Kieswetter and Prior in same team?

[The_roc]

Looks like England are going to play Kieswetter as a specialist batsman in the first game against Bangladesh, with Prior keeping the gloves.

Is there any point in this? Might as well give the youngster the gloves and play another specialist batsman.

[TT Boy]

Looks like England are going to play Kieswetter as a specialist batsman in the first game against Bangladesh, with Prior keeping the gloves.

Is there any point in this? Might as well give the youngster the gloves and play another specialist batsman.

No.

[GingerFurball]

If you're referring to ODIs, yes there is a point, Kieswetter is one of the best available One Day batsmen.

[King Pietersen]

I see it happening in the warm-up, but I think Trott will end up opening with Cook in the first ODi. I reckon we'll go into the first game with:

Alastair Cook *
Jonathan Trott
Kevin Pietersen
Paul Collingwood
Eoin Morgan
Matt Prior +
Luke Wright
Tim Bresnan
Stuart Broad
Graeme Swann
Ajmal Shahzad/Ryan Sidebottom (depending on Sidebottom's fitness)

Not exactly a side that's going to strike fear into the rest of the world. The middle order of Pietersen, Collingwood and Morgan is good, but the rest is very mediocre, especially the lower order and bowling attack. I'd rather see Kieswetter opening and keeping, with Trott in the middle order, at 4. Should Kieswetter play it would seem that Trott's going to be dropped though, which is just stupid considering he's one of the best OD players in England. Cook playing in place of Trott would be laughable. Why couldn't Collingwood or Pietersen captain the ODi series? Side looks terrible with Cook opening.

[Marcuss]

The warm up tomorrow is 14 v 14 isn't it? Which is why Kieswetter and Prior are both playing...

[zaremba]

I see it happening in the warm-up, but I think Trott will end up opening with Cook in the first ODi. I reckon we'll go into the first game with:

Alastair Cook *
Jonathan Trott
Kevin Pietersen
Paul Collingwood
Eoin Morgan
Matt Prior +
Luke Wright
Tim Bresnan
Stuart Broad
Graeme Swann
Ajmal Shahzad/Ryan Sidebottom (depending on Sidebottom's fitness)

Not exactly a side that's going to strike fear into the rest of the world. The middle order of Pietersen, Collingwood and Morgan is good, but the rest is very mediocre, especially the lower order and bowling attack. I'd rather see Kieswetter opening and keeping, with Trott in the middle order, at 4. Should Kieswetter play it would seem that Trott's going to be dropped though, which is just stupid considering he's one of the best OD players in England. Cook playing in place of Trott would be laughable. Why couldn't Collingwood or Pietersen captain the ODi series? Side looks terrible with Cook opening.

I agree mostly but disagree about the lower order which looks incredibly strong.

[Marcuss]

Swanneh at 10 is insane!

[GingerFurball]

Surely Swann bats ahead of Broad in ODIs?

[Marcuss]

He should. Don't think he does though...

[Goughy]

I agree mostly but disagree about the lower order which looks incredibly strong.

Too strong IMO. Surely the point of Bresnan is that he can bat a bit. He could easily be dropped for a frontline bowler and everyone else move up 1 place.

[Marcuss]

Who are the other bowling options though? There's not exactly a massive queue of fantatsic OD bowlers that he's keeping out of the side...

[Goughy]

Who are the other bowling options though? There's not exactly a massive queue of fantatsic OD bowlers that he's keeping out of the side...

They dont have to be fantastic. Just better. If you are telling me that Bresnan is one of the 4 best OD bowlers in England then I dont believe you.

[King Pietersen]

Napier's surely got to be a better option than Bresnan? There's very little between them in terms of batting, and Napier's a much better OD bowler, very surprised that he's not even in the Lions squad. Given the England squad for this series the side basically picked itself until Kieswetter was added, the only other bowling option in the squad is Liam Plunkett. I'd actually like to see him given a go in place of Bres, which is what's happened in the warm up today. Hopefully he'll get a few wickets.

Kieswetter has to have put himself in contention today too. Smacked 143 from 123 balls opening the batting alongside Cook, whilst Prior only managed 8. It definitely looks like Trott's going to be dropped though. Didn't play at all today, which is a real shame. If he's kept out of the side in place of Prior I'll be very annoyed, why on earth would you play a mediocre wicket-keeper as a pure wicket-keeper? Makes zero sense. If it was James Foster you could understand, as he's a world class keeper, Prior isn't. Give Kieswetter the gloves, drop Prior, bat Trott at 4.

[zaremba]

Too strong IMO. Surely the point of Bresnan is that he can bat a bit. He could easily be dropped for a frontline bowler and everyone else move up 1 place.

Yes "incredibly strong" was perhaps an overstatement on my part but the point I was making is that the lower part of that batting line-up cannot be criticised for any lack of depth, as I think you agree.

[King Pietersen]

Wasn't the batting depth of the lower order I was moaning about, as it's obvious that the lower order batting is strong, but more the bowling. Broad and Swann are the only 2 genuinely good OD bowlers in the line-up. I'm just not too happy about having 30 overs coming from Wright, Bresnan, Shahzad and Collingwood. Even Sidebottom doesn't really fill me with much confidence any more, just can't seem to look threatening with the white ball. It should be enough to beat Bangladesh, but if we went in with the XI I think we will, against any other side, we'd be struggling.