***Official England in India***

[FBU]

I think that Prior has to be one of the worst keepers I have seen and I can't see him getting any better. He's never going to score enough runs to make up for his drops.

 

[Richard]

If he was catching everything within 2 metres of him he'd still not be scoring enough for my liking.

 

[Langeveldt]

That was close.
Looks like Vaughan is a selector as well

'At 11.15 that night our head coach David Parsons called me to his room in the stadium. England wanted a replacement for Stuart Broad who had pulled up with a hamstring, and someone else in case Fred (Andrew Flintoff) was rested from one of the last two one-dayers ahead of the Test series.

We came up with Sajid Mahmood and Amjad Khan, although it might have been a chance for Adil Rashid, because he's young and exciting and at 5-0 down you have to try and find some positives.'

I've had more exciting headaches to be honest

 

[pskov]

Sobers had always been a bowler though. Broad has actually always been a batsman - IIRR only started bowling seriously at the age of 16 or something like that. Seems he let his batting go in the interim, which is a bit of a shame. Since he's started taking it seriously again it's clear he's not bad at all.

But no, I don't see Broad being quarter of the batsman Sobers was TBH. He's arguably the second-best there's ever been.

(And yes, I realise you weren't really exactly expecting such a thing)

I can see him averaging 25-30 or so for his career, he definitely has a test match century in him if he plays 50+ tests imho. Of course in order to play that many games he'll have to improve his bowling considerably. I think he is acceptable as an ODI bowler with a new, hard ball, but he lacks the penetration to be a wicket-taker thus is largely ineffective in tests, and also the variations in pace and length necessary to be a good death bowler in ODIs.

 

[pskov]

I've had more exciting headaches to be honest

Bit harsh on Rashid. He's no Murali in waiting like some of the press seem to want him to be, but I think he has a pretty good shot at having a productive international career. Of course it's equally possible that he will be garbage but you never can tell for sure until they get their chance.

 

[pskov]

nixon wasn't too bad, but why wait til he was 36 ?

i still think prior has the ability to improve his keeping and be the mainstay, someone re-hire jack russell to fix him.

i didn't see a hell of a lot of ambrose last year, looked neat, any opinions ? there seems to be a lot of opinions about prior/read/nixon/jones/mustard/davies but not much on ambrose ?

what's kepler wessels young fella like ? if nothing else he should inherit some steel, interestingly he could probably play for one of 3 countries

In hindsight Nixon may have been a decent shout after Stewart but Read and Jones had better cases for selection at the time, plus they were younger.

 

[Pratters]

I think that Prior has to be one of the worst keepers I have seen and I can't see him getting any better. He's never going to score enough runs to make up for his drops.

He is definitely one of the worst I have seen. Never rated him from the very beginning.

 

[tooextracool]

England's selection of Paul Nixon during the series down under is hands down the best selectorial decision in ODIs that they have made this decade. Considering that was off the back of retaining a player of the quality of Geraint Jones for over 2 years, perhaps that takes the sheen off the selection a little bit. If there was anyone who played a role in reviving a tour in tatters down under it was Nixon (right after PD collingwood)

 

[Scaly piscine]

Interestingly, according to cricinfo England have actually outscored India in the first 15 overs during this series.

Game 1 England 63-4 India 90-0

Game 2 England 72-1 India 61-3

Game 3 England 80-1 India 66-2

Game 4 England 126-3 India 89-1 (but India were playing as if it was a 40+ over game, England were chasing 9 an over in 22)

Game 5 England 81-2 India 105-0


Utterly worthless and misleading stat, well done Cricinfo. India >>>>> England in 2 games, England >> India in 2 games and the other game you shouldn't really try to make a comparison with.

 

[FBU]

In hindsight Nixon may have been a decent shout after Stewart but Read and Jones had better cases for selection at the time, plus they were younger.

Nixon as a keeper isn't too good either. I saw him go for a straightforward catch and he was looking at the batsman instead of the ball. I think he is dyslexic and hyperactive and has to do these special exercises to help him. It also doesn't help when he winds up the opposition batsmen and they take it out on our bowlers. I think he would be good at setting fields for the bowlers and giving them any advice on what the ball is doing or should be doing.

 

[Richard]

Nixon's hardly unique in being a wicketkeeper who tries to wind-up batsmen.

For some reason it's accepted as fact among wicketkeepers that trying to get batsmen to play shots in one-day cricket is a good idea!!!!!!!!

The longer you can keep them settling for dot-balls for the better.

 

[adharcric]

Getting back to cricket, really hope Badrinath keeps his place ahead of Vijay and RP Singh is dropped for Piyush Chawla, Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar or even Sid Trivedi.

 

[honestbharani]

Think Dravid could be dropped?

 

[adharcric]

He's made a few gritty knocks for Karnataka lately and Srikkanth openly backed him so no, not yet. One more bad series and he'll be in danger (will he consider retiring?), especially if Yuvraj or Badrinath stake a claim here. Pujara is rising rapidly while Raina and Sharma are starting to show some consistency.

 

[honestbharani]

yeah.. Vijay being around doesn't help Dravid's cause either.. Vijay might be our answer to a good close in catcher though... Will be interesting to see how things pan out.

 

[masterblaster]

Hoping for Badri's inclusion in the test side. Yuvraj and his two ODI centuries has seemingly eliminated any chance for a Badrinath test match debut

 

[masterblaster]

yeah.. Vijay being around doesn't help Dravid's cause either.. Vijay might be our answer to a good close in catcher though... Will be interesting to see how things pan out.

Murali Vijay at number 3 once Dravid retires and Badrinath at number 6 would make me a very happy Indian supporter.

 

[Lambu]

Squad has been announced..

No surprises this time, with Yuvraj selecting himself and Badrinath and Murali Vijay being retained. Munaf is replacing RP Singh. Ojha too gets into the squad.

So i expect this team to take the field if the first test gets underway:

Sehwag
Gambhir
Dravid
Sachin
Laxman
Yuvraj
Dhoni
Harbhajan
Zaheer
Ishant
Mishra

Reserves: Murali Vijay,Badri,Ojha,Munaf..one for each department,nice choice that by our selectors!

Edit: must say i agree with the selectors this time around.

 

[Richard]

Certainly looks pretty decent.

Although obviously Badrinath deserves his chance far more than Yuvraj Singh does I still haven't completely given-up hope on Yuvraj as a Test player yet and I hope he gets both the games this series. He's proven he can certainly pummel poor attacks, and England are likely to be minus not merely their two decent seamers in Flintoff and Sidebottom but Anderson and (though this won't weaken the attack much) Harmison as well. If he manages that this series, he'll have gotten a foot in the door once more.

 

[masterblaster]

Certainly looks pretty decent.

Although obviously Badrinath deserves his chance far more than Yuvraj Singh does I still haven't completely given-up hope on Yuvraj as a Test player yet and I hope he gets both the games this series. He's proven he can certainly pummel poor attacks, and England are likely to be minus not merely their two decent seamers in Flintoff and Sidebottom but Anderson and (though this won't weaken the attack much) Harmison as well. If he manages that this series, he'll have gotten a foot in the door once more.

He will struggle against Monty I reckon but will handle the pace bowlers fairly well. Still not convinced of his standing as a test player. You really need to be somewhat competent at facing spin bowling, which for some strange reason he isn't.