking my ideal XV. How anyone could possibly believe Chris Woakes, Steven Finn, Sajid Mahmood, David Wainwright, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Ajmal Shahzad, James Tredwell, Peter Trego and Michael Yardy are better T20 cricketers than Graham Napier is beyond me. The incompetence of our selection panel just continues to bemuse me, surely every member of the panel just forgot about Napier and Foster, as if they'd remembered them they'd surely be in the 30 at least. Foster did an excellent job with the gloves in the last T20 WC, but has just been forgotten since then, yet Prior continues to play Limited Overs cricket, it's laughable.
 
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Jarquis

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Foster being left out is a joke, absolutely brilliant gloveman and a more than useful batsman to have in the lower order. Plenty of innovative shots and scores quickly. Can turn a match on its head with a brilliant bit of glovework or a series of boundaries late in the innings, not sure what else you want from your keeper in T20.
Wainwright could be useful in the West Indies tbh, pitches are going to be slow so you could see two or three spinners (four if you're Zimbabwe :ph34r:) bowling in an innings quite regularly. Wainwright has a pretty impressive economy rate as well IIRC.
 

Scaly piscine

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Lumb
Trott
KP
Colly
Morgan
Kieswetter
Mustard
Sidebottom
Broad
Wright
Anderson
Napier
Swann
Blackwell
Tredwell

With a side like:

Kieswetter+
Trott
KP
Collingwood*
Morgan
Wright
Blackwell
Swann
Broad
Sidebottom
Anderson


Can't remember if Sidebottom and whoever else is injured or not. Don't care about whatever 30 man squad the ****wit selectors came up with.
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Think Sid's too much of a liability nowadays with his injury woes. Can't recall the last time he got thru a series without breaking down and/or looking toothless beforehand.

My guess for the XV:

Collingwood*
Prior+
Kieswetter
Trott
Pietersen
Morgan
Lumb
Wright
Anderson
Bresnan
Broad
Shahzad
Swann
Tredwell
Yardy

Yardy's ER last season v impressive and, with the pitches in the Windies likely to be dead as the proverbial, reckon we'll load up with spinners.

I've assumed Dimi's broken for the purposes of selecting my squad.
 

King Pietersen

International Captain
Squad's been announced. Prior's finally been dropped from Limited Overs cricket, with Kieswetter picked as the only keeper. Michael Yardy gets in the squad, as do Ravi Bopara and Ajmal Shahzad. Interesting to see Ravi get in the squad. Can't say he's done much to deserve getting back in (especially ahead of Jonathan Trott), but I'm not too fussed as I <3 abit of Ravi. So, to confirm the XV is:

Craig Kieswetter
Michael Lumb
Kevin Pietersen
Paul Collingwood
Eoin Morgan
Michael Yardy
Luke Wright
Graeme Swann
Tim Bresnan
Stuart Broad
James Anderson

Ajmal Shahzad
Ravi Bopara
Ryan Sidebottom
James Tredwell

Incredible that Jonathan Trott fails to make that side. He made 500 runs in the T20 Cup last year, and although he's struggled in T20's for England he is surely a better option than Ravi? Very strange, seems the selectors don't like the bloke in Limited Overs cricket, despite being one of the best batsmen in England. Still think Napier should be picked ahead of Shahzad too.
 
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King Pietersen

International Captain
Yeah, it's not the worst squad selection we've seen, but there are still a couple of issues. Shahzad simply should not be playing, he's done bugger all for Yorkshire and didn't look particularly impressive for England. Then taking off my Bopara-Tinted Specs, his selection is a poor one. Must be hugely influenced by a few ok innings in the IPL, as he's done sod all apart from that. Trott was easily the best batsman in the domestic competition last year, yet continues to get treated like crap by the selectors. If he was a Durham player, Scaly would probably have exploded.
 

marc71178

Eyes not spreadsheets
Shahzad and Sidebottom are wastes of space in the squad, Shahzad should be nowhere near any representative squad and Sidebottom should just do the decent thing and retire from internationals.
 

Jarquis

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Can see Yardy ahead of Blackwell going down well with Scaly.
Ravi ahead of Trott is abysmal.
Shazhad just shows how dire our fast bowling stocks are nowadays.
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Yep, agree with everyone, pretty much.

Trott's face still doesn't seem to quite fit, somehow & Sid's selection looks optimistic in the extreme. Probably says more about the lack of other options, I suppose. At least Shahzad has youth & batting(ish) on his side.
 

King Pietersen

International Captain
Surely if they wanted to pick someone experienced they could have gone for James Kirtley in place of Sid? Had another excellent season last year, with 17 wickets at 10.88 and apart from Alfonso Thomas (who I wish was English) was the stand-out bowler last season. I think Kirtley and Napier would have been far better options personally. Kirtley only got 1 over in the T20i he played, bowling to Hayden and Gilchrist, pretty harsh to just bin him completely after that. He's been consistently excellent in T20 cricket for Sussex, and is surely a better option than Shahzad?
 

BoyBrumby

Englishman
Surely if they wanted to pick someone experienced they could have gone for James Kirtley in place of Sid? Had another excellent season last year, with 17 wickets at 10.88 and apart from Alfonso Thomas (who I wish was English) was the stand-out bowler last season. I think Kirtley and Napier would have been far better options personally. Kirtley only got 1 over in the T20i he played, bowling to Hayden and Gilchrist, pretty harsh to just bin him completely after that. He's been consistently excellent in T20 cricket for Sussex, and is surely a better option than Shahzad?
You're preaching to the choir, mate.

Just that neither Napier nor Kirtley was in the 30 so I was picking from what was there. Wouldn't have picked Sid or Shahzad myself, but of the two calls Shahzad has very slightly more to recommend it.

Woakes or Trego would've made more sense than Sid too, IMHO.
 

King Pietersen

International Captain
Yeah, tell me about it. Just quite frustrating that even with 30 to pick from the selectors can't justify picking 2 of the better T20 bowlers in England. I can sort of understand not picking Kirtley, his 1 performance against Australia in 07 didn't go well, but I'd love to hear their logic behind ignoring Graham Napier. /broken record
 

Scaly piscine

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Yardy's bowling record was good last year... so was everyone else who played for Sussex - their pitch is a joke. His strike rate with the bat last year was 87.70. The only thing going for him is his bowling is good on joke pitches. But if the pitches are a little better or international batsmen play him a hell of a lot better than county batsmen do (which is my guess) then you're left with an almost entirely useless player.

Shahzad is just an abysmal selection.

Bopara? Yea we want a flat track bully to look good in scoring at a run a ball before chipping the ball to mid-on and dropping a simple catch. Much better than that bloke who was one of the top run getters last season.
 

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