Perm
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
One word - injuries.
Flintoff, Hoggard, Vaughan, Harmison, Trescothick and Simon Jones all spent some time away from the game. At the moment Vaughan, Hoggard and Harmison have recovered from their respective injuries and are back in the side. If you look at things on a series by series basis, you'll see how badly England missed some of these players (most notably Jones, Flintoff and Hoggard). The bowling attack has been a shambles for a little while now. Sajid Mahmood, Liam Plunkett and James Anderson do not deserve to be anyhwere near the English Test side.
Once England field a full strength team, which may be a little while, then people will realise how good they are. There are gaps in their side at the moment, most notably with Vaughan opening and Bopara at #6. Even with these limitations, I feel England can still play some good Test cricket and come away with good results. Their next two series are away and home against New Zealand, which they should win fairly comfortably. It's just a matter of some of the senior players stepping up if there are injuries, but hopefully now the worst are gone.
Flintoff, Hoggard, Vaughan, Harmison, Trescothick and Simon Jones all spent some time away from the game. At the moment Vaughan, Hoggard and Harmison have recovered from their respective injuries and are back in the side. If you look at things on a series by series basis, you'll see how badly England missed some of these players (most notably Jones, Flintoff and Hoggard). The bowling attack has been a shambles for a little while now. Sajid Mahmood, Liam Plunkett and James Anderson do not deserve to be anyhwere near the English Test side.
Once England field a full strength team, which may be a little while, then people will realise how good they are. There are gaps in their side at the moment, most notably with Vaughan opening and Bopara at #6. Even with these limitations, I feel England can still play some good Test cricket and come away with good results. Their next two series are away and home against New Zealand, which they should win fairly comfortably. It's just a matter of some of the senior players stepping up if there are injuries, but hopefully now the worst are gone.