England's ashes squad

Hard pitches. Soft body. You know Tremlett will smash into a million tiny pieces the moment he tries to turn his arm over out in Australia.

It's the home of tough cricket. Not marshmallow snuggly-buns.

Realistically the batting line-up is clear cut, I'd like to see them take a proper backup opener like Carberry but it's pretty obvious they won't do that and will have Trott as reserve opener if there's an injury or Cook continues his poor form. The only decisions really are the backups for keeper, spinner and two pace bowlers. I'd go with Davies, Shahzad and take a chance on Tremlett - for spinner I guess Monty is the safest option, they're not going to play two spinners so he's the most reliable option to do a steady job if Swann happens to get injured during the series.

I'd go with Davies, Shazzer & Tremors too - Bresnan will get the gig though. A trier but won't cut it out there...

I suppose they want a workhorse bowler in the Hoggard or Fraser mould, but unfortunately he doesn't have half the talent that either of those two had.

Are there no spare Saffies hanging around?

We don't seem to recruit bowlers from SA in the same way as we do batsmen and keepers. Not quite sure why that is really?

beamer wrote:We don't seem to recruit bowlers from SA in the same way as we do batsmen and keepers. Not quite sure why that is really?

Money?

beamer wrote:We don't seem to recruit bowlers from SA in the same way as we do batsmen and keepers. Not quite sure why that is really?

Stuart Meaker of Surrey might make it. Bit random - the odd five-for interspersed with the odd tonking and the odd injury lay-off. But he's young, fast and Saff-ish.

Dello wrote:

beamer wrote:We don't seem to recruit bowlers from SA in the same way as we do batsmen and keepers. Not quite sure why that is really?

Stuart Meaker of Surrey might make it. Bit random - the odd five-for interspersed with the odd tonking and the odd injury lay-off. But he's young, fast and Saff-ish.

Rather stick to the Aussie quickies

cricinfo is reporting 'England's Ashes squad to be named today - few surprises expected'

Surely a surprise - by its very nature - is not expected.

Zat wrote:cricinfo is reporting 'England's Ashes squad to be named today - few surprises expected'

They might pick an Englishman

Dello wrote:

beamer wrote:We don't seem to recruit bowlers from SA in the same way as we do batsmen and keepers. Not quite sure why that is really?

Stuart Meaker of Surrey might make it. Bit random - the odd five-for interspersed with the odd tonking and the odd injury lay-off. But he's young, fast and Saff-ish.

Clocked 98mph in the Surrey nets off a short run wearing 2 sweaters, and carrying a niggle.

England's secret weapon.

Apparently 12 will be named for the performance squad. So how about-

Gale(c)
Carberry
Lyth
Bopara
Hildreth
Ali
Kieswetter
Woakes
Bresnan
Harris
Buck
Rashid

Is it too late for Davie Masters?

Zat wrote:cricinfo is reporting 'England's Ashes squad to be named today - few surprises expected'

Surely a surprise - by its very nature - is not expected.

Not quite a tautology.

"Few surprises expected" = shorthand for: It is expected that there will be few surprises.

The surprises might for example be Tremlett, Rashid, Ramprakash, Dave Masters, Shane Warne. Each one of these would be a particular surprise - however, it is expected (overall) that there will be at most one or two of these left-field selections.

In any case, the article itself says: "However, for all the interest surrounding the 16 names that will fly to Perth on October 29 there are going to be very few surprises from the selectors." Hardening up into a certainty?

Ashes squad Andrew Strauss (capt), Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Ian Bell, Eoin Morgan, Matt Prior, Steve Davies, Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Steven Finn, Chris Tremlett, Monty Panesar

Performance squad Jimmy Adams, Jonny Bairstow, Danny Briggs, Michael Carberry, Maurice Chambers, Jade Dernbach, Andrew Gale, James Hildreth, Craig Kieswetter, Adam Lyth, Liam Plunkett, Ajmal Shahzad, Ben Stokes, James Taylor, James Tredwell, Chris Woakes

Central contracts Andrew Strauss, James Anderson, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Steven Finn, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott

Incremental contracts Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Eoin Morgan, Luke Wright, Michael Yardy

Tremlett in, Bresnan in rather than Shahzad. Panesar the second spinner. 3 Surrey transplants in Tremlett, KP and Davies. Rashid in neither the Ashes nor the performance squad.

What Ange said.


Pretty much as expected.

Tredwell in the performance squad...what?

No surprises at all other than Rashid isn't even in the Performance Squad!!

What on earth has he done wrong?

Listening to Sky news they are giving Rashid a rest! Bunch of muppets.

I bet that's what Rashid wants...a rest.

Starting XI at Brisbane:

1. A.J.Strauss
2. A.N.Cook
3. I.J.L.Trott
4. K.P.Pietersen
5. P.Collingwood
6. I.R.Bell
7. M.J.Prior
8. G.P.Swann
9. S.C.Broad
10. J.M.Anderson
11. S.T.Finn
?

Muppets is right.

Also, I am surprised Shahzad is out. He seemed to be favoured as the raw shock option. Whereas Tremlett seems very likely to be short-lived if he even makes the team, a casualty in the making - potentially disastrous if you are playing only four bowlers.

He is about 6' 8" isn't he? - even taller than Broad, who has bulked up quite a bit and yet is lean and fit - and is a crazily long shot healthwise.

DJ_Smerk wrote:I bet that's what Rashid wants...a rest.

A snooker rest, perhaps

Barring any injuries, yep Allan.

Can't believe they've left Rashid out of both squads

Mo Chambers! ROFL