Group A - India, England, Australia, West Indies

[James]

For discussion around Group A which consists of India, England, Australia and Qualifier 1

[Burpey]

I'm backing Qualifier 1 just quietly. They look the goods on paper, and I think they will deliver on the big stage.

[GIMH]

With England's recent ODi form, we should have no problems against minnows like India and Australia, especially if Solankia, Kabir Ali, Gareth Batty, Ian Blackwell, Liam Plunkett and all our other superstars remain in their current rich veins of form. England to go all the way.


[disclaimer - by all the way, I mean it in a strictly idotic sense, and I am indeed, an idiot]

[aussie]

well it doesn't seem as if England will take their big guns to this tournament so in this group obviously Australia & India will come out.

[Neil Pickup]

We crash out, get a nice break before the Ashes. Sorted.

Let's take Solanki, Kabir and Batty.

(Hmm... this is the same completely defeatist attitude I had before ECFC v Crawley on Tuesday night. We won that 4-0.)

[luckyeddie]

We crash out, get a nice break before the Ashes. Sorted.

Let's take Solanki, Kabir and Batty.

(Hmm... this is the same completely defeatist attitude I had before ECFC v Crawley on Tuesday night. We won that 4-0.)

Rikki to captain the side to glorious ignominy.

[Great Birtannia]

Jaques
Katich
Cosgrove
Watson
D.Hussey
Lehmann (c)
Haddin
Hogg
Bracken
S.Clark
Johnson

Give the ashes boys a rest. Didn't this use to be a knockout tournament? Why change it to the same format as the WC? It's a waste of time.

[TT Boy]

No brainer, India and Australia to qualify.

[superkingdave]

Matt Prior+
Kadeer Ali
Vikram Solanki
Bilal Shafayat
Rikki Clarke*
Wes Durston
Ian Blackwell
Gareth Batty
John Lewis
Kabir Ali
Alex Wharf

Should be enough to get through. The likes of Durston, Averis and Maunders can round of the squad, though maybe Snape deserves another chance

[adharcric]

Actually James, to be consistent with the schedule, it should be Qualifier 2 in this group, ie the worse of the two qualifers. Similarly, Q1 should be in Group B.

[adharcric]

Clarke*, Jacques, Katich, Cosgrove, Symonds, Hodge, batsman, Watson/Hopes, Haddin+, Hogg, Cullen, Bracken, Clark, Johnson, Dorey

Gilchrist, Ponting, Martyn, Hussey, Lee and McGrath get a rest.
I reckon they'll still send out a pretty strong side, which this is.

[cameeel]

Poms and India to qualify

If Australia rest 6 or so players, which i think they should.

Otherwise, Aus and India will make it through

[aussie]

even though Gilchrist said the other day players should be rested going into the ashes, it really wont be that smart since Australia will need to play as much cricket as they can before the ashes or else they will have a similar build up to the last ashes series were they stuggled in the initial stages of natwest series & that was just a 2 month break from the NZ tour.

Imagine what will happen if they dont play any cricket other than a few pura & ING cup matches before the Gabba test, that would not be wise at all and i don't expect the selectors to make such a foolish mistake.

[adharcric]

You've made a good point aussie. Australia's next test match will be at Brisbane to kick off the Ashes, but they should at least get some general match practice against international opposition. Otherwise, they have a SEVEN MONTH layoff. That is ridiculous.

[vic_orthdox]

They'll take their strongest side. Gilchrist was trying to suggest that they should do what England is planning on doing, which would be extreme stupidity seeing as England actually have their own summer from which to recover from. Aus don't have any cricket between tomorrow and CT.