*Official* Road to the 2010/11 Ashes

[Spark]

We won our last series before going to Oz tbf, it was more the fact that there were a heap of injuries and an unsettled squad.

Plus the fact the team you were playing against was frighteningly good even by that team's standards (in form Clarke, Hussey and Ponting at the peak of their careers, Clark in peak bowling form) and hungry.

 

[King Pietersen]

We won our last series before going to Oz tbf, it was more the fact that there were a heap of injuries and an unsettled squad.

Add to that the fact they were grossly under-prepared, the bowlers were undercooked and the batsmen hadn't had anywhere near enough time in the middle in Australian conditions. Hopefully they'll have sorted that with a few more warm-ups ahead of this tour. No obvious weak link in this England side either, whereas the 06/07 side had Strauss in dire form; Geraint Jones at 7; Flintoff in poor batting form and was never an impressive captain; Harmison way past his best and undercooked; Giles played ahead of Panesar; and then Jimmy Anderson got a game despite being nowhere near ready for an Ashes tour at that stage. The side looks a heck of a lot better now.

 

[vcs]

Add to that the fact they were grossly under-prepared, the bowlers were undercooked and the batsmen hadn't had anywhere near enough time in the middle in Australian conditions. Hopefully they'll have sorted that with a few more warm-ups ahead of this tour. No obvious weak link in this England side either, whereas the 06/07 side had Strauss in dire form; Geraint Jones at 7; Flintoff in poor batting form and was never an impressive captain; Harmison way past his best and undercooked; Giles played ahead of Panesar; and then Jimmy Anderson got a game despite being nowhere near ready for an Ashes tour at that stage. The side looks a heck of a lot better now.

Hmm.. Strauss had just scored 2 hundreds against Pakistan at an average of 63 in the last series England played before the Ashes. I think it was more a case of him being technically exposed by the Aussie attack then. To his credit, he has worked on it and I expect him to fare much better this time around (albeit against a weaker Aussie attack).

Harmison had also had an excellent series against Pakistan but he wasn't mentally strong enough to recover from that horror start at Brisbane.

 

[steds]

Will Bresnan not **** off already?

 

[Pup Clarke]

Don't see the big deal about about Bresnan getting picked tbh. I actually rate him as a possible test class seamer, it's in the ODI's he should GTF.

 

[aussie]

As aformentioned by me & others before. The selections of Panesar, Bresnan & not picking Shazad have to no creditible cricket logic.

 

[four_or_six]

Atherton explained his selection of Bresnan yesterday - he said that if a seamer went down on the morning of the match, Bresnan would be player he would rely on to come in at short notice and do a decent job. He said even though he had Bresnan in the squad he'd be worried if he played more than one match.

I thought that was interesting.

 

[Jarquis]

If by decently you mean 2/90

 

[Manee]

Atherton explained his selection of Bresnan yesterday - he said that if a seamer went down on the morning of the match, Bresnan would be player he would rely on to come in at short notice and do a decent job. He said even though he had Bresnan in the squad he'd be worried if he played more than one match.

I thought that was interesting.

Yes, very interesting. I'm sure a lot on CW will attack such thinking, but it is practical and better than taking a reserve who you cannot necessarily rely on, on short notice.

 

[GIMH]

Hmm.. Strauss had just scored 2 hundreds against Pakistan at an average of 63 in the last series England played before the Ashes. I think it was more a case of him being technically exposed by the Aussie attack then. To his credit, he has worked on it and I expect him to fare much better this time around (albeit against a weaker Aussie attack).

Harmison had also had an excellent series against Pakistan but he wasn't mentally strong enough to recover from that horror start at Brisbane.

If by 'exposed technically' you mean 'shafted by the cheating aussie-loving **** umpires' then yes, I agree.

 

[UncleTheOne]

i'm really not in favour of taking players based on if buts and maybe situations.

take your best players, that's the bottom line. shahzad is clearly superior to bresnan and brings something different to the party. the honest, straight up and down fat lad ain't gonna cut it out there.

 

[BoyBrumby]

The only bit the papers are disagreeing on is Tredwell or Panesar as 2nd spinner but they all seem to agree Shahzad is going.

They were all wrong too.

Would've taken him in a heartbeat, myself. Not really sure what Bresnan brings that Ajmal doesn't, aside from the potential of a few runs down the order (although Shazad averages over 28 in FC cricket himself, so seems no mug even if he's never shown any kinda batting form for England).

Mike Selvey did say Shazad was suffering from an ankle injury earlier this year which he tried to hide from the management, so I wonder if that counted against him. Tiny Tim seems, by all accounts, a good bloke (save the odd Twatter rant when called a lardo) so a spot as the sixth seamer might be seen as reward for that.

For Rashid to miss out altogether is bizarre tho. One imagines there's a tale in that...

 

[aussie]

Atherton explained his selection of Bresnan yesterday - he said that if a seamer went down on the morning of the match, Bresnan would be player he would rely on to come in at short notice and do a decent job. He said even though he had Bresnan in the squad he'd be worried if he played more than one match.

I thought that was interesting.

Ha that means no sense. Im losing faith in skysports commentary team.

If one of the pace trio went down, id be picking Tremlett right away. Bresnan isn''t good enough to play as part of 4-man attack especially in test in Australia.

 

[tombarlow123]

For Rashid to miss out altogether is bizarre tho. One imagines there's a tale in that...

Makes perfect sense to me. He's only a youngster with extremely limited experience of international cricket, so to throw him in at an Ashes series (if needed) would be too much, in my opinion. Panesar has had a decent season, to my my knowledge, and has some positive experience of playing the Aussies in their backyard. Also, he will be travelling with the 'performance squad' who will be playing some matches in Oz, and be ready for emergency selection. I think Athers or Nasser made the point that he would learn quicker if he was to play more cricket, and so playing in the second string makes more sense than making him bring out the water bottles and sit on the sidelines.

Edit: Ignore this gob****e. I am one big ass fool...

 

[stumpski]

Hmmm, yeah, remember in 2002 Giles was crocked after the first Test, and Dawson had to play in the last four? He was almost traumatised by it, never looked like playing for England again. In hindsight an old trouper like Udal might've been a better bet.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Makes perfect sense to me. He's only a youngster with extremely limited experience of international cricket, so to throw him in at an Ashes series (if needed) would be too much, in my opinion. Panesar has had a decent season, to my my knowledge, and has some positive experience of playing the Aussies in their backyard. Also, he will be travelling with the 'performance squad' who will be playing some matches in Oz, and be ready for emergency selection. I think Athers or Nasser made the point that he would learn quicker if he was to play more cricket, and so playing in the second string makes more sense than making him bring out the water bottles and sit on the sidelines.

No he won't, hence my surprise. Cricinfo:

Performance squad Jimmy Adams, Jonny Bairstow, Danny Briggs, Michael Carberry, Maurice Chambers, Jade Dernbach, Andrew Gale, James Hildreth, Craig Kieswetter, Adam Lyth, Liam Plunkett, Ajmal Shahzad, Ben Stokes, James Taylor, James Tredwell, Chris Woakes

 

[Jarquis]

Although the main squad hasn't been announced yet, I thought it might still be pretty interesting to talk about the performance squad which will also be in Australia while the Ashes are going on.
Quite a few players, with no prior International recognition, have had impressive seasons this year.
There's also the small matter of whether it'd be more beneficial to have Rashid in this squad, getting overs under his belt on Australian soil? Or whether he's rightfully England's #2 spinner and should be in the main squad... I guess it depends on where the performance squad is in Australia with regards to the main squad.
Does anybody know if a fixture list has yet been published?

So a rough XI IMO

Michael Carberry
Adam Lyth
Ed Joyce
James Hildreth
James Taylor
Andrew Gale
Craig Kieswetter - I wouldn't myself but reckon England will
Chris Woakes
James Harris
Chris Tremlett
Monty Panesar

That's based on Rashid being with the main squad. Tredwell can do one
Other names, Moeen Ali? Jimmy Adams? Dominic Cork? Glen Chapple?
Wouldn't mind seeing Alex Hales go, and I imagine Luke Wright will be floating about the setup somewhere

Well Tremlett and Monty get gigs with the main squad.
With that news I would've expected Rashid to have been in this side, but it's not to be.
Joyce, unsurpisingly, left out as well, so Adams in for Joyce and I think I have the top 8 nailed on. Unless Plunkett/Shahzad bat above Woakes

Am quite surprised at the lack of Harris; less so than I am about Rashid but surprised nonetheless.

 

[tombarlow123]

No he won't, hence my surprise. Cricinfo:

Performance squad Jimmy Adams, Jonny Bairstow, Danny Briggs, Michael Carberry, Maurice Chambers, Jade Dernbach, Andrew Gale, James Hildreth, Craig Kieswetter, Adam Lyth, Liam Plunkett, Ajmal Shahzad, Ben Stokes, James Taylor, James Tredwell, Chris Woakes

Holy Jesus Christ i'm in shock...

Sorry about that pointless opinion i just gave hehe...that is quite ridiculous. After Panesar had been picked i just assumed he'd been put in the performance squad without even checking...boy do i look stupid now...

 

[aussie tragic]

Maybe NSW should play England first to totally destroy their confidence

Jaques
Hughes
Katich
Clarke
Watson
Khawaja
Haddin
Hauritz
Lee
Clark
Bolinger

Spares

Smith
Hazlewood
Starc
Warner

 

[Woodster]

The 16 selected is exactly the 16 I went with this morning after thinking long and hard about which group of players I want there representing us.

Of course 13 of those places were already pretty guaranteed, it just came down to Swanny's back-up and which two of Bresnan, Shahzad and Tremlett would make the trip.

Firstly the seamers, I thought Bresnan would make it and it would come between Shahzad and Tremlett. Bresnan is a solid, if largely unspectacular, performer. He may be relied upon to get 2-70 off 25 overs, with the other two, on their day, more capable of influencing a game with a five-wicket haul. It is on the off days where judgement can be made, Bresnan's figures probably won't be too much different, but Shahzad and Tremlett may only get through 10 overs at over five an over, in a four-man attack you cannot afford to have the Aussies tucking into a man and leaving Strauss with a three-man attack and part-timers.

Bresnan is a safe choice, but which made me think it was a straight shoot-out between Tremlett and Shahzad. Both going would be a gamble, with limited international experience between them. My reason for wanting Tremlett was his natural abilities, to hit the deck, get extra bounce, all at good pace. His 2nd division wickets may mean less, but so long as he showed he was in decent rhythm, and took wickets along the way, the standard was perhaps less important as the management believe he has the attributes to be a success in Test matches.

Shahzad is still somewhat of an unknown. Yes he can bowl decent pace, and much has been made of his reverse swing, will he achieve that with the Kookaburra ball ? Probably to a lesser extent. I think Tremlett is more suited to the Aussie wickets, while Shahzad's development will be enhanced with the back-up squad.

If Adil Rashid was in any of the selectors plans to go to Australia this winter, I would've expected he'd have gone to Bangladesh to earn his stripes, although that was no guarantee to win a place this winter, as Tredwell will testify. They're taking it carefully with Rashid, a debut in Australia would not be ideal, we know Ponting, Clarke and Hussey will be positive against spin, Rashid again would respresent a gamble. The safe option is Panesar, has played in two Ashes series, one in Australia, has rekindled a bit of form this season, and again is a more reliable option.

I think England have been pragmatic in selecting this squad, it may not be construde as exciting, but the decisions they've made, in my opinion, all make some sense, and as back-up players, both their characters and performances can generally be relied upon, if not to win a Test match, they will not let the side down.