England v Pakistan, 1st Test, Trent Bridge, July 29-Aug 2, 2010

Of course we all know KP's class and what he's capable of, but what does he average in his last 20 odd tests? About 35? And that's including a pretty good series against Bangladesh last winter.

No Bops then, probably the right call.

And Shazhad for Bresnan too.

So more than likely the team will be...

Strauss (c)
Cook
Trott
KP
Collingwood
Morgan
Prior+
Swann
Broad
Anderson (meh)
Finn

It's not really about being a Pietersen fan or otherwise. I personally am a big fan of the Pietersen. However, selecting somebody who is out of form, has a recent history of injury, hasn't scored a serious run in any form of the game for a good while, and hasn't played for his county to prove his form in the interim, seems a little silly and may prove disastrous. He has probably been our worst batsmen this past year and if he doesn't score runs in this series, questions may be asked. I'm hopeful that the Pietersen shall rediscover his form, but I don't think it is going to happen. Ever again.

Chivalry Augustus wrote:It's not really about being a Pietersen fan or otherwise. I personally am a big fan of the Pietersen. However, selecting somebody who is out of form, has a recent history of injury, hasn't scored a serious run in any form of the game for a good while, and hasn't played for his county to prove his form in the interim, seems a little silly and may prove disastrous. He has probably been our worst batsmen this past year and if he doesn't score runs in this series, questions may be asked. I'm hopeful that the Pietersen shall rediscover his form, but I don't think it is going to happen. Ever again.

Mostly I agree with you. He, like every other batsman, needs time in the middle, and needs runs to retain his England place. He shouldn't be considered undroppable. Leaving Hampshire without joining another county? That was just arrogant, imo.

If it was Paul Collingwood who had racked up KP's scores in the last year, we'd all be calling for him to be dropped.

He hasn't left at all, he's leaving at the end of his contract and they refuse to play him.

Yup, lets drop the guy with the best average in the team. Get someone like Ian Bell in there instead. Muppets.

It's part of English cricket, we don't let players play their way out of poor form, if they're over 30 and playing badly they tend to be dropped for good. That's why we've got nobody in the 400 wickets or 10,000 runs club.

Just think how close we were to seeing the end of Strauss's Test career 2 or 3 years ago. Who would be captaining and opening now if he hadn't made that big hundred against the Snoozers in his last chance innings?

1. Jonathan Trott has the best average in the team
2. Strauss was dropped en route to rediscovering himself as a player

Once again, it's a reiteration of previous points. Dropping a player is not permanent, and in this case it is not based exclusively on cricketing reasons. The idea behind dropping Pietersen is based on the assumption that he is a strong-willed individual with a lot of talent who needs to be given a shove in the right direction. He is out of form, out of practice, and hasn't played anywhere near as often as he should have done of late. The theory in 'dropping' somebody like him for a home series like this is to allow him to find some form in a low-key environment rather than, as may happen by logical extension of his recent efforts, allowing him to scrabble around in a Test Match environment against a very good attack. He may find form, it may work, but between now and November, Pietersen HAS to find some form and he's better placed to do that by playing county cricket.

Probably good that Morgan is given the chance to show what he can or can't do against a proper bowling attack in Tests.

To keep Bops in reserve might risk losing his drive - he seems an eager guy - but he shouldn't complain about being thereabouts.

Chivalry Augustus wrote:...but between now and November, Pietersen HAS to find some form and he's better placed to do that by playing county cricket.

How can he though, if Hampshire refuse to pick him, he's contracted to them until the end of the season so can't play for another county either.

Hampshire should be politely reminded that its the ECB who give out international fixtures each year...

Match odds so far....

Eng 2.12
Pak 4.3
Drw 3.1

JKLever wrote:Hampshire should be politely reminded that its the ECB who give out international fixtures each year...

A bit of blackmail from the ECB? Interesting idea... wouldn't work with the non-international ground counties, although those are diminishing in number every year!

I wonder if the players' counties sign anything on the central contracts and whether there can be any obligation for them to select the England players when the ECB ask them to? Obviously in most cases it's not an issue as the county will see the player as clearly improving their team - however they will maintain their right to pick the team they want to unless they have signed that away in any way, and there are situations like the KP one where he is leaving the county anyway and also possibly when a county is just reluctant to change a winning team in a certain format.

Could be a bigger problem next year if neither of the London counties want Pietersen on an occasional appearance basis.

Send him over to Essex and get him to drive a Ford Escort around for a couple of weeks for sponsorship.

Essex-ist.

Amin,Kaneria and Malik may be dropped for this test
******
I will only drop Malik(he is no good)****** and play Yasir Hameed at 5.******

Apparently the ECB prevented Pietersen from doing some Hampshire promotion work, so it goes party towards understanding why Hampshire are now refusing to play him. Meh, it's still Hampshire's wrong doing. They're pretty narrow minded to not aknowledge that he's a great batsman who can help them win games on the field when he's available.

Henry wrote:Apparently the ECB prevented Pietersen from doing some Hampshire promotion work, so it goes party towards understanding why Hampshire are now refusing to play him. Meh, it's still Hampshire's wrong doing. They're pretty narrow minded to not aknowledge that he's a great batsman who can help them win games on the field when he's available.

An influential top executive makes it clear to you that he no longer wishes or wants to work for your company ...
Do you :
1. Insist he remains within your team to help you secure large contracts or
2. Leave him on full paid garden leave and distance yourself from him ... or ...
3. because of the internal strife and resentment within your company caused directly by the exec's actions and impending departure, you tell the him to f**k the hell off and refuse to bow to pressure from outside sources.

Simple as that Trev ...
HTF you can blame Hampshire for Pietersen's woes is a joke ... he basically told them he was off, began making noises around London that he wished to play his cricket in that area, got injured, f**ked up his form, and effectively middle fingered the Hamshire board.

I'm no Hants fan, but I can't say I can blame them in the slightest in their telling KP to f**k off ...
They owe him nothing ...

I agree with Merlin for once- KP was very unprofessional and disrespectful even if it was only Hampshire. He'll be great at Surrey.

Careful you thieving Slurrey dawg ... don't get too carried away.

PS - You can have KP at the Ovular place ... please, do it now ... before the twat that is Gus Fraser gets the Middlesex cheque book out (like he did for Gilchrist and Warner) and bolluxes up the team even further.

Is there an Isthmian cricket league (like in football)?
Coz that's where Gus and the Sexies are headed right now ....

We can fix you up a few friendlies with Rutland Minors Seconds to train you up, Merls.

okay Petey, done.... but not for me mate!!
PM me their tel no and I'll pass it on to Porky Fraser.
Don't expect too much from the Sexies though - Fraser's made damn sure of that.
The squad's oozing talent, good enough to have 3 in the England test squad, but sadly, only managed by a clueless director of cricket door post.

He should touch base with Embers. And Mickey Arthur.

PeterCS wrote:He should touch base with Embers. And Mickey Arthur.

Both of whom have enjoyed far more success than the Gusset!

In English conditions ENG is a FAR better team than PAK
3-1 England i say.

Eng v Pakster Test live on Foxy. Excellent.