England v West Indies, 1st Test, Lords, 17-21 May, 2012

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For God's sake, and that of Flaming Bails, let the Test cricket start.

What is test cricket?

This is sure to drive the rains away.

I hope this proves to be a close series

Desperation is closing in. The game is still a week away FFS.

Ahhh, a week today and I will no longer have to put up with the mundane shite of T20, EODDs, ODIs or general wankery. Of course, it'll rain like a motherf*cker, but at least I can pretend to be interested.

Brass Monkey wrote:Ahhh, a week today and I will no longer have to put up with the mundane shite of T20, EODDs, ODIs or general wankery.

Seconded.

6 days and counting.

Anyone know if Fox are showing it?

Big Dog wrote:Anyone know if Fox are showing it?

Windies are looking incredibly dire against the Lions. It may not be worth staying up for.

Big Dog wrote:Anyone know if Fox are showing it?

Aye, on Fox 1 from Thursday night. Looking forward to it

Big Dog wrote:

Big Dog wrote:Anyone know if Fox are showing it?

Windies are looking incredibly dire against the Lions. It may not be worth staying up for.

If the Windies bat first - my money is on an England win by tea on the third day.

WI will struggle to put big enough totals on the board but given conditions Englands batsmen will have to work hard too.

Biggest danger for England is complacency a la the last T20 at the dog end of last season.

England squad announced tomorrow (Sunday). Bopara appears to be a doubt as he has a thigh injury and batted today with a runner. Bairstow seems the probable cover to make his Test debut and become part of the 13th father-and-son combination to play for England (lucky for someone, I hope).

The other choice appears to be between Broad and Bresnan at No.8. Bresnan is currently the one in possession with the added advantage of being England's "lucky charm" since the side has won all 11 Tests in which he has appeared. I expect a 13-man squad to be announced with the choices made before the toss on Thursday as follows:

A.J.Strauss (Middx.) (capt.)
A.N.Cook (Essex)
I.J.L.Trott (Warwicks.)
K.P.Pietersen (Surrey)
I.R.Bell (Warwicks.)
R.S.Bopara (Essex)
J.M.Bairstow (Yorks.)
M.J.Prior (Sussex) (wktkpr.)
S.C.Broad (Notts.)
T.T.Bresnan (Yorks.)
G.P.Swann (Notts.)
J.M.Anderson (Lancs.)
S.T.Finn (Middx.).

Allan D wrote:England squad announced tomorrow (Sunday). Bopara appears to be a doubt as he has a thigh injury and batted today with a runner. Bairstow seems the probable cover to make his Test debut and become part of the 13th father-and-son combination to play for England (lucky for someone, I hope).

The other choice appears to be between Broad and Bresnan at No.8. Bresnan is currently the one in possession with the added advantage of being England's "lucky charm" since the side has won all 11 Tests in which he has appeared. I expect a 13-man squad to be announced with the choices made before the toss on Thursday as follows:

A.J.Strauss (Middx.) (capt.)
A.N.Cook (Essex)
I.J.L.Trott (Warwicks.)
K.P.Pietersen (Surrey)
I.R.Bell (Warwicks.)
R.S.Bopara (Essex)
J.M.Bairstow (Yorks.)
M.J.Prior (Sussex) (wktkpr.)
S.C.Broad (Notts.)
T.T.Bresnan (Yorks.)
G.P.Swann (Notts.)
J.M.Anderson (Lancs.)
S.T.Finn (Middx.).

A choice between Broad and Bresnan? No chance, Broad will certainly play, probably with Finn as third seamer

Maybe but I think he needs more match practice before being thrust back into Test cricket. At his recent outing at Trent Bridge he took 1 wicket to Finn's 8 but you may be right. However it's a pity that either Bresnan or Finn, on current form, have to be left out.

So Bairstow it is. I'm certainly not displeased.

Chavi ruled out through injury. Hopefully Bairstow can take advantage of his misfortune, we're long overdue a new batsman stepping up.

Onions there as an additional backup seamer. Not quite sure why we need five of them to choose from, unless there are any injury doubts?

I didn't know if they were worried about Jimmy's thumb. That and Broad being his usual crock-like character. They might be just keeping a close eye on Onions because they rate him.

Right about 13 but selectors obviously thought Bopara's injury ruled him out altogether. Assuming Broad is included it looks like one from Bresnan, Finn and Onions with Finn being favourite on his home turf and on current form.

Bairstow looks to make his Test debut 31 years and 60 days after his father's last appearance also against the West Indies at Kensington Oval in March 1981. A rather different West Indies side in his day, however.

Don't think we will need 4 seamers at Lord's in May anyway. 2 might even do the job!

If it was on current form, Onions would be picked.

If it was on form, this would be the team:

not Strauss
Cook
Trott
Pietersen
Bell
Bairstow
Prior
Bresnan
Swann
Anderson
Onions

Shame we've dragged our ginger quota up, but that's mitigated somewhat by the realisation that we won't have to suffer Bopara. The good thing about Bairstow is that he's awful against spin, so he'll feel right at home in the England collapses of this winter in India.

I dunno why they went for Bairstow, though. Hasn't scored many first-class hundreds. Is older than James Taylor. Doesn't play for Nottinghamshire. Seems a bit naive, to me. Wee James Taylor is younger, plays for Nottinghamshire, and has nearly three times the number of first-class hundreds he does. He just played a blinder of a knock against the same team, as captain, for the England Lions. Oh well. People talk about consistency of selection with England. TBH, it's just b*llocks. They play darts, drink beer, then pick a name out of the hat. Bairstow played one good ODI innings and has been the second coming ever since.