England's 30 man squad announced
 

Obviously James doesn't consider us Poms worthy of a thread of our own as he wrote the article! :p

England Squad
James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ian Blackwell, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Andrew Flintoff, Glen Chapple, Rikki Clarke, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, James Dalrymple, Ashley Giles, Darren Gough, Stephen Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Geraint Jones, Ed Joyce, Jon Lewis, Alex Loudon, Mal Loye, Sajid Mahmood, Graham Onions, Kevin Pietersen, Liam Plunkett, Chris Read, Vikram Solanki, Andrew Strauss, Marcus Trescothick, Michael Yardy

Link here:

http://www.cricketweb.net/article.ph...ewsIDAuto=2232

Gough's inclusion the obvious headline grabber. I don't have a problem with it at all, myself. Reflects nothing more than the absolute paucity of other options.

Yardy is an interesting one too; I saw his part-time SLA stuff deployed in the 20/20s & thought it decidedly decent. Obviously the powers-that-be concur.

No Monty tho. Is there a case to be made for him? He's certainly economical enough.

Surprised not see Tremlett Shah & Powell i there. But baesd on that 30, the squad & best XI i'd pick for the Pakistan ODI series would be:

Trescothick
Joyce
Bell
Pietersen
Strauss
Collingwood
Dalrymple
Read
Chapple
Harmison
Anderson

Back-up from: Gough, Mahmood, Cook, Loye

Anderson won't be fit

I'm not surprised not to see Shah at least. He was pretty wretched in the ODIs he played last winter; decent test debut notwithstanding.

well stick either the seemingly rejuvenated Mahmood or the Dazzler in there.

I rather reckon we might see young Broad get a game against Pakistan

From an NZ perspective, it's interesting that Jonathon Trott couldn't make the squad of 30. Considering that England must be aware that NZ are keen on him, i'm surprised they're picking other players I had never even heard of!

No Dmitri? Still don't get that8-)

Still at least Kabir Alis England career is over.

I love The Fletch, but he can be maddening with his likes and dislikes, he looks for a cricketer who has that certain "something", but surely ages ago he could of realised that Kabir only had an uncertain "nothing".

I have nowt against the Dazzler * coming back, we have no options I'm afraid, Bresnan and Chapple aren't up to it IMO.




*funniest thing about Strictly Come Dancing was Tess Daly thinking that nickname had been made up for the show.

Gough and Onions - WHY?

I'm not sure he's qualified for us yet, but if he did elect to play for NZ it would tool up his Warwcks contract as he'd be regarded as an overseas player. I guess it depends how keen he is to play for you.

Onions is 23 and has been in fine county form.

Plus, it makes for such lovely lines as "Onions brought tears to the loyal Lord's supporters." :dry:

Mind, Monty's fielding probably makes up for his economy.

:laugh:

I have to say tho, I saw him bowl v Glamorgan last night & he looked dead-set ordinary, Callum Thorp looked the better prospect; his being a crim notwithstanding.

Why pick someone in there who wouldn't be qualified to play by then?

Never been impressed on the occassions I've seen him (although last night was the only time this season).

ah! thank you Marc, I thought he had qualified already.