England’s (Provisional) Champions Trophy Squad

[tooextracool]

Originally Posted by Prince EWS

No Trott again. WTF?

Says a lot about the quality of our selectors when a player who averages 40+ in list A cricket and was selected as part of the ODI squad only a year ago cant even now make a 30 man squad even though he never played an ODI ITFP.

[tooextracool]

Originally Posted by four_or_six

I'd forgotten about Jon Lewis. What happened to him, he didn't play badly when he played iirc.

Deemed to old to play in another world cup i would think.

[open365]

The Lewis decision is fair, I'm a big fan of his but his time has definitely come and gone for international cricket.

[tooextracool]

Yep, I am over that as well. However he should have played in every game of the 2007 world cup and it is only due to sheer incompetence that he didnt.

[morgieb]

Would probably be the best squad avaliable IMO.

[Prince EWS]

Originally Posted by morgieb

Would probably be the best squad avaliable IMO.

It's not. Not even close.

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Originally Posted by Prince EWS

It's not. Not even close.

Shocking misunderstanding of English cricket there. Unless that was meant to be a direct quote from the selection committee.

[superkingdave]

No Trott is a complete aberration.

[superkingdave]

Mahmood has 2 wickets @77.5 in List A this year with an ER of 5. Please don't tell me they are picking him on twenty20 form.

Out of left field Kyle Hogg has 10@18 with ER 3.76 and a much better career record and also has 157runs@39.25. In reality though he'd probably have to open the bowling and sometimes bowl striaght through (a la Jon Lewis) but with Sidey in the side that's not going to happen. Still a damn sight better than Mahmood in any case

[Richard]

I'm far from keen on the idea of Kyle Hogg playing ODIs, but there are many I'd rather not have than him. Yes, Mahmood is obviously one.

Always liked the look of Hogg as a one-day cricketer at domestic level.

[Richard]

Originally Posted by four_or_six

I'd forgotten about Jon Lewis. What happened to him, he didn't play badly when he played iirc.

Originally Posted by tooextracool

Deemed to old to play in another world cup i would think.

Originally Posted by open365

The Lewis decision is fair, I'm a big fan of his but his time has definitely come and gone for international cricket.

Originally Posted by tooextracool

Yep, I am over that as well. However he should have played in every game of the 2007 world cup and it is only due to sheer incompetence that he didnt.

Yeah agree with these posts 100%. Lewis did well in the ODIs he did play and should have played every game from the summer of 2006 to WC2007. However, I subscribe to the line of thought that players should only play ODIs if they are serious contenders for the next World Cup and I don't see Lewis being such a thing for 2011, so I'm happy for him to not play now.

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Prince EWS

Harsh on Giles I reckon. He was a good one day cricketer; did his job. Early signs suggest Swann could well be better but Giles was most certainly better than some of those who have replaced him in the 30 (like Tredwell).

I don't think Giles was particularly a good one-day international cricketer TBH - there were plenty worse (and Tredwell is emphatically one of them - I just hope and pray he never plays a ODI) but if England were going to get anywhere he wasn't someone who could be relied upon.

I suppose it's fair to exclude his first 5 games as I generally tend to do such a thing when it's divorced from the rest of a career, but even so, he was hardly an outstanding player. For starters, he was supposedly a decent lower-order bat, which was for a while very far from the truth, then a little more true then for a short time towards the end a little more true again.

Then to the suit which really mattered - his bowling.
In 2000/01 he went OK (4 games, ER 4.21-an-over, average 46.33);
In 2001/02 he was mostly poor (8 games, ER 4.76-an-over, average 33.33);
In the summer of 2002 and the autumn of 2002/03 he was poor bar a couple of games at Lord's (7 games, ER 5.23-an-over, average 32.86; excluding the two Lord's games 5 games, ER 6-an-over, average 72)
In the summer of 2003 he started poorly (first 5 games producing an ER of 4.26-an-over and an average of 175) before doing better at the very end (last 2 games producing 10-29-0 and 3-3-2);
Then his only particularly good work came in the summer of 2004 (8 games, 2 in which he didn't bowl, ER 3.5-an-over, average 25.57);
In 2004/05 and the summer of 2005 he was pretty poor (13 games, ER 4.52-an-over, average 55.33).

Really, I think Giles' worth in ODI cricket was overestimated. For someone who mostly took so few wickets, he had to be conceding less than 4-an-over, and he wasn't. Even though he was almost always bowled at the right times (outside Powerplays, not at the death).