Selection issues for England

 

Unusually for England over the last decade there doesn't seem to be much consistency in selection lately.   In Tests, Jonny Bairstow had the first chance of the summer before Ravi Bopara came in and when Bopara was unavailable for personal reasons, James Taylor was given a chance ahead of Nick Compton, who was also overlooked when Pietersen was left out with Bairstow preferred.   Now the Test touring squad for the winter includes neither Bopara or Taylor, but includes Bairstow and Compton...and Eoin Morgan who hadn't featured all summer.

 

Then in the Twenty20 they're all over the place.   The late selection of Luke Wright over Bopara at 3 has proved a huge success, but they continue to chop and change with Patel and Briggs, Bresnan and Dernbach, while also changing their keeper to Bairstow today.   Whatever happens in the rest of the tournament I find it hard to work out a circumstance in which Dernbach should be picked over Bresnan on merit.   And I felt Patel had every right to be annoyed, which he apparently was, when he was left out of the New Zealand match....Briggs then performed fine and was dropped for Patel today.

 

It's not brilliant tactical thinking...it's a muddled strategy and, although Twenty20 is to a certain extent a lottery, it would be a huge surprise if England qualify for the semi-finals, let alone get further than that.   If that leads to Broad's removal as captain then that would at least be one change that - in my opinion - would increase England's Twenty20 prospects moving forwards.   Anyone (else) who can keep a level-head under pressure would be good!

Abject Middlesex

I got to watch the Sussex v Middlesex match at Hove today and Middlesex really were terrible. The wicket wasn't fantastic but they really did give their wickets away in ways that a club team would have felt embarrassed about. David Malan chipping it straight to short cover and Neil Dexter clipping the ball straight to deep square leg were perhaps the two worst, and only Berg emerged with any credit at all.

The game was over at the half way point really, but Middlesex weren't great in the field either with Joyce and Luke Wright making the chase look absurdly easy....which it was!

I find it hard to believe that Middlesex could play worse than that, but a good day to be a Sussex supporter...

Prior ousts Davies and Wright gets lucky

The England selectors have decided that Matt Prior offers a better option than Steve Davies at the World Cup which is a call that it's difficult to find fault with. But the selection of Luke Wright, ahead of the likes of Tremlett, might raise a few eyebrows. It's difficult to see in what circumstances Wright might play so perhaps his fielding is a critical factor in his selection....it's tricky to see what else it might be given his ODI average of 21 with the bat and 51 with the ball.

Presumably Bell will open with Strauss and Prior will bat 6 or 7 rather than Prior opening...

Full, straight and out

As I was listening to the radio commentary of Shaun Tait bowling to Luke Wright. I was saying to myself "if it's full and straight it will be out". Whether or not that was the ball that Wright was expecting, we don't know, but I wonder how many others were thinking the same? Wright is a wholehearted cricketer but I can't help feeling that the world's best bowlers will get the better of him every time, and so it proved.

Lovely to see England keep up their momentum. I hope Ian Bell can keep up his form and his luck...I watched his recorded innings against the PM's XI this morning and it was a fine array of great shots mixed with near misses as fielders couldn't quite get to mishits, including one drop. The same seemed to happen today. Cash in, cash in, Shermy!

Australian and England selection dilemmas

Having pretty much ignored cricket news for a couple of days (due to work), it's been amazing to catch up. Australia seem obsessed with the idea that they need a left-arm spinner to get Kevin Pietersen out...that's surely the only conclusion given the inclusion of Michael Beer, a man with an average first class record over just 5 matches. Nathan Hauritz has again been mysteriously overlooked, despite a very decent home Test bowling average of under 30. He produced a good allround performance for his State last week where he took 3 second innings wickets and scored a hundred. The match before, he took 7 wickets in the match at next week's Test venue, the WACA. The only conclusion can be that the selectors fear they will look stupid if they recall someone only 2 matches after they jettisoned him. But then again there is Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus who have been recalled after just one match out.

While I've found myself defending Ponting and Clarke this week, I think Hauritz has suffered from muddled captaincy from Ponting and a lack of selection consistency from the Australian selectors. The likes of England and South Africa have demonstrated what needs to happen when you don't have a world-beating spinner available. Ashley Giles and Paul Harris are/were no world-beaters but their role in their sides was/is well thought out. Australia need to do the same with Hauritz.

Marcus North's time has run out and presumably Brad Haddin will move to 6 with Steven Smith will bat 7. There's huge pressure on Smith's bowling though and it will be interesting to see how he responds after he was taken apart when England played Australia A earlier in the tour. Introducing him as the side's one spinner would be very risky but that could be the direction the selectors are going in?

England on the other hand have just one spot to sort out and none of their second-string seamers have exactly covered themselves in glory during the latest tour match. While he may not be a world-beater I think I agree with Jonathan Agnew who thinks that England should pick Bresnan. Bresnan has been in and around the side for a while now and represents the more logical selection choice, rather than Tremlett who has only joined the current squad at the start of this tour. Needless to say, Bresnan's batting will be useful at 8 too. I wonder how many readers of Cricket Burble realise that he averages over 40 in Test cricket (admittedly over just 5 matches), compared to Broad's 27.

England have also selected the ODI squad this week, where Bopara is out and Chris Tremlett and Chris Woakes are in. I still find it hard to believe that a trier like Luke Wright gets the nod over someone with so much talent as Ravi Bopara, but it's no doubt the right call for now and hopefully Bopara will come back in a better player for this. I still see him as the long-term successor to Paul Collingwood (in the ODI team at least) - I'd love to know if the likes of Geoff Miller and Andy Flower feel the same.

Enough about ODIs for now. The far more important and interesting action starts again at the WACA next Thursday and it will be riveting. If England can win the toss and score 500+ in their 1st innings they will feel they have all but retained the Ashes, no matter what they might say publicly until they've completed the job....

Ian Bell in form, Ijaz Butt out of form

Apart from punching the air after hitting boundaries before the end of the game on Saturday, it sound like Ian Bell's innings was pure quality and given the form he's in, it seems inevitable that he should be brought back into England's ODI side. So who makes way? If Bell plays, it looks like they need one from three in Collingwood, Bopara and Wright. They'll be reluctant to drop Collingwood given his fielding and (strangely) they seem to have more confidence in his bowling than Bopara and Wright's. But Wright played a handy little knock in the last match while his team mates fell at the other end. It'll be interesting to see which way they go, but the great news is that England have a squad with depth for next year's ODI World Cup.

Sadly it was inevitable that people might question England's surrender at The Oval given their collapse from a seemingly comfortable position. But for it to be the Chairman of the PCB, Ijaz Butt, and a public statement that England threw the game is somewhat worrying. His position has been called into question many times but knowing how to conduct himself as a public figure is surely a prerequisite for the job, so for cricket's sanity to return, he needs to go. And that remains the case even if the unthinkable happens and England are found to have thrown the game.

Martin-Jenkins retires

Robin Martin-Jenkins not only helped Sussex save the follow on against Worcestershire, but also announced that he will retire in July before the season is over. Seems strange to retire mid-season but I can only assume that cricketer's contracts run as all others do with a notice period - I'm surprised that he's not contractually obliged to play until the end of the season.

Sussex will feel disappointed, but they do have Luke Wright in the all-rounders role and it could be no bad thing for him if he wants to push for an England spot.

Although Sussex are struggling against Worcestershire, they have benefited from the strange rules that allowed both Michael Hardy and Luke Wright to play from Day 2 having gone to Downing Street on Monday evening. I'll never get used to that. And I'm not sure what stopped them playing Day 1 (which finished at 6pm) and then travelling to Downing Street? Or missing it altogether as they had a County match to play in!

Luke Wright

I know I'm meant to be a fan of his these days, as Luke Wright comes from my home county of Sussex. But I find myself struggling with England's selection of Wright in the Test squad - I hope (and trust!) that he proves me wrong.

If you were picking a top 7 batsmen in Test cricket would he be in with even a tiny shout? No.

If you were looking for a bowler who plays an equal part in a 5 man bowling attack, would you consider picking him? No.

So the sum of two ordinary parts, don't equal a very satisfactory whole I reckon. And if you need some relatively ropey bowling to give the main four bowlers a rest, you already have Collingwood or, when Pietersen plays, Pietersen. Give him a chance by all means against Bangladesh, but not when it matters....please?

The final list for the IPL auction

The answer to the question of who would finally go up for IPL auction from the England players has been answered and the answer is:

England: Kevin Pietersen (1,350,000), Andrew Flintoff (950,000), Luke Wright (150,000), Owais Shah (150,000), Paul Collingwood (250,000), Ravi Bopara (150,000), Samit Patel (100,000).

Of those, Patel was publicised before but is still a little surprising as he hasn't done anything to speak of as a batsman in international cricket, and his bowling is average. Of the others Luke Wright might consider himself a little fortunate to have got this far having been dropped from the England side recently. Thankfully the list of all and sundry in English county cricket that was initially put forward has got trimmed down, but I feel a little sorry for James Foster who we've seen can change a Twenty20 game with his excellent keeping.

Looking outside of the England players, who is the bargain to be snapped up? You guessed it - my old friend Shakib Al-Hassan from Bangladesh. At $75,000 I'm telling you he's a bargain and looking at the prices, if he'd been from England he would have been worth about $400,000 - Samit Patel (who is roughly comparable in that he's a left-arm spinning all-rounder) worth more than him? Don't make me laugh!!

England do it again...

Only a couple of days ago I posted about how refeshing it was that England followed up a convincing Twenty20 victory with another convincing Twenty20 victory - all too often, one good result seems to be followed by a bad one. So, as an England supporter it doesn't come as much surprise that we imploded once again in the 1st ODI.

There seem to be a few comments floating around about England's selection, but I have no grumbles with it. Cook walks straight in for ODIs and Wright seems the obvious person to make way for him. Bopara has proved that he's a level-headed player to come in at 7, able to score quickly when required, or steady the ship as necessary, although he wasn't able to do that today. Mascarenas had to make way for Bopara and can certainly consider himself unlucky, and I'm sure England will be considering options for the number 7 position for the 2nd ODI, although I'd personally like to see them stick with Bopara. If they aren't going to use the number 7 to bowl, then it's more likely a choice between Wright and Bopara, if they want a bowler then it's a choice between Mascarenas and Bopara.

Looking at how the wickets fell there were a couple of guys who chopped onto the stumps, and 3 run outs, so there's no reason to panic in terms of selection - the same team just needs to play better!

You can see the disasterous scorecard here.

Swann and Wright in ODI squad for Sri Lanka

England have picked Graeme Swann to act as the second spinner in Sri Lanka during the ODIs, supporting Monty Panesar. I think that's the right decision - time will tell I guess! Luke Wright is also in the squad which isn't much of a suprise considering that England dropped Alastair Cook on Saturday for him.

Quite rightly, Prior hasn't been given a central contract. Despite Moores' public support for him, and the excellent stumping he took on Saturday (the first time I have seen him do anything even aspiring to international class behind the stumps), Prior's position is sufficiently under threat that the selectors didn't have much choice but to go into another season without a centrally contracted keeper.

England's provisional 30 man Twenty20 squad

You can view the squad on Cricinfo here.

Marcus Trescothick is in as expected. I'm pleased that Luke Wright has made it, and also pleased that the likes of Saj Mahmood and Ed Joyce haven't. One particularly upset individual is Kabir Ali who has gone public with his disappointment. I can see why he's disappointed but publicly telling the selectors' they should have picked you is a risky career move.