West Indies v England, 1st Test, Kingston, Feb 4-8

Lets get the build up started!

Likely England team (injuries permitting)-

Strauss(c)
Cook
Shah
Pietersen
Collingwood
Flintoff
Prior+
Broad
Swann
Sidebottom
Anderson

I'd take Rashid over Monty and Swann for this one, I never thought I'd put Monty on the backburner, but I want to see an English Leggie in the flesh.

I am worried about S-bottom, he may cause a few problems to the WI batsmen IF he is fully fit.

My team

Gayle
X Marshall
Sarwan
Shiv(please bat at 4)
Nash
Bravo(is he back)
Ramdin
Taylor
Benn
Fidel
Roach

If I were the WICB I'd be watchful of Sarwans form, he needs to be careful.

England should do this easy so long as they can dismiss Chanders at least once per test.

Looks like Bravo is out for the series.


Shame.

JGK wrote:England should do this easy

Those words don't really combine all that well tbh...

Without Fred our bowling will hardly be a 'crack' unit

But the Windies batting (Chanders aside) is rubbish. New Zealand troubled them FFS.

On NZ pitches. I highly doubt we'll have the same type of bowler friendly decks we got on our last tour.

I expect it to be closer than some think. Not because I think England have gotten any more shitter, but personally I think the Windies are on the up. Especially at home.

Aus got some flukey shit over there that could've counted to a different series result.

Agree with that. I'd expect us to win easily in home conditions but I can't see there being more than 1 test in it in the WI

JKLever wrote:Agree with that. I'd expect us to win easily in home conditions but I can't see there being more than 1 test in it in the WI

Aye and fair play too. Seems like an age ago that they were favourites for the series(2004). They shouldn't be now. But I expect them to give us as big a challenge as last time, without some individual brilliance thrusting us over the line.

Concur.

Well Bravo is out for the entire test series, which is a huge blow, it has the same effect on our side as Flintoff being out for England.

The head selector has indicated that the team will be:

Gayle (c)
Richards
Sarwan
Smith/Marshall (they haven't decided yet)
Shiv (AKA the unity Bradman)
Nash
Ramdin
Taylor
Benn/Jaggers
Powell (Will abuse him roundly for the entire match!!!)
Edwards

Taylor and Edwards are going to have to bowl their hearts out, especially if they play Benn. I hope they give Sarwan a few overs as he has always done ok against England, and he turns the ball a fair way. Flintoff is his bunny afterall

WIFAN wrote:Well Bravo is out for the entire test series, which is a huge blow, it has the same effect on our side as Flintoff being out for England.

The head selector has indicated that the team will be:

Gayle (c)
Richards
Sarwan
Smith/Marshall (they haven't decided yet)
Shiv (AKA the unity Bradman)
Nash
Ramdin
Taylor
Benn/Jaggers
Powell (Will abuse him roundly for the entire match!!!)
Edwards

Taylor and Edwards are going to have to bowl their hearts out, especially if they play Benn. I hope they give Sarwan a few overs as he has always done ok against England, and he turns the ball a fair way. Flintoff is his bunny afterall

Powell FFS! He has as much cow turd for brains as Symonds. Cozier has written a cricinfo article calling for Powell to be kicked out.

http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/current/story/387759.html

Brass Monkey wrote:I expect it to be closer than some think. Not because I think England have gotten any more shitter, but personally I think the Windies are on the up. Especially at home.

Aus got some flukey shit over there that could've counted to a different series result.

Danny in sensible cricket-oriented post shock!

I would agree, WI are improving and England have remained shitty and parlous since the 5-0 whitewash.

Both teams are probably well matched over a number of features:

Both teams have very talented players who on their day can turn the match.

WI....Gayle, Sarwan (if he can find form) Chanders....OH GAWD LORD HELP US!!!!!!
Bowling-wise Taylor can rip through the best of batting and edwards seems to be becoming more of a consistent threat.

England...Pieterson....er....that's it really. Freddy if fit obviously makes the bowling attack potent, but without him we do not have a world class attack. Freddie has never devestated line-ups himself. We can't bank on his batting.

Maybe the two all-rounders Freddie and Bravo will miss the Tests, so some parity there.

That Harmi has the record of performance in the WI says it all.

Wait a minute...I forgot, there is this little guy called Bell who by all accounts has lots of potential...............

So, man for man WI could be seen as inching ahead on paper. maybe the application and stickability of the Strausses and Cooks (ah, those were the days eh Cook?) may count for something.

Both teams have an unrivalled capacity (save for Pakistan) to have spectacular and complete brain explosions and fall apart, throwing away strong positions.

England have a bit more experience in winning cf. WI.

So I would say that both teams are well matched re. the short supply of real talent (which does exist) and the capacity to be hopeless. Cf to England, WI do not look all that bad, would be even better without Powell.

I agree they were on the wrong end of poor decisions re Oz and they pushed Oz far harder than Oz expected, and Oz were not as bad as they are just a few months later.

Against Oz I think it was their relative inexperience and lack of experience in winning, especially compared to Oz (at the time) that contributed to them letting strong positions slip.

I think the games could be close and I do not think England should or will win easily unless WI discipline falls apart.

Given the rub of the green, WI could through a surprise.

I don't really see how the Windies are improving, personally. They've got slightly better as Chanderpaul's form has improved, but they're no better as a collective. They're the archetypal one-man team and this was proven when they could only battle out a dour draw with a very poor NZ side. I can't remember the last time they won a game at home (Tests) and I don't think a couple of 'what if' thrashings at the hands of Australia are really a measure of improvement, rather they're a measure of Australia's decline.

Well the statistics say we are improving. We are currently making ourselves much harder to beat in Test cricket due to the improvement of Taylor and Edwards and Shiv's unrivaled awesomeness. To become a side that actually has a chance of winning on a regular basis we need to find an opening batsman, develop a decent spinner, replace Powell with anybody and Ramdin needs to pull his finger out.

The core of our side has been established and is pretty damn talented, the problem is that the others are not pulling their weight. As a result I can see us giving England quite a few problems, but not enough to win the series.

Too early to call England's team. We've only been touring for a couple of days and two players are already crocked.

Sidebottom will be next - as sure as night follows day.

If by some miracle everyone is fit, team will be:

Strauss
Cook*
Bell/Shah
Pietersen
Collingwood
Flintoff
Prior +
Broad
Sidebottom
Anderson/Harmison
Panesar

Two places up for grabs.

Gayle (in his current form which was immense to watch in NZ), Sarwan (seemed to be getting some form back in NZ) and the outstanding Chanders, with Nash (who looks useful) form a fairly solid batting line up, and Edwards and JT can run through batting lineups with Pace! So I wouldn't say they were a bad side at the moment at all and will probably run us fairly close.

As for us, KP aside, and Strauss on form, we don't have a huge amount going for us in the batting side at present, unless Shah is fit and gets picked and continues his recent form. Bowling wise, I think we not as containing as we need to be and although the windies capacity to implode is probably higher than ours, our serving up of shoite means I reckon it'll be fairly close.

All depends on the implosion factor and who does it on a more catastrophic level!

One test in it for the series to England (I hope).

holcs wrote: Edwards and JT can run through batting lineups with Pace!

Concur with you about their batting - on it's day it can put decent scores together.

Not sure I agree about Edwards/Taylor 'running' through teams though - I always think when we've played them that they both are capable of 2 or 3 wicket bursts but as a side collectively the WI always seem to let you off the hook...

JKLever wrote:

holcs wrote: Edwards and JT can run through batting lineups with Pace!

Concur with you about their batting - on it's day it can put decent scores together.

Not sure I agree about Edwards/Taylor 'running' through teams though - I always think when we've played them that they both are capable of 2 or 3 wicket bursts but as a side collectively the WI always seem to let you off the hook...

Correct. Taylor and Edwards often have sides 150/5 or similar, and then let them recover to 300 or more. A lot of this is due to the lack of a spinner to befuddle the lower order, and also because Powell almost always lets the team down.

Unfortunately Bravo has been ruled out!

They might have to play Devon Smith now

I have just found out that Rudi 'thief' Koertsen and Ashocking De Silva are the umpires for the 1st test.

God help us! One umpire who almost always jooks our best players, and one who isn't aware that the ball cannot pitch outside leg and result in an lbw.

When you factor in the flawed review system that doesn't allow the use of the best technology, you just end up with a bunch of antagonized players and supporters.

Expect plenty of sooking from me in the next few weeks!!!