***Official*** England in Sri Lanka

[SpaceMonkey]

Mustard / Wright opening for England. Yummy

 

[Scaly piscine]

I doubt Wright will be opening, Mustard simply has to open the batting tho.

 

[wpdavid]

I doubt Wright will be opening

Agreed. The fact that Cook's in the squad makes it pretty clear how they're planning on playing things. And in any case, Wright's performances in international cricket make a pretty unanswerable case for where he should be batting right now.

 

[Richard]

Mustard / Wright opening for England. Yummy

I seriously hope that's ironic.

Those two is a recipe for two-down-for-not-much almost every time you're up against a half-decent attack.

 

[Prince EWS]

Solanki looked far more natural as a keeper in the twenty overs he kept without practice than Prior has ever since he hit the international scene, which is pretty sad.

It'll be interesting to see who gets the test nod if Prior is still out. AFAIK, Mustard's first class record is quite poor.

 

[Richard]

His one-day record's even worse - it's just that, like Wright, he's had a good season (well, in Wright's case just a good half-season).

If Prior misses the Tests, has to be Pothas IMO. No-one else really qualified.

 

[wpdavid]

If Prior misses the Tests, has to be Pothas IMO. No-one else really qualified.

Probably the Sussex reserve keeper with Moores in charge.

Failing that Foster must come into the frame, even if this season hasn't been his best.

btw do we know when the test squad will be announced?

 

[Richard]

I was simply presuming Foster would go from 2nd to 1st... was meaning Pothas to take the place as the reserve.

No, don't think we do know when ' Test squad's announced.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Solanki looked far more natural as a keeper in the twenty overs he kept without practice than Prior has ever since he hit the international scene, which is pretty sad.

It'll be interesting to see who gets the test nod if Prior is still out. AFAIK, Mustard's first class record is quite poor.

Mustard isn't really a 4 day player - tho things might click into place eventually. He's just been sensational since he moved to opening the batting in limited overs cricket.

 

[biased indian]

Breaking news Andrew Flintoff is out of England's one-day tour of Sri Lanka

 

[Richard]

Been a worst-kept-secret for a while TBH.

 

[TT Boy]

Flintoff has been ruled out of the one dayers. Chris Tremlett is his replacement.

Also England have a new bowling coach for this series, Durham's Ottis Gibson will cover for AD, who can't travel for he is committed to provide commentary to SuperSport.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

I really feel for Tremlett in this series. He's hardly shown form in the one dayers or T20 he played for England. Sri Lanka will take to him on the flat pitches me thinks

On the upside its reported that Gibson is England qualified so could play for England if we got desperate

 

[wpdavid]

So who are we looking at as our likeliest starting XI?

Cook
Mustard
Bell
Pietersen
Collingwood
Shah
Wright/Bopara/Swann
Mascarenhas
Broad
Anderson
Panesar

Or else Swann opens instead of Cook, I suppose.
Are we expecting Bopara to be fit by then?

 

[Richard]

Reckon Gibson will oust Broad TBH.

 

[wpdavid]

Reckon Gibson will oust Broad TBH.

You can be certain that SL will really target Broad after yesterday's mauling, & it's going to be a tough test for the lad. My guess is he'll be OK though.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Really waiting for Monty Panesar to prove that he should be playing ODI cricket.

 

[pup11]

Nah... Monty is just not good enough to be an odi player, he is a dire batsman and fielder and above all that he bowls flat in the odi's.
As far England are concerned all i have to say is i would be really suprised if they are not white-washed in the odi series against Sri Lanka. Lankans are very hard to beat in their own backyard and England are a dire odi side so its a no-contest really.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Nah... Monty is just not good enough to be an odi player, he is a dire batsman and fielder and above all that he bowls flat in the odi's.
As far England are concerned all i have to say is i would be really suprised if they are not white-washed in the odi series against Sri Lanka. Lankans are very hard to beat in their own backyard and England are a dire odi side so its a no-contest really.

pffft give England some credit. We're slowly sorting our One Day game out. We performed well vs India. Although you are right in that on the flat pitches India pretty much spanked our fast bowling, and it was only on the pitches that offered something that we won.

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Nah... Monty is just not good enough to be an odi player.

It really seems that way so far.
For the most part I like what I've seen from Schofield. I'd always have him in the side ahead of Panesar.