If you could...

Draft any foreign player into the English test side, who would it be?

Personally, I'd choose Tamim Iqbal and have him open with Alistair Cook. Bad times for Straussy, but I think Tamim is a blinding little young player and his hostile and often aggressive batting would be excellent to see at the top of the order. It's a shame he's in the Bangladesh side as they're always going to be at the bottom end of the test sides standings but I think either way he has the potential to become an excellent international player in all formats.

Dale Steyn...

i no we have a world class bowling attack already, but steyn would inject some real pace in our line up

Kevin O'Brien. Adds something that England really need, a finisher of the innings.

Tamim would also be a good option in ODIs, he could open with Cook and we could have Kieswetter down the order. However, if I were going for the explosive opener I'd probably look to Sehwag (averages over 50, strike rate of 80) or maybe Smith (averages 50, strike rate "only" 60 but we wouldn't lose anything in terms of captaincy).

However, I think we could do with a middle-order batsman who can bowl well. Someone like Kallis, but maybe not at his age now (as we'll have to replace him in a couple of years anyway!) If we had Kallis now though, he could bat at 4 (with KP and Bell coming in at 5 and 6) and chip in with the ball. Kallis would strengthen both our batting and our bowling.

Vettori is another option, I'd feel confident with Prior at 6 and DV at 7, batting and bowling. However, I think this would weaken our batting, although offer us more in the bowling department.

The final option is just to pick the world's best bowler in Dale Steyn, to replace either Broad or Tremlett. Steyn, Anderson and Swann are the World's 1, 2 and 3 at the moment, and Tremlett himself is in the top 10. That bowling attack could bowl out any line-up on any deck in my opinion, although our batting would suffer very slightly losing Broad for Steyn.

All in all I think we could use the fifth bowling option (ahead of Trott), but the prospect of seeing Anderson and Steyn sharing the new ball is too much. I would take Dale Steyn.

Some interesting calls, as well as predictable i.e Steyn.

Agree with someone like Kallis actually, seems a lot more plausible. Would love us to have a batsman like AB DeVilliers as well.

lol i said steyn but also imran tahir would be quality to have him

I think exploring the fifth bowler option is a great call robbo. It's probably the main weakness in this current England side. Their batting is very solid, their bowling is excellent, and Prior is arguably the world's best keeper-batsman at the mo.

I'm going to go with a slightly different option to yours though, and say Shane Watson, who I'd have open with Cook. They'd make sure we got off to good starts more often than not (Trott would usually be coming in at about 100/1), and Watson is a good option as a fourth seamer. Also he fields first slip, thus replacing Strauss in the field too.

Shane Watson

Kallis
Bat him at 4, move KP to 5 and Bell to 6.
Good 4th seamer.
Watson would be another decent choice.

Rana Naved or Umar Gul for the death overs of ODI's

Brendan McCullum to open the batting

Daniel Vettori as Captain

Hoggy_Bear wrote:Kallis
Bat him at 4, move KP to 5 and Bell to 6.
Good 4th seamer.
Watson would be another decent choice.

kallis has lost it as a bowler.

Smile wrote:

Hoggy_Bear wrote:Kallis
Bat him at 4, move KP to 5 and Bell to 6.
Good 4th seamer.
Watson would be another decent choice.

kallis has lost it as a bowler.

Still offers more with the ball than the back-up bowlers we've got at the moment.

Stein, Kallis, Amla's inclusion would make England a perfect SA team 2.

activereactive wrote:Stein, Kallis, Amla's inclusion would make England a perfect SA team 2.

Here we go

Bearing in mind this is a hypothetical thread, it isn't a matter of discussing the composition of England's team.

If you can't post constructively, don't post at all!

A fit Sehwag to open with Cook.

Move Strauss down to the middle order.

Whilst I don't see Strauss as a Brearly type tactician, on present form he would kind of fill that role as he has to stay in the current England line up because of the unity leadership and ultimately results he brings to the team.

I'd possibly look to bring in Watson for Morgan if I was bringing in Watson. Not sure if I'd open with him or Strauss though. I always thought Watson was promoted up the order as a makeshift opener and just worked, so I would probably try him in the middle-order first.

If not, put him in the top 3 and push Trott down to 4 or 5.

trott is fine at 3, keep him there and if we had watson he would have to go 6 for morgan

Theres any number of players who could replace someone in Englands lineup and improve the side but to really make a telling difference and Id look at their weak points.
No genuinly world class mystery spinner who can dominate in the sub continent. No genuinly quick lethal bowler. No fifth bowling option who can actually take test wickets and justifies a place in the side on his batting. Our test 6 is an agressive batsman with a good limited overs record but still struggling to really establish himself in tests. We also have a Capatin whos prone to long spells of bad form with the bat as an opener.

The only genuine quickie out there who could displace any of our bowlers is Steyn, although even he isnt a knock your block off paceman, just a sharper Anderson.
Super human spinners...there arent any out there at the minute. Noones stepped up to Murali and Warne, Swanns the best there is for tests. A second spinner is only an issue for a limited number of testst so not a vital addition.
So how about Shane Watson as a batsman bowler who can replace Morgan, who along with Strauss is the (relatively) weak link in the batting lineup. Watsons better suited down the order, although hes hardly been a shabby opener. Should we be chasing down a total in a limited number of overs he could step up and be the guy to open. Strauss hasnt been too great with the bat recently but hes been the most succesful Captain England have had, hes going nowhere.

I stick Watson in at 6 for Morgan. You still get the agression down there, but a player with a better test record and a genuine support bowling option (averages 31 in tests, about the same as Anderson and Broad) His bowling would thrive in English conditions too.

PSW

My thoughts exactly - yes, you could put Steyn or Tendulkar in the side ahead of any of the seamers or middle order players and have a stronger side, but you'd be improving already strong areas so don't gain that much. No spinner cries out for inclusion ahead of or alongside Swann, and Prior is the equal of any other keeper batsman at the moment.

So you have a choice of replacing Strauss (who is a good captain but in a bit of iffy form) or Morgan (not yet proven), and the replacement you'd be looking for is a batting all-rounder - Kallis is now really picked as a batsman whose bowling is little better than Trott's, so Watson is the obvious pick. Agree that he's better suited to batting at 6 and bowling as a 4th seamer rather than as an opener (where he has been surprisingly effective), so bringing him in for Morgan is probably the biggest improvement we could make.