The Road to the 2009 Ashes

[Uppercut]

Getting an extremely rare laugh out of Dicko is much more prestigious than any award tbh

 

[Richard]

This was mentioned in another thread earlier today and of course is of more relevance here.

Not sure what's more comical, Botham's assertion that England will win easily or Warne's that Australia will win 5-0 again.

Barring an exceptional summer, the prospects of no games being rain-affected draws in five Tests over here are extremely slim.

 

[GIMH]

We'll only need three days per Test, we're THAT good

 

[Richard]

There's a phrase on Civilization 2 called "we laugh at your petty boasts", which would be appropriate for quite a few of your posts about England.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

We'll only need three days per Test, we're THAT good

 

[pasag]

Beefy - real life troll.

 

[duffer]

Beefy - real life troll.

English Gavaskar tbh. Except not as bright.

 

[GIMH]

Beefy - real life troll.

He's not a troll, he's just stupidly misguided and optimistic like me

 

[Uppercut]

As it stands,

Strauss vs Hayden
Cook vs Katich
Bell vs Ponting
Pietersen vs Hussey
Collingwood vs Clarke
Flintoff vs Watson
Prior vs Haddin
Lee vs Anderson
Johnson vs Harmison
Clark vs Broad
Krezja vs Panesar

I make it 8-3 to Australia, with Harmison, Flintoff and Panesar being the positions England have better players for.

 

[Richard]

Beefy - real life troll.

I do wonder from time to time whether he doesn't indeed sometimes just say stuff for the sake of provoking a reaction. However, on balance I generally come to the conclusion that he's simply as impulsive in his comments about so-and-so winning this as he is about who's good and who's not. Basically what Martyn said.

Nasser Hussain said it best - he changed his mind on players every 5 minutes. Not good at all.

 

[Goughy]

I make it 8-3 to Australia, with Harmison, Flintoff and Panesar being the positions England have better players for.

I make it 5-5 with 1 tie

However the gap between the winning Aussies is bigger than those that I gave to the English.

Suprised you put Watson over Flintoff.

 

[Richard]

As it stands,

Strauss vs Hayden
Cook vs Katich
Bell vs Ponting
Pietersen vs Hussey
Collingwood vs Clarke
Flintoff vs Watson
Prior vs Haddin
Lee vs Anderson
Johnson vs Harmison
Clark vs Broad
Krezja vs Panesar

I make it 8-3 to Australia, with Harmison, Flintoff and Panesar being the positions England have better players for.

I've thought this through once or twice of late. Thing is, there are right now 8 (out of a possible 22 obviously) who I'd feel confident about playing a full or full-ish part in the series: Pietersen, Flintoff, Panesar, Ponting, Hussey, Clarke, Haddin and Clark. Even Haddin I'm merely pretty certain of, there is the danger that some idiot will get the idea Ronchi's better.

The fact that there are 5 Australian to 3 England players who we can feel confident or reasonably confident in their presence says a lot mind.

Not sure how you've managed to pick Prior but not Sidebottom in an England team though BTW. Either neither or both (personally I'd have Sidebottom and no Prior).

 

[Uppercut]

I make it 5-5 with 1 tie

However the gap between the winning Aussies is bigger than those that I gave to the English.

Suprised you put Watson over Flintoff.

I didn't put Watson over Flintoff, no way. I'd take Hayden, Katich, Ponting, Hussey (just about), Clarke, Haddin, Lee and Clark.

 

[Goughy]

Not sure how you've managed to pick Prior but not Sidebottom in an England team though BTW. Either neither or both (personally I'd have Sidebottom and no Prior).

Sidebottom to keep wicket?

I dont see how they are relevant to each other given they have completely different roles as well as having a keeper in the XI is pretty important

 

[Uppercut]

I've thought this through once or twice of late. Thing is, there are right now 8 (out of a possible 22 obviously) who I'd feel confident about playing a full or full-ish part in the series: Pietersen, Flintoff, Panesar, Ponting, Hussey, Clarke, Haddin and Clark. Even Haddin I'm merely pretty certain of, there is the danger that some idiot will get the idea Ronchi's better.

The fact that there are 5 Australian to 3 England players who we can feel confident or reasonably confident in their presence says a lot mind.

Not sure how you've managed to pick Prior but not Sidebottom in an England team though BTW. Either neither or both (personally I'd have Sidebottom and no Prior).

I'm second-guessing the selectors, if it were up to me Broad would be nowhere near the team, but that's what i think is first-choice currently.

 

[pasag]

I do wonder from time to time whether he doesn't indeed sometimes just say stuff for the sake of provoking a reaction. However, on balance I generally come to the conclusion that he's simply as impulsive in his comments about so-and-so winning this as he is about who's good and who's not. Basically what Martyn said.

Nasser Hussain said it best - he changed his mind on players every 5 minutes. Not good at all.

If he said England would beat Aus, then I'd agree that's probably what he really thought. But to say they'll do it easy and 'dominate' Aus must mean he's surely fishing for a reaction and taking the piss.

 

[Richard]

Looking at that again, the players I'd hope will be involved:
England:
Strauss
Cook
Vaughan
Pietersen
Bell
--
--
Flintoff
Sidebottom
--
Panesar

Australia:
Jaques
--
Ponting
Hussey
Clarke
Katich
Haddin
--
--
--
Clark

Which basically equates to:
Jaques > either of Strauss or Cook
Strauss or Cook potentially > whoever else opens for Australia (probably one of three from Hayden, Rogers and Katich)
Ponting > any England batsman except maybe Pietersen
Hussey > any England batsman
Pietersen => any Australian batsman except Hussey
Clarke > any England batsman except Pietersen
Haddin obviously >>>> any England wicketkeeper-batsman
Flintoff > any all-rounder, bowler or lower-order batsman Australia pick
Clark > Sidebottom
MSP > any spinner Australia pick, if they pick one

 

[Richard]

Sidebottom to keep wicket?

I dont see how they are relevant to each other given they have completely different roles as well as having a keeper in the XI is pretty important

They're relevant to each other in that Sidebottom has a pretty strong case to be a first-choice currently, as some people think Prior does, but neither played England's most recent Test.

Personally I don't want Prior in the side currently as the last I saw his wicketkeeping was nowhere near good enough. However, I do want a wicketkeeper who can keep wicket to an acceptable standard, even if he underperforms with the bat (as Ambrose has so far).

 

[Goughy]

Strauss > Hayden

nah

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]