Morgan gawn, Bopara in

Morgs is out, big blow that..... had a poor ODI series but was our gun player for a good 18 months in ODI's

Bops in - run outs galore!

At least Boppy offers a some filthy medium pace

That'll win us the World Cup!

It's another option though - play four frontline bowlers and have Colly, Trott, Bops and KP fill-in

JKLever wrote:That'll win us the World Cup!

There was never going to be any chance of that anyway. We may be a test side on the up, but the ODI side has never made any real progress over the last few years.

Or 20 years for that matter.

vilkrang wrote: We may be a test side on the up, but the ODI side has never made any real progress over the last few years.

At the risk of sounding like Ever Hopeful that's not strictly true is it? The ODI series was our first series defeat in 16. We got the the SF of the ICCCCTTT and won in SA, beat Aus & Pak at home.

Dammit, and I was just about to agree with Vilks!
I'll go with your version though.

We've always managed to win the odd series, we've never done anything for me to think we are going to win the world cup though.

It is quite open this time though, and you only really need a good run and a bit of luck. I've got some hopes for England of course, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if Oz won it again.

If Aus win again then they'll have held the World Cup for the same amount of time that they held the Ashes for...

That ain't gonna happen, vilks. On current form, I can't see either Aus or Eng troubling the likes of India, Sri Lanka or *cough* *splutter* *choke* South Africa.

The Lankans are my tip.

Well, if another England batsman suffers an injury, and miraculously, England go deep in the tournament, they could recall Morgan.

This World Cup goes for almost two months, after all.

skully wrote:That ain't gonna happen, vilks. On current form, I can't see either Aus or Eng troubling the likes of India, Sri Lanka or *cough* *splutter* *choke* South Africa.

The Lankans are my tip.

Yeah, wouldn't surprise me... Chuckali departs the international stage with World Cup in hand? Probably taking the winning wicket or even scoring the runs if they bat second... Last chance probably for Sangakkara and Jayawardene to match the achievement of the previous generation as well.

India (weight of expectation) and South Africa (just for being South Africa) to screw it up again. Pakistan to do their usual variation between the sublime and the ridiculous. England to crapitulate as usual. WI perhaps the surprise package making a run to the semis, NZ to look competitive but never a real threat. One minnow as usual to have a run based on luck/weather/craptitude of one of the "big" sides...

So Australia-Sri Lanka final again then. Possibly with a different result, possibly not finishing in the dark, probably equally farcical for some other reason...

I think the weight of expectation might do for the Lankans too. The thing about Australia is that despite being weaker than usual, once they start winning again they'll still know how to finish the job without getting all complicated and what-if-we-lose-ish.

Henry wrote:Well, if another England batsman suffers an injury, and miraculously, England go deep in the tournament, they could recall Morgan.

Not sure that's true - off the top of my head I think you can only make replacements up until the tournament starts.

I just don't see how Australia can win on the subcontinent without a spinner.

Surely Steve Smith's devilish half-tracking straight-on-ers won't deceive everyone...

Bopara is turning into this generations Graeme Hick / Mark Ramprakash.

Bopara is picked, he fails. Someone else fails / gets injured. They forget why they dropped Bopara, he gets recalled, he fails.... repeat cycle ad naseum......

Dello wrote:

Henry wrote:Well, if another England batsman suffers an injury, and miraculously, England go deep in the tournament, they could recall Morgan.

Not sure that's true - off the top of my head I think you can only make replacements up until the tournament starts.

But wouldn't that mean that theoretically they could end up without enough to make a team?

ever hopeful wrote:

Dello wrote:

Henry wrote:Well, if another England batsman suffers an injury, and miraculously, England go deep in the tournament, they could recall Morgan.

Not sure that's true - off the top of my head I think you can only make replacements up until the tournament starts.

But wouldn't that mean that theoretically they could end up without enough to make a team?

I guess that's the point of having a 15 man squad - to cover all eventualities. If it means drafting in a reserve batsman to keep wicket or a back-up spinner to pinch hit, that's the rub.

I could be wrong - just have a vague recollection of someone, somewhere mentioning that you could only make injury changes up until the tournament gets under way.

So it's shaping up to be-

Strauss(c)
Bell
Trott
Pietersen
Bopara
Prior+ (surely they've realised he's better down the order)
Collingwood
Broad
Swann
Shahzad/Bresnan
Anderson

Strauss, Bell and Trott as the first three doesn't exactly scream "70-1 off 10 overs" but there's no other options at the top, really. Unless they open with Bopara (something he's done before). I reckon he's better off down the order as well, though.

I wonder if there was a temptation to call up Kieswetter to replace Morgan as a specialist batsman? He seems to have regained his form, and could have done some damage at the top of the order on the slow, flat pitches that are likely to be produced. Ah well....

Surely if they go with that XI Colly would be 5 and Bops at 7. Also, and this is like a choice between eating sh!t or being kicked in the nuts, but Luke Wright and Mike Yardy were picked as rubbish batsman / filthy bowlers in the original squad ahead of Bops, so surely they would get first go?

Colly is woefully out of form and there is a suspicion his eyes have gone. He doesn't deserve to be at 5 anymore. In fact, I think they'll almost play him as a bowling all rounder. Wright? Yardy? Well, surely only Duncan Fletcher like stubbornness from Andy Flower will mean they go down that route, as they both managed to prove against Aus they're not up to it at this level.

Well, if it’s not an England / NZ final, I’ll be amazed.

Trembers will go to India as an unofficial 16th member of the World Cup squad.

Basically an English tourist who could step in as a bowler without having to travel halfway round the world if one of the main quicks go down.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/feb/09/england-chris-tremlett-world-cup

Henry wrote:
I wonder if there was a temptation to call up Kieswetter to replace Morgan as a specialist batsman? He seems to have regained his form, and could have done some damage at the top of the order on the slow, flat pitches that are likely to be produced. Ah well....

That would have been my call too, Bopara can hit sixes but is pretty much a correct type of player unlikely to go for it in the same way.