No obvious weakness in Phil Hughes

I said so, I really did. Whether it's entirely true remains to be seen, but by god, it seems to be true. Says Warnie:

"No doubt England's coaches will be looking at footage of Hughes's test matches against South Africa, as well as studying his performances for Middlesex. I could save them the trouble and say that there are no obvious weaknesses for them to find. Most important of all, he seems to be as mentally tough as they come."

He also thinks that England will attack us with spin. How ominous:

"Now that Graeme Swann has established himself in the team and Monty Panesar is
waiting in the wings, I think there's a real possibility that England will take on Australia with two spinners in their side."

Well, if England were smart, that's what they'd do.

Bells are ringing

Just when people were beginning to praise the ECB for making "brave, honest" decisions to keep the oldies out of this Test squad, moving towards a "new era in English cricket post-2005" they come out with the best move of all.

Bringing Back Bell. Should be a movie.

Ian Bell is returning to the English side for the second Test against the West Indies, and Ryan Sidebottom finds himself with a place in the side once more. It's Monty who drops out on a pitch which isn't suited to spinners.

Alright.

"Both Bell and Sidebottom have been in form in the early part of the season and have been a part of the England set-up in recent years."

Very amused.

How To Win The Ashes - Part 2

England hand it to us on a plate.

England's West Indies Test squad: Andrew Strauss (capt), James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Graham Onions, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior (wk), Graeme Swann

Ravi Bopara muscles in on the Number 3 spot which was looking to be Ian Bell, Michael Vaughan or Owais Shah's pick. KP has somehow managed to avoid the spot altogether and made it look as though he was never having to consider playing at 3 to save face for England.

Graham Onions and Tim Bresnan are about to debut, but I'm sure Onions will have a stinker of a match. Geoff Miller's explanation behind these two selections was that

"They've bowled very, very well pre-season and they've bowled very well in the early part of the season. We need to find strong backup and one or two other seam bowlers who are of international quality and these two have out-bowled the others so they get their chance."

Onions is reportedly very pleased.

The ECB have done some good in leaving out Bell and Vaughan, but will you just look at the squad? The Ashes squad will be mostly similar, perhaps dropping some of the debutants, and with the inclusion of Freddie. None of those players going to the Windies look great. Maybe Strauss is on a roll, but honestly, who are they kidding? Hats off to not living in the past (i.e. 2005) and going with all those old fellows, but word is the Scots are already calling it shite.

Miller is excited about this new squad, and he thinks it's going to take England to great heights and open up closed shops and things like that. Didn't understand what that meant? Neither did I:

"I think it's exciting, we've been designated as a closed shop for some time now and this just shows to county cricketers that we are not a closed shop and we are prepared to open it up."

I'm sure I'm not the only person who didn't find that analogy all that great.

Monty will be opening up their shop.