England World T20 squad

First topic message reminder :

At the moment, I'd go with

Craig Kieswetter(wk)
Luke Wright
Ben Stokes
Eoin Morgan
Jonny Bairstow
Jos Buttler
Samit Patel
Stuart Broad(c)
Graeme Swann
Danny Briggs/Steven Finn
Jade Dernbach


Steven Finn/Danny Briggs
Stuart Meaker
Ravi Bopara
Chris Nash


I will write a blog about England's limited overs sides and will explain more in detail there.

Thoughts?

Um this season Lukey has been dispatching pace with ease, shanks I go to Hove for the games so trust me!

Shelsey93 wrote:

shankythebiggestengfan wrote:Australia's best side doesn't include Bailey IMO.

I think making him skipper was a ridiculous decision from Inverarity, who I tend to think tries to be too clever too often - too much chopping and changing, best players not always selected and stupid decisions like that one. But now he's done it he has to play and I guess he'll bat three:

Warner, Watson, Bailey, M. Hussey, D. Hussey, Wade, Maxwell, Hogg, McKay, Starc, Cummins would be my line-up.

But the squad is really a rubbish selection. Only 4 seamers, including no Harris? (in my view the best Australian bowler in all forms of the game) Hilfenhaus included? (T20 not his best suit)

There have to be questions about Bailey (is he good enough to command a place in the side?), White (has he had enough chances?), Christian (overrated?), Starc (can he hold his nerve at this level?), Hilfenhaus (T20 bowler?), Cummins (can he stay on the field?), Hogg (a tournament too far?) and Doherty (a threat to the best?).. Too many questions for me.

Agreed though Hogg is still pretty good, from what I've seen.

Ideally, their best XI out of this squad

Watson
Warner
M Hussey
D Hussey
White(C)
Maxwell
Wade(wk)
McKay
Cummins
Starc
Hogg

Gregers wrote:Um this season Lukey has been dispatching pace with ease, shanks I go to Hove for the games so trust me!

A bit different though to smashing international quality pace (and swing) bowling.

Luke Wright celebrating his call-up to the T20 team with T20 figures: 2.0 0 26 0

I believe in Lukey

Following on from various comments above, I don't believe having Bopara and Wright as a fifth bowler combo will work. I can see Bopara getting away with a couple of fairly tidy overs but equally visualise Wright going for 25 plus. Older posters and readers of the game will know that England shot themselves in both feet when they tried a fifth bowler combo of Gooch/Boycott/Larkins (who? exactly!) in the 1979 WC Final.

A further problem is that such an approach would allow us no get out (other than Bopara and Wright having to bowl more than 4 overs between them) if one of the four main line bowlers gets carted early on in his spell and needs to be withdrawn from the attack.

I would therefore look to select Patel - similar to Mike's view, I certainly don't regard him as world class but believe he'll do a decent job* - as the fifth bowler with Bopara on hand to bowl a couple as the sixth if needed.

* Although it stems from and relates far more to football, there is an argument that to be successful in an international tounaments you don't necessarily need the eleven best players; ie as well as piano players, you need piano shifters - which makes me think of Patel!

Gregers wrote:I believe in Lukey

Are you his Father??

Luke Wright sucks and I went to the same school as him.

Eh, nobody expected us to win it last time, why not

Off course we can win!! BELIEVE!!!

guildfordbat wrote:Following on from various comments above, I don't believe having Bopara and Wright as a fifth bowler combo will work.

Doesn't Bopara have Englands best ever T20 bowling figures? Should the question not be: which other bowlers do we pick to support Ravi?

Joking of course, agree entirely. Bits and pieces medium pacers will disappear for a lot of runs on the sub-continent. Also think Dernbach's variations will be targeted, that over-used slower ball is primed to be smashed for 6.

The way I see it this side can do well on absolute roads and on low scoring pitches. Its the "middle" that I am worried about. We have the firepower to blast 180 or 200 on a road. But do we have the line up to score 150 or 160 on a pitch offering some assistance to the spinners. On a rank dustbowl, we might manage to score 100-110 and that might well prove enough. So I see us doing well in extreme conditions but I am not sure about the middle.

Having looked at our group, I feel a bit more confident as WI and SL can be inconsistent but on paper, I think they start as favourites in Sub continent conditions.

Is Bopara even going to go? Whilst hes well established in the side I wouldve thought they think long and hard before taking someone who is suffering considerable "issues" after what happened in the past with guys like Yardy.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:Is Bopara even going to go? Whilst hes well established in the side I wouldve thought they think long and hard before taking someone who is suffering considerable "issues" after what happened in the past with guys like Yardy.

He is back in cricket now so shouldn't be a problem - he played a game for Essex and will play for Gloucs in their one-day warm-up match v the South Africans.

We don't know exactly what the 'personal issues' were (as far as I'm aware). I wouldn't like to speculated but were it a Yardy-type situation I wouldn't have expected to see him back in cricket so soon.

West Indies WT20 squad: Darren Sammy, Samuel Badree, Dwayne Bravo, Darren Bravo, Johnson Charles, Fidel Edwards, Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Sunil Narine, Denesh Ramdin, Ravi Rampaul, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, Dwayne Smith.

Fidel picked ahead of Roach?

The good news for England is a lot of the other teams seem to be making an even worse hash of their selection. Pakistan have left out Rehman, who is perfect for subcontinental conditions, Australia have picked a captain who can't actually bat very well, Hilfenhaus who has never been a T20 bowler, and a 40 year-old spinner who will probably do ok, and now West Indies have left out their genuine pace bowler.

Just bizarre. What's up next, South Africa leaving out AB to pick Tsolekile?

Mike Selig wrote:The good news for England is a lot of the other teams seem to be making an even worse hash of their selection. Pakistan have left out Rehman, who is perfect for subcontinental conditions, Australia have picked a captain who can't actually bat very well, Hilfenhaus who has never been a T20 bowler, and a 40 year-old spinner who will probably do ok, and now West Indies have left out their genuine pace bowler.

Just bizarre. What's up next, South Africa leaving out AB to pick Tsolekile?

SA have already announced their squad. Left out Tahir, which is a surprise given how well he bowled in the subcontinent in the ODI World Cup.

shankythebiggestengfan wrote:SA have already announced their squad. Left out Tahir, which is a surprise given how well he bowled in the subcontinent in the ODI World Cup.

And completely incongruous with him being picked ahead of Botha for the ODIs in England

Shelsey93 wrote:

shankythebiggestengfan wrote:SA have already announced their squad. Left out Tahir, which is a surprise given how well he bowled in the subcontinent in the ODI World Cup.

And completely incongruous with him being picked ahead of Botha for the ODIs in England

Has he? No, he hasn't been, I don't think.