West Indies v England, 2nd Test, North Sound, Feb 13-17

Will Sanity prevail for England and the selectors?
Will the West Indies continue to dominate?

Is Michael Vaughan expecting a recall?

It's the 2nd Test!

England XI (probable)

Strauss*
Cook
Shah
Pietersen
Collingwood
Prior+
Flintoff
Swann
Broad
Anderson
Sidebottom


WIFAN has tied up the Windies Squad in another thread!

Keep Harmison in the team for Antigua which hopefully will be bowler's graveyard. It's time he worked for a living.

I never thought I'd see the day DJ chose Swann over Monty.

Shah must surely get his chance now.

Time to give Rashid and Shah a chance. Drop Harmison forever. That's it. Enough. Never again. He's lost it. Goodbye. Sayonara.

We could pick Swann. He's a solid performer. but is he really going to go out there and get England back into this series? Rashid is a gamble, but England now need to gamble.

Collingwood and Cook must be on extremely thin ice as well.

Also, swap Prior and Flintoff in the batting order.

England-

Strauss(c)
Cook
Shah
Pietersen
Collingwood
Prior+
Flintoff
Rashid
Broad
Sidebottom
Anderson

you seem to have inadvertantly left Bell out of your team

WTF is North Sound?

Near to South Sight.

Which would make it a Hind Fart.

I'd put Flintoff ahead of Collingwood. Think out of the box for a change.
Yeah, drop Monty and bring in Swann. With four quickies and a spinner, we'd stand a chance of getting past 51.

This is going to be flatter than a flat thing isn't it?

Can't we just move on to the 3rd test?

Strauss*
Cook
Shah
Pietersen
Prior+
Flintoff
Collingwood
Swann
Broad
Rashid
Sidebottom

If it's going to be flat, play 2 spinners, both of whom can hold a bat.

Poms bound to win this one...

Hmmmm,

Strauss +
Vaughan
Shah
Pietersen
Prior
Collingwood
Flintoff
Broad
Swann
Sidebottom
Anderson

Monty wasn't the worst, but then he didn't bowl to the standards of Benn so he should be punished. At least Swann will give it some air.

Cook is shit. So has Vaughan been, but maybe the release of captaincy will see him return to something along the lines of 'form'.

Bell = his usual self, always preferred Shah. Get him in whilst the excuse is still fresh.

Don't see any reason for either of Colly or Flints to bat above Prior.

Harmy wasn't as pisspoor as everyone says, but sub-85 consistantly isn't going to cut it. Get Anderson in, who is at least likely to have a decent half-game.

I wouldn't drop Cook. Otherwise, the team looks good.

If it's a flat pitch, we might need to think about playing two spinners.

Basil wrote:If it's a flat pitch, we might need to think about playing two spinners.

Yup, my thoughts exactly (see above) - and NOT Monty.

Dunno if Rashid is ready yet. He went for a tidy few in the first warm-up game.

Basil wrote:Dunno if Rashid is ready yet. He went for a tidy few in the first warm-up game.

Anyone's better than Monty right now though. According to all observers he bowls the same six balls an over, the only variation being whether it's an over or round the wicket delivery!
I for one miss his early career mixed bag, but frankly, it really is time to try an alternative.
Throw Rashid in the deep end, at least he can bat and field some!

Merlin wrote:

Basil wrote:Dunno if Rashid is ready yet. He went for a tidy few in the first warm-up game.

Anyone's better than Monty right now though. According to all observers he bowls the same six balls an over, the only variation being whether it's an over or round the wicket delivery!
I for one miss his early career mixed bag, but frankly, it really is time to try an alternative.
Throw Rashid in the deep end, at least he can bat and field some!

I suppose it might be worth a gamble, he might nick the odd wicket purely because the Windies' batsmen won't have seen him.

Rashid's worth taking a look at. The team is so shit at the minute that we might as well explore every possibility. I'd probably play Swann as well.

Strauss, Cook, Shah, Pietersen, Collingwood, Prior, Flintoff, Broad, Rashid, Swann, Sidebottom.

Much as I want to play a four-man attack, we don't have the players out there to do it at the minute. Edit: England will win, by the way. They will win this series 3-1.

Okay, I don't actually think that. But I have to say it otherwise I'd be an unpatriotic turncoat tw@t like the rest of you.

Basil wrote:Dunno if Rashid is ready yet. He went for a tidy few in the first warm-up game.

Shouldn't that be "untidy"?

Basil wrote:Dunno if Rashid is ready yet. He went for a tidy few in the first warm-up game.

And got smacked a bit by the Indians in the A game last year. Still, he wouldn't be alone in that.

PS ...
Before the band wagon starts to roll .....
FFS let's keep Vaughan's name out of this - leave him to enjoy his family holiday at his house on Barbados.

Thanks.

Historically WI haven't done too well against the leg spinners.

PlanetPakistan wrote:Historically WI haven't done too well against the leg spinners.

Michael Holding was talking about this the other day. It is actually a myth. Shane Warne was pretty much dominated by Lara and co, and we all know how West Indies like to manhandle Kaneria, Mcgill etc.

We are awful against left arm spinners. Vettori, Giles, Price and Panesar have all caused havoc against us as our batsmen have a habit playing for turn when there is none. As umpires are giving people out lbw on the front foot nowadays, we have had real problems.

It is very strange as our batsmen can cope with turn, even when its fairly big, but subtle changes of pace and armballs etc befuddle them.

BCL was the greatest player of spin.

How he played against Warne during the 1999 series, Murali during the 2001 series and Kaneria in both 05 -06/06-07 was exemplary to say the least HOW ever with the exception of BCL i don't think WI have done too well against the leg spinners.