England test squad to tour Sri Lanka

[Pup Clarke]

There are two possible teams really imo...

Cook
Strauss
Vaughan
Pietersen
Collingwood
Bell
Flintoff
Keeper
Hoggard
Panesar
Anderson/Harmison


Cook
Strauss
Vaughan
Pietersen
Bell
Flintoff
Keeper
Swann/Rashid
Hoggard
Panesar
Harmison/Anderson

 

[Richard]

It'll be Strauss-Cook not Cook-Strauss for starters.

And for seconds, if Harmison gets ahead of Tremlett, much as I don't especially (yet) rate either bowler, it'll be ridiculous. Tremlett bowled better in his most recent series than Harmison has for over 3 years. Bowled better consistently than Anderson too really.

And I hope Collingwood wouldn't be dropped for a second spinner, unless that second spinner had been Giles.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Anderson imo has to go really, it will be between Tremlett and Sidebottom for the final fast bowling spot, would just go with Tremlett but not by much, so were looking at...

Vaughan
Pietersen
Strauss
Bell
Cook
Shah
Collingwood
Flintoff
Prior
Read/Ambrose/Pothas/Foster
Hoggard
Panesar
Anderson
Swann
Tremlett
Harmison

 

[Richard]

Both Sidebottom and Tremlett should be ahead of both Anderson and Harmison IMO.

 

[Pup Clarke]

Marginal imo

 

[Richard]

No way. Sidebottom has been, beyond a doubt, the best seamer of the summer. And Tremlett probably 2nd, even though he played less than half of it.

Harmison is way out of such a picture, and Anderson remains a scattergun by those standards.

 

[garypleavin]

M.Vaughan (c)
A.Strauss
A.Cook
K.Pietersen
P.Collingwood
I.Bell
O.Shah
A.Flintoff
M.Prior
M.Hoggard
S.Harmison
J.Anderson
C.Tremlett
R.Sidebottom
M.Panesar
G.Keedy

 

[Richard]

No reserve wicketkeeper you reckon?

 

[Pup Clarke]

Mark Davies, must be the unluckiest bowler of recent times, would surely have been playing for England by now, ashtonishing figures in 04 and 05, took 7 for yesterday though on debut for Notts.

 

[Zimdan]

Nixon needs to be selected, without him England are subdued and give off the aura of repetitivness in ODI's

 

[aussie]

Both Sidebottom and Tremlett should be ahead of both Anderson and Harmison IMO.

Based on performances this summer & over the last couple of years yes. But we talking about fast bowlers who are going to be able to get wickets in the sub-continent. Sidebottom really may struggle to take wickets in those conditions although he could be a good stock bowler, neither the hit the deck type of Harmo or Tremlett will be that effective, but Anderson ability to reverse it has a chance.

Looking at that reasoning you could Sidebottom or Anderson would be the best picks, which is true. But knowing the selectors once Harmo is fit he will be picked so we'll see what happens.

 

[Richard]

TBH I don't see any evidence that Anderson is a better reverse-swing bowler than Sidebottom. I've every reason to hope that Sidebottom will be able to use reverse as he did conventional this summer.

Let's face it - Anderson's hardly displayed any great prowess at reverse-swing, has he? No more than Hoggard.

Still, if Hoggard and Sidebottom can get it working, we already know Flintoff is thoroughly capable. All three bowlers are far more consistent than Anderson.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

England will want a bowler to spin the ball the opposite direction to Panesar. So for that reason i wouldnt bet against Swann getting the call over Rashid / Keedy.

 

[Prince EWS]

It'll be Strauss-Cook not Cook-Strauss for starters.

 

[chaminda_00]

Does it really matter who England play, they are going to get owned TBH

 

[Richard]

Haha, wondered if I'd attact comment from you with that.

Sorry, it's always been and always will be a bugbear of mine. I'm not gonna cease to point it out.

 

[iamdavid]

Mark Davies, must be the unluckiest bowler of recent times, would surely have been playing for England by now, ashtonishing figures in 04 and 05, took 7 for yesterday though on debut for Notts.

I've only ever seen him bowl once so correct me if I'm wrong here, but he looked like a pretty pedestrian medium-pacer, similar to Kevin Dean in that he's produced excellent figures at county level pretty regularly but never seriously been thought of for England honours. I know he's been unlucky with injuries aswell.
But I spose the fact he's regarded as a lesser bowler than Gibson, Onions, Harmison, Plunkett and Killeen (even though 3 of them have been around the England set-up this season, one has a 10-for and the other one is very under-rated imo) says a bit about where he sits in the scheme of things.

 

[Richard]

Davies and Dean are pretty different cases TBH. Dean has had injury problems but has been fit for plenty of cricket and (like Jason Lewry) has certainly been in the picture of times, but things just haven't worked out (bit like Darren Lehmann's case I suppose).

Davies has been more often unfit than fit since his breakthrough season. I admit it's always rather surprised me that he's done as well as he has, but he hasn't just done well, he really has done sensationally. The only time I ever saw him bowl was in 2001 before he started cutting things up, and he was bowling at little more than 70mph that game. I can only presume he's gotten a bit quicker since then, though.

 

[sledger]

cant say i'm thrilled with the idea of Graeme Swan as several others have suggested.

 

[open365]

Giving it air is all well and good but unless you turn it all that'll achieve is likely getting you spanked.

Yes, I've seen Keedy bowl plenty, and he's OK, sure, but he's nothing more than a fingerspinner. And Old Trafford isn't generally a spin-friendly ground, that's the great mystery. If he played at Wantage Road Northampton like Jason Brown, Michael Davies, etc. then it'd be less odd.

Biggest lie ever, you've been to one county ground in your entire life, you have to see Keedy bowl live to realise that he's not just a poor bowler who magicaly gets good figures.