Who's going to play all five Tests?

[GIMH]

Suprised Anderson has been backed to play all 5.

He's been bombed out twice this winter for no reason whatsoever.

He should play all 5, but will probably be dropped after Harmison skittles some prank county batting line up in a live Sky one-dayer.

My thoughts exactly

Loving the way "prank" is becoming a common way to refer to crap players round here btw.

[Uppercut]

I know, it's fantastic. I can just see myself desperately telling my future grandchildren that i started it and them looking at me dubiously.

[Prince EWS]

I know, it's fantastic. I can just see myself desperately telling my future grandchildren that i started it and them looking at me dubiously.

I've tried to introduce it on a rugby league forum I post at.

The only reaction it's got is people saying it has replaced "dire" in my vocabulary, but it's actually quite different to "dire" IMO.

[TT Boy]

My thoughts exactly

Loving the way "prank" is becoming a common way to refer to crap players round here btw.

I prefer Aussie’s use of the word, bumbaclaart.

[Richard]

I prefer aussie's use of maaaaaaany words - his vocab is always good for a laugh.

[GIMH]

Word out Richard son, you is doin some smokin posts

[Uppercut]

I've tried to introduce it on a rugby league forum I post at.

The only reaction it's got is people saying it has replaced "dire" in my vocabulary, but it's actually quite different to "dire" IMO.

Hmm, conversely, I've started saying "dire" a lot in general. It's pretty easy to pick up because when i started posting here the first six words i thought of to use about Ian Bell would have been filtered out. The only alternative to "dire" would have been to introduce the swearjar-dodging colloquialism "bad man".

[GIMH]

Dire was used everywhere in my workplace for a period when CW first got me addicted to the word

[rivera213]

Right CWers, here's your chance to test your predictive powers. On both sides, who do we reckon will keep fit well enough (and avoid freak accidents, which obviously are 100% impossible to predict and thus can throw out any prediction regardless of calibre) and perform well enough to last the full course?

Out of these near-certain starters, I'd reckon:
Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Matthew Prior, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Phil Hughes, Simon Katich, Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke, Bradley Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle.

Anyone aside from the above, you'd be going some to think they were likely to play all five... but we know those on CW do sometimes like to do that.

Myself, I reckon Strauss, Pietersen, Hughes, Ponting, Clarke, M Hussey, Haddin and Siddle are very high likelihoods. Wouldn't commit to anyone else but that's not to say I think the above are going to be the only ones.

ENGLAND: Strauss, Cook, Pietersen, Collingwood.

AUSTRALIA: Ponting, Katich, Hussey, Haddin, Johnson, Clarke.

I really hope Prior doesn't plan any of the tests, let alone all 5.

[pskov]

Two months away and the only two players who I would give more than 90% chance of starting all 5 tests for England are Strauss and Pietersen. Even Collingwood or Anderson could be dropped if they have 3 or 4 poor games in a row (though I would disagree with the decision). And of course I would be shocked if Flintoff was fit enough to play in all five tests.

[GIMH]

I'd say Cook is very, very unlikely to be dropped this summer

[Richard]

I'd say Cook is more in-danger of being dropped this summer than any time in his career. Probably as good an attack as he's faced outside 2006/07 (when the pitches were much less seam-friendly than I'd expect them to be this summer); probably the worst shape he's been in all career - technical faults are still there and are compounded by his recent failures to kick-on when he has managed to get over them and get himself in; and the most important series where selectors are likely to be more panic-striken and less lenient than elsewhere.

If Cook fails to make fifty in the first three Tests - very much possible, if not out-and-out likely - then I can indeed see him being dropped for the last two. I hope, obviously, that such an outcome doesn't come to pass (that is, I hope he scores runs and I hope that if he doesn't, he gets a stay of execution).

[Prince EWS]

I'd say Cook is more in-danger of being dropped this summer than any time in his career. Probably as good an attack as he's faced outside 2006/07 (when the pitches were much less seam-friendly than I'd expect them to be this summer); probably the worst shape he's been in all career - technical faults are still there and are compounded by his recent failures to kick-on when he has managed to get over them and get himself in; and the most important series where selectors are likely to be more panic-striken and less lenient than elsewhere.

If Cook fails to make fifty in the first three Tests - very much possible, if not out-and-out likely - then I can indeed see him being dropped for the last two. I hope, obviously, that such an outcome doesn't come to pass (that is, I hope he scores runs and I hope that if he doesn't, he gets a stay of execution).

There's the series against the West Indies first, too. If Cook doesn't get a score in that series there will probably already be murmurs before the first Test of the Ashes, particularly if England don't do as well as they should against WI.

[dontcloseyoureyes]

[Burgey]

Not in that kit he won't