The way I'm thinking right now about the England side is this -
1. Cook (c)
2. Robson
3. Bell
4. Root
5. Morgan / Ballance
6. Ali
7. Prior
8. Stokes
9. Jordan
10. Broad
11. Anderson
Sam Robson currently can't stop scoring tons and hopefully this will continue. For me he has jumped ahead of any of the alternatives such as Carberry, Compton, Chopra, even pushing Root back up there. Bell has to move up to number three, he has is our best batsman and a player now capable of scoring runs in any conditions against any kind of attack and I believe he will relish the opportunity to fill the spot he has wanted to bat at for some time.
At number five it could be a straight form-shootout between Morgan and Ballance, but others may throw their name into the hat should these two not take the CC by storm in the early games. I haven't really seen enough of Ballance to hold a strong enough view on his game but I do hope Morgan can score heavily in the CC, he is the kind of positive batsman we need in the top five/six, to push Test matches along, and hopefully he has resolved he issues just outside his off stump in the longer form of the game, or at least made it less of a weakness.
Not having a specialist spinner in any side is always a bit of a worry for me, but I don't see any really viable options right now. There is Borthwick, we could go back to Panesar, but is the former up to bowling at SL and India on tracks that may not assist greatly. As for Monty, there is a part of me that thinks he can come in and do a job, I'm sure if the pitch doesn't suit he will be able to do a containing job but has his recent antics seen his card marked and in this new-look England side do they want to draw a line under his England career and move on. I think in this side with four quick bowling options we can afford a less effective spinner in Moeen Ali, alongside the back-up of Joe Root while also strengthening the batting. I can't see Ali being a matchwinner but reckon he could do a job in the spinners role with no specialist beating the door down.
If Prior continues on his run scoring form of his opening CC game then he has to come back in for me. There is the romantic side of me that would love to see a James Foster get a go, especially as we have enough batting in the side to allow him to come in at eight, and watch a genuine top class gloveman at work, but I can't see that happening and Prior on form is as good as anything in world cricket as keeper-batsman.
The only contentious one I suppose in the bowling attack is the selection of Chris Jordan ahead of Bresnan, Finn, etc. I was encouraged to read how well he bowled against Warwickshire, with consistent pace and menace, and that extra nip gives him the nod ahead of Bresnan who has failed to recapture the form of a couple of years ago. He now bowls a pretty pedestrian pace in the longer forms and as a consequence his effectiveness has been minimised. It's nice to see Finn taking wickets, he has been expensive in the CC which doesn't concern me greatly providing he is bowling with hostility and a genuine wicket-taking threat. But I think he has more to do yet, if he takes a bucketload of wickets in the next few games this decision does become a tougher one.
