England Ashes Squad

I suppose they are hoping that Root can continue progress with his offbreaks (outside limited overs ...).

Re: Monty

I was wondering if his MoM performance on Sat might have given a last-minute tweak to Sam Patel's fortunes.

Nope, I'm not saying he is remotely comparable with Monty as a spinner. I am not even touting Sam. Just had half an eyebrow cocked they might greenlight him.

But then ... I recall he too committed the ECB Hara-kiri of Perceived Public Whingeing earlier this year. ...

Brass Monkey wrote:Last time I checked, Pringle is a dick.

He should get into a knocking contest with Warne, Atherton and Nicholas.

Who'd win, by emerging with the least bruising?

I just hope Swannderson get injured so that we can play Rankin, Finn, Tremlett and Broad.

Henry wrote:Performance squad-

Ali Briggs Buttler Chopra Foakes Harris Jordan Kerrigan Lees Mills Overton Robson Topley Vince Willey Wood

Heh - Willey Wood.

Guess that means Meaker's going to need that knee op that's been mooted over the course of his difficult season.

Harris is a bum gravy pick. What's he ever going to offer?

Does this confirm Robson as a fair dinkum Pom, or is he just cunningly wrangling a free flight back to Aus?

Dello wrote:
Does this confirm Robson as a fair dinkum Pom, or is he just cunningly wrangling a free flight back to Aus?

I now want our team to get 'proper rainbow':

Robson (Aus)
Stokes (NZ)
Rankin (Ire)
Balance (Zim)
KP (SA)
Jordan (WI)

The Subbies are resisting. Somehow. I suppose because the likes of Imran Tahir and Fawad Ahmed chose hellholes over this fine land. And India have less strict dietary sanctions.

Maybe we could get Azharullah into the side?

Brass Monkey wrote: I now want our team to get 'proper rainbow':

Robson (Aus)
Stokes (NZ)
Rankin (Ire)
Balance (Zim)
KP (SA)
Jordan (WI)

The Subbies are resisting. Somehow. I suppose because the likes of Imran Tahir and Fawad Ahmed chose hellholes over this fine land. And India have less strict dietary sanctions.

Maybe we could get Azharullah into the side?

You forgot

Rayner (DE)

I don't class him as a cricketer. I class him more of a shot-putter.

In my glee over Wiley Wood, I didn't register that the Wood must be Chris Wood.

Which gives the Lions the full complement of left armers: Fast (Mills), fast-medium (Willey), medium-fast (Topley) and women's cricket fast (Wood).

[quote="PeterCS"]

Henry wrote:

They weren't going to swallow their pride and return to Compo. So Carbs was the favoured one. And very lucky, in view of his calamitous autumn.

Probably the oddest selection of the lot. I'm a big Carbs fan, but it makes no sense for an opener with two Test match hundreds this year to be completely erased from memory and replaced with an older, even less-proven model.

If they really rated him (and surely they've seen enough of him over the years to form a proper opinion) surely they'd have picked Carberry to tour India last winter instead of Compton or Root.

Just a minute, just a minute .... where's Chris Woakes, in either squad??

Is this another "Wrong Patto" mix-up? "Sorry folks, we meant to pick STOKES, not WOAKES, for the Oval, errr, errr, hee-hee ..."

Puts an even bigger question mark over those two sudden hunches for the 5th Test.

Or is Woakes dead?

PeterCS wrote:Just a minute, just a minute .... where's Chris Woakes, in either squad??

Is this another "Wrong Patto" mix-up? "Sorry folks, we meant to pick STOKES, not WOAKES, for the Oval, errr, errr, hee-hee ..."

Puts an even bigger question mark over those two sudden hunches for the 5th Test.

Or is Woakes dead?

No Wee Jimmy "next cab off the rank" Taylor either.

He must've looked awful in the nets to go from the Test squad to no squad inside a few weeks.

It's been said before, though, that Flower really doesn't fancy him. I guess this confirms it.

Brass Monkey wrote:

Dello wrote:
Does this confirm Robson as a fair dinkum Pom, or is he just cunningly wrangling a free flight back to Aus?

I now want our team to get 'proper rainbow':

Robson (Aus)
Stokes (NZ)
Rankin (Ire)
Balance (Zim)
KP (SA)
Jordan (WI)

The Subbies are resisting. Somehow. I suppose because the likes of Imran Tahir and Fawad Ahmed chose hellholes over this fine land. And India have less strict dietary sanctions.

Maybe we could get Azharullah into the side?

Have we got any Asian-born Englanders on the scene these days. Oh, Rafiq at Yorkshire's Pakistani, isn't he - got them thrown out of a competition the other year because his passport wasn't up to date or something.

Shah might want to rethink his retirement, to fill the Indian-born quota...

Regarding Little Jimmy, it's a strange one, they seem to keep changing their views on him without actually giving him a chance to prove anything one way or the other on the pitch. I've heard every theory from "he's too small" to "KP thinks he's crap"... maybe they don't see him as right for the balance (Ballance?) of the side at the moment but his time will come when say Trott is out of the picture. Guess he just has to keep making runs in county cricket, and perhaps move to Warwickshire to get the Gashley vote.

beamer wrote:Shah might want to rethink his retirement, to fill the Indian-born quota...

You'll start wars with talk like that. Shah was born in Karachi.

beamer wrote:Regarding Little Jimmy, it's a strange one, they seem to keep changing their views on him without actually giving him a chance to prove anything one way or the other on the pitch. I've heard every theory from "he's too small" to "KP thinks he's crap"... maybe they don't see him as right for the balance (Ballance?) of the side at the moment but his time will come when say Trott is out of the picture. Guess he just has to keep making runs in county cricket, and perhaps move to Warwickshire to get the Gashley vote.

I think it's just simply the Flower doesn't rate him. The selectors can pick him in as many squads as they like, but I guess the final decision on the XI comes down to who the coach and captain want, and it's not Jimmy Krankie.

Perhaps he'll flourish at some point, but to my eye, he's Tim Ambrose without the keeping - a plucky little batsman who'll guts a score out on occasion, but nothing to write home about.

I don't get the Taylor love at all. Maybe I just keep seeing him on off days.

Well, an FC average of 47.65 and List A of 50.76 would suggest otherwise... he will never be a stylish player and does struggle to get going on occasions which perhaps influences opinions of him but I think he's capable of filling the Thorpe/Collingwood role at 5 or 6 in the future. But with a one-paced top three there's perhaps more urgency in finding a successor to KP as the "enforcer" batsman at the moment, hence the players they are trying out in the middle order.

Brass Monkey wrote:I don't class him as a cricketer. I class him more of a shot-putter.

Word.

How is he still "bowling" without being reported?

Because no-one cares.

Chucking is so last millennium.

The selectors seem to be very unsure all of a sudden, the England side has been easy to predict for the last 4 years then suddenly 2 debutants at The Oval and 3 more uncapped players here.

Very harsh on Woakes, picked at number 6 and he scored 25 & a very composed 17* during the run chase - then followed it up with a match winning 79* for Warks a couple of days ago. Obviously Carberry and Ballance are seen as a better bet for number 6.

Forum favourite Ben Stokes' mum has just been briefly interviewed on BBC 5 Live....

Pleased to see Monty in there. Thank goodness Kerrigan played at The Oval or we might have been stuck with him all Winter, a choking timebomb.

Darren Lehmann wants wickets "as hard as a cat's head" this Winter.

Gary 111 wrote:Darren Lehmann wants wickets "as hard as a cat's head" this Winter.

I remember what happened last time a home team requested pitches made to order when playing England.