Finally some good news for England....

Yeah Bops is unlikely. They'll either go with Bell or give Prior another crack, I reckon.

JKLever wrote:Well that means some firepower down the order a bit now, just a question mark over the opener.

Not Bops for me.

What about something out of left field? Graeme Swann to open.

Probably back to the failed Prior experiment, seeing as he's doing sweet FA at number six.

JKLever wrote:Well that means some firepower down the order a bit now, just a question mark over the opener.

Not Bops for me.

What about something out of left field? Graeme Swann to open.

I dunno. I know there's no great pace in these pitches, but Swanny opening against the new ball against fast bowling makes me worry about his fingers. The plan would be to bowl short at him.

Swann to open, he can be explosive and is expendable.

Morgan for KP, bat him at 6-7 for the 'hitter'

Collingwood for Yardy as 5th bowler but bat him at 8.

World Champions...

JKLever wrote:Swann to open, he can be explosive and is expendable.

Morgan for KP, bat him at 6-7 for the 'hitter'

Collingwood for Yardy as 5th bowler but bat him at 8.

World Champions...

I'd go with-

Strauss(c)
Bell
Trott
Bopara
Morgan
Prior+
Collingwood
Bresnan
Broad
Swann
Anderson

Of course, another 'left field' option as an opening batsman would be Stuart Broad. He plays quick bowling well, and has a game suited to the ball coming on to the bat in the early overs.

This is a guy who scored 160 in a test match not too long ago after all, so he certainly knows which end of the bat to hold.

beamer wrote:Are they allowed to recall Morgan having had to drop him from the original squad due to injury?

Yes. Mike Hussey has just been chosen as Doug Bollinger's replacement in the Aus squad, and he was originally left out due to injury (rather stoopidly by the idiot NSP).

the English are funny

JKLever wrote:
What about something out of left field? Graeme Swann to open.

Michael Vaughan on twitter 2 hours ago.

Here is one for out of the box... Swann to replace KP as opener..

Clearly the qunt reads the bails

The only difference being he always looks for the 'positives', whilst you are the most pessimistic bugger of all time!

I think they will put Prior back up there, Strauss and Bell will be seen as two one-paced for the opening overs.

Some people hinting that KP has been a little too eager to go home. From the Wisden Cricketer blog-

"KP says he wants to quit ODI cricket. Then he says he doesn’t. Then he says he’s injured but it’s OK. Then he says he has to go home now. Meanwhile, Eoin Morgan wasn’t fit and now is fit. England apply for Morgan to replace Pietersen. It feels like there’s more to this story."

beamer wrote:I think they will put Prior back up there, Strauss and Bell will be seen as two one-paced for the opening overs.

Disaster!

It has to be Strausser and Bell.
With Morgan coming in at 5 or 6.

Strausser, Bell, Trotter, Bopara, Morgan, Prior, Bressers, Yardy (yuk), Swanny, Broad, Anderson.

Whatever happened to the experiment in Oz when Trotter was bowled (with some success) during the middle overs?

Trott's bowling is utter filth. Filthier than either Colly or Bop's filth. England have always under-bowled Bops.

Henry wrote:Trott's bowling is utter filth. Filthier than either Colly or Bop's filth. England have always under-bowled Bops.

So the Oz experiment was time mis spent - (not)!!
Wonder why they persevered!

Hmmm, I'd have Swann to open, it's common knowledge he's done it at County level, against some decent attacks too. Still, I'd have Anderson in front of Bell, never seen someone waste so many powerplay balls.

JKLever wrote:

JKLever wrote:
What about something out of left field? Graeme Swann to open.

Michael Vaughan on twitter 2 hours ago.

Here is one for out of the box... Swann to replace KP as opener..

Clearly the qunt reads the bails

If Mick is going to get with the cliche' jargon program, he could at least get it uncringeworthily right.

"OUTSIDE the box". "Out of" the box is at best a conjuring trick.

beamer wrote:I think they will put Prior back up there, Strauss and Bell will be seen as two one-paced for the opening overs.

Since he had a rest from the Bangla series:

25 innings, 1265 runs @ 50.60, S/R 95.47, 3 tons, 9 half-tons, 135 4's, 14 6's

This WC:

280 @ 70, S/R 104.47.

Not sure the mantle is deserved.

Brass Monkey wrote:

beamer wrote:I think they will put Prior back up there, Strauss and Bell will be seen as two one-paced for the opening overs.

Since he had a rest from the Bangla series:

25 innings, 1265 runs @ 50.60, S/R 95.47, 3 tons, 9 half-tons, 135 4's, 14 6's

This WC:

280 @ 70, S/R 104.47.

Not sure the mantle is deserved.

Word.

Strausser is much maligned and catches a lot of unnecessary flak.

Even he admitted England's top order performance against the Saffers was "criminal"... an open and honest assessment in his post-match interview given the euphoria immediately following the win.

Henry wrote:Some people hinting that KP has been a little too eager to go home. From the Wisden Cricketer blog-

"KP says he wants to quit ODI cricket. Then he says he doesn’t. Then he says he’s injured but it’s OK. Then he says he has to go home now. Meanwhile, Eoin Morgan wasn’t fit and now is fit. England apply for Morgan to replace Pietersen. It feels like there’s more to this story."

Only if you're looking for there to be more to the story.

When Pietersen's injury was "manageable" but booked in for surgery immediately after the World Cup, he hadn't just bowled eight overs off the reel as he did against SA yesterday. Knowing how little he bothers with his bowling, I doubt he even turned his arm over once in the nets to test how fit he was to play - would've just been a question of "can I bat? Yes. I'm good,".

If he's in agony after yesterday's exertions and has made the injury worse, then there's no point in him being out there. It's not going to get any better.

If it was all some dodgy conspiracy to get the now-fit Morgan back into the mix, they'd have f*cked off Collingwood, Wright or Tredwell, as they've got nothing to offer this tournament.

Well as a straight swap you'd take Morgan over KP these days. Maybe Morgan can open? He can hit over the field quite well and half the teams are opening with spinners this tournament so he won't have major big fast bowlers with new balls worry.

Of course the problem with having Morgan up top is that Bell or Prior will be down the order doing not much in the crunch overs. So I'd go for Bell with the proviso that he goes batsh*t mad and slogs like a drunk, randy violent ape. If Bell can't adopt this persona I guess it must be Prior. Law of averages would suggest he'll get a few runs.

What's the dealio with Tredwell? I can't recall seeing him bowl in the flesh but if you're a proper force in domestic cricket and you're kept out of the side by a feisty but ultimately bar snacks cricketer like Yardy something must be wrong. Can't he bowl it fairly accurately with a smidgeon of spin, while knowing how to hold a bat?

re: Tredwell - he played one of the ODIs in Oz. And also out in Bangladesh the previous winter.

If you'd see it, you'd know the answers. Absolute junk. No idea how he picks up wickets in domestic cricket. Suspect it's one of those Ashley Giles-like anomalies.

That said, I'd play him all day every day over Yardy, who is ostensibly useless.

Ostensibly? You don't believe it?

PeterCS wrote:Ostensibly? You don't believe it?

There has to be a reason they're picking him. Surely?

Must be f*cking dynamite in the nets/between the sheets.

Yardy has shocking List A stats - took 12 wickets @ 50 last year.

They've basically tried out the 'If it works in T20 it'll be good for 50 overs cricket' methodology