England's selection

Everyone of course has an opinion and that's not surprising following a second big defeat in India. The top 3 are coming under-fire again....the openers can expect to be criticised but interestingly Owais Shah has come in for some criticism too. Geoff Boycott has said that "anyone who believes that he is a No 3 for England wants his head testing".

Personally, while I don't think that Shah looks comfortable at 3, I think England need to give him the series there. You can't swop and change mid-series when a player has made a success of a lower-middle order position and been asked to step up....the adjustment takes time. So although 3 may not be his best position, they need to prove once and for all if he can do it.

But Prior opening has been tried and proven to fail now, so that experiment should stop with Prior batting around 7 or 8. And Bell has had plenty of time to make his opening birth work without ever really getting to grips with it....but to change two people in one go could be even more destabalising than playing Bell with someone else. So he needs to be given at least 2 or 3 more games before being replaced by Cook if he doesn't come good.

Who should be playing in the 3rd ODI? For me I'd like to see a few personnel and order changes:

Bell
Bopara (not ideal for him but better than 8)
Shah
Pietersen
Flintoff
Collingwood
Prior
Broad
Swann
Sidebottom
Harmison (just in ahead of Anderson as dropping him would mean his fragile confidence would go again!).