England World T20 Squad

England squad: P Collingwood (capt), J Anderson, R Bopara, S Broad, A Flintoff, J Foster (wkt), R Key, D Mascarenhas, E Morgan, G Napier, K Pietersen, O Shah, R Sidebottom, G Swann, L Wright.

More evidence of names being picked at random.

Davies dropped like a stone for no apparent reason having done pretty well in his single T20 appearance in the Windies.

Luke Wright FFS and Eoin Morgan preferred to Samit Patel.

Sid comes straight back in with questions mark remaining over his fitness and form yet to be proven.

At least Gimpy the Gloveman makes way for Foster, though ironically Prior is probably better suited to this form of the game.

All in all.

Luke Wright pmsl.

Samit still not fit enough says Miller.

Eoin Morgan's mediocre record in all forms of the game makes him an England player, clearly.

Not that I much rate Patel as a limited-overs player, but in Twenty20 he is an all-rounder.

Quirky coincidence - his batting and bowling average in Twenny20 are exactly the same...

Augustus wrote:Luke Wright pmsl.

Samit still not fit enough says Miller.

Eoin Morgan's mediocre record in all forms of the game makes him an England player, clearly.

Though half of the seam attack is either injured or just playing their first game back from injury, while Samit has been making big runs in the early weeks of both pre-season and the season proper.

Three cheers for clueless double standards and clueless farkwit selectors.

Idiots.

Aye, fit enough to average 50 in FC cricket, not fit enough to play for England.

Clearly there are different kinds of fitness, aye Geoff. You're not exactly fit for your job on recent evidence you qunt...

...at least Samit isn't shite like Luke Wright. Is Luke Wright specialist ball-shiner or something 'cause he does ****** all else?

Averages 12 in T20 internationals and 19 in domestic Twenty20. Will he be the specialist bat down at 7 again?

Moreover, compare Patel and Morgan's records against New Zealand A on the tour completed in late March too, including a T20 - the last innings in both sequences: -


101, 64, 14, 27, 64 - 270 runs @ 54.

18, 74, 0, 14 - 106 runs @ 26.50.


Now guess which is which?

That does not even take into account (as Gus says) what Patel offers with the ball.

It really is complete garbage.

The thing is, I've never seen Patel's supposed fatness (and let's be fair about this as it's only relative fatness) affect him whatsoever. He's a good fielder, he bowls quite a few overs nowadays, he bats long innings, he plays a string of games on the bounce. No doubt superior fitness would benefit him, but what's better for him now, to be playing for England or not to be playing for England? And what's better for England?

I think the answer to both is obvious but myopic England don't care.

Nail on the head.

The kick up the arse in the Windies was fair enough.

This makes no sense for anyone on any level whatsoever other than spite.

It's all gay, the only ones who benefit are we Nottinghamshire fans! Time to knuckle down again Sam and get some big runs. PS, how the hell did this little gimp sneak in?

Ian Bell - 464 runs @ 22.09 (s/r 107.15)

England's averages are woeful in Twenty20, Key 29, Bopara 22, Pietersen 24, Collingwood 21, Flintoff 22, Morgan 22. As far as I can tell Key averages most.

I bet every other country has a couple of guys averaging 30. You'd have thought Malan would have got in ahead of Morgan really.

No, wait, Ace averages 32. Better strike-rate than the other Englishmen as well (better than Pietersen anyway so I presume so). Go Aceeeeeeeee.

Bell?

He didn't sneak in from the reports I'm reading?

Oh, must've been the ODI squad then.

Still, can never miss out on an opportunity to criticise the ginger one.

Interesting article re: Patel.

Seems even Mick Newell is endorsing the decision by the selectors and that Fat Sam hasn't been working as hard as we were led to believe perhaps: -

http://content.cricinfo.com/england/content/current/story/402488.html

Still not convinced this is the right way to go, as he's let nobody down (county or country) with his performances over the last year, but at least offers some sort of explanation to an otherwise mystifying selection decision.

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:Nail on the head.

The kick up the arse in the Windies was fair enough.

This makes no sense for anyone on any level whatsoever other than spite.

Sounds as though his reaction to the kick up the arse was to shrug his chubby shoulders and dig into another pie.

Even his own county coach thinks he's a tosser: http://content.cricinfo.com/england/content/current/story/402488.html

I've said this before, but I don't think his "weight" is really the issue - it doesn't seem to impede his performance. It's his attitude and professionalism that's got up the England management's noses (and given some of the dipsticks they've picked in the past, that's quite an achievement) and you can't really blame them for not picking a guy who has taken no notice of repeated warnings to get his shit together.

Ah, you beat me to the punch Bob.

Early bird, and all that...

Just looked at Australia's side and clicked on a few names. All three of the guys I clicked on averaged over 30 (I admit I picked guys who I expected would have decent Twenny20 stats), lowest strike-rate was 132, lowest average 33 and the highest 52.

Did the same for Pakistan with three guys and got averages of 42, 41 and 16. We're picking guys with poor strike-rates and low 20s averages. Only player in our country I can think of who averages high is Malan and he hasn't played much.

Augustus wrote:Just looked at Australia's side and clicked on a few names. All three of the guys I clicked on averaged over 30 (I admit I picked guys who I expected would have decent Twenny20 stats), lowest strike-rate was 132, lowest average 33 and the highest 52.

Did the same for Pakistan with three guys and got averages of 42, 41 and 16. We're picking guys with poor strike-rates and low 20s averages. Only player in our country I can think of who averages high is Malan and he hasn't played much.

Why do both those items surprise you?
Having watched both all through last season, Malan would get my vote ... he's streets ahead of Morgan, a better fielder and can bowl a bit.

Why I've spent ££££'s on a bagful of tickets for the Lord's T20 gigs defeats me ... must've been pissed at the time...
Oh well, good excuse to get tanked up again at the Tavern bar.

Well, had it been me, the squad would have been a wee bit different. Collingwood, Morgan and Wright out for Malan, Sales and Patel.

And Anderson out if I could find anyone decent too. Can't pick a guy with an average of 30 and an economy of 8+. Recipe for disaster.

Hmmm, the squad is a little better but even still, wobbles as captain FFS.

And Morgan being picked is very premature for sure in his career! At present he's no better than average IMO.

holcs wrote:Hmmm, the squad is a little better but even still, wobbles as captain FFS.

Not ideal perhaps but there just wasn't another candidate.

holcs wrote:And Morgan being picked is very premature for sure in his career! At present he's no better than average IMO.

I wonder if he will do any better than the last Irishman to play for England, I expect he's going to achieve nothing other than make sure he misses out on the next World Cup by being no longer qualified for his home country...

Once again, some puzzling selections, but to be fair there's no proven quality for us to pick in this format. Even KP's got a below average record in it. Fat Sam surely has to get the vote over SHYTYWrYT though...

At least they didn't pick Joe Dedly

If Patel's own county coach is criticising him, then it's fair enough that he's been left out. If Patel had really been doing the work that is expected of him, then you'd think his county coach (Who has a first hand view of all of his training) would back him to the hilt. But no. He's obviously got up the noses of quite a few people of late. Didin't someone on here (Bob?) say that there was a feeling in the Notts dressing room, that he had both physically and mentally become too big for his boots after his England call up last season?

I hope he doesn't go the way of Ian Blackwell, who was told in 2006 that he wasn't fit enough for international cricket, and he responded by shrugging his shoulders and eating another pasty.

Henry wrote:If Patel's own county coach is criticising him, then it's fair enough that he's been left out. If Patel had really been doing the work that is expected of him, then you'd think his county coach (Who has a first hand view of all of his training) would back him to the hilt. But no. He's obviously got up the noses of quite a few people of late. Didin't someone on here (Bob?) say that there was a feeling in the Notts dressing room, that he had both physically and mentally become too big for his boots after his England call up last season?

I hope he doesn't go the way of Ian Blackwell, who was told in 2006 that he wasn't fit enough for international cricket, and he responded by shrugging his shoulders and eating another pasty.

Yup.

Big_Bad_Bob wrote:

Henry wrote:If Patel's own county coach is criticising him, then it's fair enough that he's been left out. If Patel had really been doing the work that is expected of him, then you'd think his county coach (Who has a first hand view of all of his training) would back him to the hilt. But no. He's obviously got up the noses of quite a few people of late. Didin't someone on here (Bob?) say that there was a feeling in the Notts dressing room, that he had both physically and mentally become too big for his boots after his England call up last season?

I hope he doesn't go the way of Ian Blackwell, who was told in 2006 that he wasn't fit enough for international cricket, and he responded by shrugging his shoulders and eating another pasty.

Yup.

The more I hear about Patel, the more I think he's not made of the "right" stuff.

What do you want though?

A tow the line, fit, crap cricketer - or a rarely talented, but maverick individual who could win games for England with both bat and ball?

Where would world cricket have been had the same restrictions been applied to the likes of Inzi, Warne, Beefy, etc?

Robbed of some of its greatest talents - and let's be honest, it's not as though the Turd Reich at the ECB is reaping rich rewards for its hard line policy is it?

If he wants it enough, he'll do the work. Otherwise, we can only assume he'll under achieve at the top level.

It's in his hands.