South Africa vs England, 1st Test, Centurion, Dec 16 - 20

Enough of all this other tripe, real cricket is a month away. What will the England team be? Will "Ian Bell, Ashes Hero" maintain a spot in the side? Will vice-captain Alastair Cook, with scarcely any runs to his name of late, keep his place through to the tour of Bangladesh? Who will Pietersen replace? Will Plunkett return? How much of a disaster will batting Broad at 7 prove to be? Anyways, team:

Strauss
Cook
Trott
Pietersen
Collingwood
Bell
Prior
Broad
Swann
Anderson
Onions

Four bowlers and just three seamers in South African conditions?

Broad at 7 would in all likelyhood mean Ian Bell gets jettisoned though.

But yes - Sturat Broad at farkin 7.

7 & 8 is one place too high for both Broad & Swann. Having Swanny coming in at 9 to biff a few certainly helped during the Ashes.

1 match in and already Freds absence is causing a headache.

Fred's availability, due to his shittening batting form and bone-china ankle/knee joints, were causing a headache for the last four years, too...

The last attack for England in a test in SAF was,


Hoggard
Harmison
Simon Jones
Flintoff
Giles

That was winter 04. Bloomin' long time between tours. I'm sure we've been to NZ about six times since then...

Back then we had the privilege of a 5 test series (outside of the Ashes).

Is this one not a five-Test-er?

edit: no. Four Tests. They obviously needed to wrap it up quickly before the important tour to Bangladesh that they're not taking a proper team to...

4fer.

You couldn't possibly play a 5 test series. You'd need to cut the 23rd, 24th and 25th ODI from the schedule, and only an idiot would do that.

Christ! Three weeks until this starts.


Reckon we could get this Rikki'd? It'd still get more hits than any of the ODI's.

I'd rather see Morgan than Bell at 6 if we're going to play a batsman.
Four bowlers and Colly, KP and JT to share the 5th bowler duties seems like the best option without a bowling all-rounder that can bat 6. Otherwise bat Prior there and live with Broad at 7 to accommodate the extra bowler. Same old..

I reckon that Broad will be at 7, but Bresno CA will come in:

Strauss
Cook (if fit!!)
Trott
KP
Colly
Prior
Broad
Swann
Bresnan
Anderson
Oignons.

It will bolster the tail - I reckon they'd prefer 2.5 decent number 8s and five bowlers than the other option.

If not, f*ck Bell. Qunt.

Probably will be that side.

Don't fancy that tail digging us out of 70-5 but it could be the difference between posting 300 and 400.

Ideally you would all want them shunted down one place.

Ideally, one could trust the four bowlers and stick an extra batsman in place of Bresnan. Still, if we want to win matches, that's just not possible.

yes, I agree with the Monkey, and JK is partly right - I'd say Prior, Broad, Swann and Bresnan are all too high. Jimmy's a perfectly good No 10 & Onions can't go lower, however .......

they all know which end of the bat's the bit to hold, and which to hit the ball with. Even if four of the top 5 go cheaply as long as one of them knuckles down and is last man out, I'm not too despondant.

Prior, Broad and Swann are all capable of hanging about for at least an hour and scoring 30 odd. Bresnam & Anderson can stay another hour or so for another 30, thats two sessions.

Assuming the proper batsman takes 2/3 of the strike and scores say 130 or so, there's no reason why we can't recover from say 85/4 to pushing 350, and I'd be well happy with that if the top 4 all made a start & got out in the 20s.

Lets remember the Ashes - the top 5 were often matched for scoring by the bottom 5 ........ if the batsmen do their job, and the tail chip in, there's no reason why we can't have a couple of 1st dig scores in the order of 500 or so.SA's attack is decent, but it's no Warne/McGrath, Walsh/Ambrose, Wasim/Waqar, or even Donald & Pollock.

Fair point re, SA's attack - we're more likely to throw in a 'headingley' like on their last tour here though.

Problem with Broad is he has put in most of his best batting performances on home pitches. I'm not convinced he has the adaptability to be a reliable player on overseas tours, particularly when batting with the added pressure of a number 7 (where he needs to average 30). Swann is a decent batsman but again, not someone I feel will consistently do a job in unfamiliar conditions.

Growler wrote:yes, I agree with the Monkey, and JK is partly right - I'd say Prior, Broad, Swann and Bresnan are all too high. Jimmy's a perfectly good No 10 & Onions can't go lower, however .......

they all know which end of the bat's the bit to hold, and which to hit the ball with. Even if four of the top 5 go cheaply as long as one of them knuckles down and is last man out, I'm not too despondant.

Prior, Broad and Swann are all capable of hanging about for at least an hour and scoring 30 odd. Bresnam & Anderson can stay another hour or so for another 30, thats two sessions.

Assuming the proper batsman takes 2/3 of the strike and scores say 130 or so, there's no reason why we can't recover from say 85/4 to pushing 350, and I'd be well happy with that if the top 4 all made a start & got out in the 20s.

Lets remember the Ashes - the top 5 were often matched for scoring by the bottom 5 ........ if the batsmen do their job, and the tail chip in, there's no reason why we can't have a couple of 1st dig scores in the order of 500 or so.SA's attack is decent, but it's no Warne/McGrath, Walsh/Ambrose, Wasim/Waqar, or even Donald & Pollock.

That's a bit harsh on Prior! Given that he batted a bloody sight better than just about anyone bar Strauss in the Ashes. He's a genuine batsman, not a tailender.

What's with all of this nightmarish Bresnan talk?

Bowlers for the Tests are: Anderson, Broad, Onions, Plunkett, Rashid, Sidebottom, Swann.

Unless there's some serious injury doubts, or he suddenly becomes brilliant, Timmeh won't stay on after the ODIs.

I think Luke Wright will bat at seven and bridge the gap between the sixth batsman and fifth bowler by being neither.

Strauss *
Cook
Trott
Pietersen
Collingwood
Prior +
Wright
Broad
Swann
Anderson
Onions/Sidebottom

Pretty strong in batting, four front-line bowlers and in Wright, Collingwood and Trott some not-entirely filthy options that might eke out a cheeky wicket or two.

Shoeshine wrote:

That's a bit harsh on Prior! Given that he batted a bloody sight better than just about anyone bar Strauss in the Ashes.

For an average of 30.

He's got the shots of a batsman, but I'm not convinced he has the discipline or staying power to really make substantial scores. Breezy cameos are all well and good down the order, but if he's batting six, he's got to contribute more than that.

Brass Monkey wrote::
Cook (if fit!!)

England's Performance Programme thingy seemed to suggest that Mark Davies and Amjad Khan were on stand-by for any bowling places that might crop up, and Stephen Moore and Michael Carberry were the two batsmen in the frame.

It'd have to be Carbs if Cook missed out, surely. Not just because Moore had a shocker of a season, but because Moore's selection would give England an entirely South African top four, which is somewhat taking the piss on a tour of South Africa...

Brass Monkey wrote:Ideally, one could trust the four bowlers and stick an extra batsman in place of Bresnan. Still, if we want to win matches, that's just not possible.

That attack is completely unscary. We're not going to win matches whether Bresnan plays or not. Better to pack the batting, hang on like grim death and hope SA slip up somewhere.

Too pessimistic. South African aren't that amazing.

Strong in batting, but their bowling - Steyn apart (though he looks a bit out of sorts at the moment - isn't obviously greatly superior to England's.

Especially if Kallis can't bowl for a Test or two.

Dello's far too confident. Don't like it...