India's team for first Test vs England

First topic message reminder :

Not long to go for the first test and on the back of a decent tour of the West Indies where India had some second string players the big boys will return and they will be hoping for a rare series win in England.

In my opinion this will be the X1 lining up at Lords on July 21st

Gambhir
Shewag (if fit)
Dravid
Tendulkar
Laxman
Yuvraj
Dhoni
H Singh
Sreesanth
I Sharma
Z Khan

The top seven pick themselves (as long as they are fit) Raina will be the unlucky one but Yuvraj has to play after the World Cup he had and will also be a handy second spin option.

With the bowlers it will be Harbijhan with three seamers. Zaheer Khan picks himself and Ishant Sharma is a certain starter after an excellent series in the West Indies. The stumbling block is choosing the third seamer. I chose Sreesanth over Patel and Kumar as I think he will be more fired up and is more explosive and I think India need that.

I thought the days of England picking their "favourites" were over and players were now picked on form. Guess not...

Finn would have to get the nod over Broad. He has been very good at international level and looks to take wickets. Broad is out of form, 1 decent county match does not mean he is back to his best.
Broad should be made to regain his test position not have it given to him.

With India's amazing batting line up, England will need wickets and Finn is more capable of that than Broad is right now.

RandomJ wrote:Absolute joke. What does Finn need to do to get a start? He's far more of a threat than either Broad or Bresnan. Selectors keep dicking him about.

Good thing with Finn is that he goes through bad spells of bowling but still has a knack of taking wickets. When Broad and Bresnan are bowling bad it's unlikely they'll even take 1 wicket in the innings. Finn will get his chance though,he's young and has plenty of years ahead of him to tune up his bowling. A Steven Finn who takes wickets and doesn't concede many runs would be perfect for England.

Agree, I had him in my fantasy team for the Ashes and it paid off... too well!

finn is quality i fully expect him to be in the side by the end of the series