***Official England in India***

[Richard]

This is the side I think England will go with

Strauss
Cook
Bell
Pietersen
Collingwood
Prior
Flintoff
Broad/Swann
Sidebottom
Harmison
Panesar


Anderson the one that will miss out for me.

Haha, yeah, Anderson the best bowler of the summer to miss-out.

Only way that's got any chance of happening is if a) he's injured or b) he has an absolute shocker in the ODIs (not like that's been unusual all career) and they read too much into that.

Of specialist bowlers, Anderson currently has the strongest claim to a place.

 

[Jakester1288]

England are lucky that Australia are going to India first in my opinion. They get to see how the Indians are batting against different types of bowling, what pitches are being used, how they are holding up, what style of bowling is getting the wickets, who is struggling, who to watch out for, and how the Indian bowling line up is performing. Big advantage there.

 

[Richard]

I'd agree in all respects other than the pitches.

How the wicket plays at Bangalore isn't neccessarily the slightest clue as to how it will play at the Brabourne Stadium. India is a vast land and there is quite a variance of types of pitches contained within.

 

[zaremba]

I suspect Frontbottom's chances of playing will be enhanced simply because he's a left-armer. Ever since JK Lever got a few wickets in Delhi in 1976/77 there's been a persistent theory in otherwise sensible circles that it's incredibly important to select a left-arm paceman in India.

Which is true of course, provided that the left-armer in question is prepared to resort to ball tampering.

 

[Richard]

Were the vaseline charges ever actually proven?

 

[zaremba]

I didn't think there had ever been any real denial about this, although I may be mistaken.

Of course, this was in the 1970s, in the days before cheating was wrong.

 

[Richard]

I've not read extensively on the matter, but all I ever read was basically along the lines of "Lever fell-out with Indian crowds after accuastions he had applied vaseline to the ball".

Guess it might just be similar to the mints thing in 2005 (in being an open secret), with the vital difference that there was nothing illegal, wrong or possible-to-be-made-illegal thing about the later case.

 

[Salamuddin]

Looking at that squad, I am guessing

Strauss
Cook
Bell
Pietersen*
Collingwood
Flintoff
Prior
Sidebottom
Anderson
Harmison
Panesar

Long tail but you can't justifiably pick Broad ahead of any of the other bowlers

If the England management do put that side out - That tail's too long . I'm sure India would be quite pleased about having to bowl to that side.

 

[Richard]

Hmm. How often of late have India struggled to knock-over tails?

 

[sledger]

Would suggest that without Broad England's tail is a lot weaker than most other teams though.

Edit: other teams of a similar calibre anyway.

 

[GIMH]

If Anderson doesn't get picked (as some have suggested), then I'm supporting India

 

[sledger]

Anderson being left out would be a highly illogical decision, would send out a very poor message if the best bowler of the summer was left out to accomodate someone like Sidebottom who was supposedly dropped for being in poor form.

 

[Goughy]

Anderson did a decent job. Again though, it wasnt an annus mirabilis

The selection between Sidebottom or Anderson doesnt have much in it either way as far as Im concerned. My focus is that a certain other seamer is included.

 

[Richard]

I remain baffled that you think Harmison is likely to have more effect than either Sidebottom or Anderson. Even if you do (as I know only too well that you do) contend that batsmen regularly fall simply and exclusively because they're uncertain about a length, surely you're not expecting this to happen on the slow pitches everyone is anticipating in the 2 Tests in India?

 

[sledger]

Seeing Sidebottoms figures like that shows how appaling it is that he was dropped tbh, I didn't realise how good his figures had been over the summer, really awful choice by the selectors to get rid of him.

 

[Richard]

Not sure he was dropped in the purest sense of the word - think he was more left-out due to lack of fitness, lack of fitness which wasn't precluding him from playing but was precluding him from bowling terribly well.

It's a shame this didn't happen in a few cases from earlier times I can think of. EG, Michael Atherton in 1998/99.

 

[sledger]

Where that is true, I would say the chances of him starting in the first test are very slim indeed, and are in no small part down to the fact that he was left out at the end of this summer.

 

[FBU]

Anderson being left out would be a highly illogical decision, would send out a very poor message if the best bowler of the summer was left out to accomodate someone like Sidebottom who was supposedly dropped for being in poor form.

Me too.

If it was in Sri Lanka I wouldn't be too bothered but he has done well in India and likes the SG ball. I also think Flintoff and Anderson would be better at using reverse swing than Harmison, Sidebottom and Broad.

 

[fredfertang]

Wasn't it the official line that the vaseline was used to affix bits of some gauze like substance to his eyebrow area to stop sweat getting in JK's eyes?

Always did sound like a right load of old jelly beans

 

[GIMH]

Anderson bowled well last time he played in India. Am confident he can and will do it again.