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.
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4 comments:
Going by The Case Of Dirk Nannes, Aussie selectors appear just as bad.
Yeah, but I'm sure they'll pick a somewhat okay Ashes squad. Not great, but we will have a few players who can change matches singlehandedly.
Ian Bell doesn't change matches singlehandedly - he is the team sheep, following along obediently.
Graham Onions can take wickets at Taunton, so he must be good.
Ravi Bopara actually got a game in the IPL.
Not only that, Bopara did excellently in his games. The other English players just hung around on the sidelines waiting for their teams to give them a match before they left.
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