***Official*** England in Sri Lanka 2012

[Cabinet96]

Fixtures

Tour Matches

Thu Mar 15 - Sat Mar 17
04:30 GMT | 10:00 local
Sri Lanka Board XI v England XI
R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo

Tue Mar 20 - Thu Mar 22
04:30 GMT | 10:00 local
Sri Lanka Cricket Development XI v England XI
Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo

Test Matches

Mon Mar 26 - Fri Mar 30
04:30 GMT | 10:00 local
1st Test - Sri Lanka v England
Galle International Stadium

Tue Apr 3 - Sat Apr 7
04:30 GMT | 10:00 local
2nd Test - Sri Lanka v England
P Sara Oval, Colombo


The English Test squad to be announced tomorrow. Morgan the only real uncertainty, the rest of the squad should hold few surprises.

Cricinfo thinking Jonny Bairstow and Samit Patel have a chance to get in the squad: England in Sri Lanka 2011-12: Faith may have run out for Morgan | Cricket Features | Sri Lanka v England | ESPN Cricinfo

 

[Lostman]

Was about to bitch about the 2 tests, but SL players need IPL $. At least it was the LOIs cut and not the tests, so this counts as a positive.

 

[marc71178]

Cricinfo thinking Jonny Bairstow and Samit Patel have a chance to get in the squad: England in Sri Lanka 2011-12: Faith may have run out for Morgan | Cricket Features | Sri Lanka v England | ESPN Cricinfo

The same article says that Finn is pushing Anderson for a starting spot, so wouldn't pay much heed to it to be honest.

 

[Jarquis]

As many tour games as Tests haha. Three Tests would've been decent enough.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Here's hoping this will be a tour where they'll be no Ravi Bopara bumping up his ridiculous international caps stat. It's absolutely frightening to think someone so bloody useless could have played over 100 times for England. I'm seriously struggling to think of anyone worse who's played 100+ times for England.

 

[Furball]

Steve Harmison
Michael Vaughan

 

[Scaly piscine]

Steve Harmison
Michael Vaughan

Err no, not even remotely.

 

[Furball]

Vaughan played 88 matches in pyjamas for England. So he counts.

 

[Howe_zat]

Morgan dropped. Makes sense, after he failed in the linited overs games it was clear he was in dire nick as well as facing technical issues, and Sri Lanka was not the place for him to get some form back.

Patel gets a chance, which seems fine to me. I'd like to see Taylor but after his meh winter I'd rather see him play some county cricket to put his name in for a home debut.

Tredwell goes with the squad as extra spin cover. That seems... pointless?

 

[stumpski]

Cover for both Swann and Panesar it seems, but I agree, Tredwell didn't seem to be in the frame. Bopara vs Patel for Morgan's spot it would appear.

 

[theegyptian]

re tredwell

england obviously wanted a guy who spins the ball into the right hander/away from left hander for if swann gets injured. unfortunately there don't seem to be many good right arm offspinners in the english game so tredwell gets the call as the reliable pro that he is.

davies must be so bored currently. seems unlikely he gets a call on this tour to play . doubt the gay scene is any better in sri lanka than uae either.

panesar,keedy, rashid, briggs, blackwell, patel, metters, borthwick, kerrigan all come before a right arm offspinner in Moeen Ali(18 wickets) in the first division list of wickets

cosker(49), then middlebrook(43) and tredwell(42) come in the second divison.

So Right arm offspin is dead?? maybe not but tredwell has to be the most reliable bet as the second offspinner. could do with someone good coming through though. hopefully root or ali develop and become good allrounders and can play in the future as a second spinner with kerrigan/panesar.

 

[Jacknife]

Yes Tredwell is a bit of a strange one, I can see where they're coming from, with the amount of overs the spinners will bowl out there in SL but still, if they were after a back up why not take Keedy along, miles better bowler than Tredwell, or even take one of the younger guys along.
Patel was always a good bet, he's changed his attitude , slimmed down, improved in the field and is a decent all-round cricketer.
With Morgan they were almost backed into a corner, it seemed pretty obvious that he wasn't going to sort this by playing the odd warm up and Test matches. Needs to back to CC and work on the horrible batting technique, that wasn't great to start with but has regressed greatly.

 

[Jacknife]

re tredwell

england obviously wanted a guy who spins the ball into the right hander/away from left hander for if swann gets injured. unfortunately there don't seem to be many good right arm offspinners in the english game so tredwell gets the call as the reliable pro that he is.

davies must be so bored currently. seems unlikely he gets a call on this tour to play . doubt the gay scene is any better in sri lanka than uae either.

panesar,keedy, rashid, briggs, blackwell, patel, metters, borthwick, kerrigan all come before a right arm offspinner in Moeen Ali(18 wickets) in the first division list of wickets

cosker(49), then middlebrook(43) and tredwell(42) come in the second divison.

So Right arm offspin is dead?? maybe not but tredwell has to be the most reliable bet as the second offspinner. could do with someone good coming through though. hopefully root or ali develop and become good allrounders and can play in the future as a second spinner with kerrigan/panesar.

Yes your probably right there.

 

[Pothas]

Yeah can see the reasoning but it is still pointless, I can think of no realistic circumstances in which he will play.

Morgan had to go, it is time for Ravi to get some runs before failing horribly against South Africa.

 

[Howe_zat]

The inclusion of either Bopara or Samit at #6 ought to have put paid to any plan of five frontline bowlers. So our attack is either:

Anderson, Broad, Swann, Monty, Bopara

or

Anderson, Broad, Bresnan, Swann, Patel

I prefer the latter for obvious reasons but I actually think - assuming he plays with the the two spinners in the attack - Ravi's bowling could be very useful on this tour. He'd effectively be bowling as third seamer and his skiddy in-movement should work on those pitches, they did in the World Cup. Could well find himself with a few poles.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Yeah can see the reasoning but it is still pointless, I can think of no realistic circumstances in which he will play.

Morgan had to go, it is time for Ravi to get some runs before failing horribly against South Africa.

TBF Swann getting the Jimmy Brits on the morning of a test isn't that unlikely.

& I think Ravi ended his last tour of SL with three consecutive blobs, so I'm not holding my breath on him filling his boots either.

Generally pleased with the squad tho; especially to see Sammy get a go. Really think he's a live chance for #6 as his SLA is more likely to be of use than Ravinder's mediums.

If Bres is fit promoting Prior to six and going for the five bowler option a possibility too.

 

[Pothas]

TBF Swann getting the Jimmy Brits on the morning of a test isn't that unlikely.

& I think Ravi ended his last tour of SL with three consecutive blobs, so I'm not holding my breath on him filling his boots either.

Generally pleased with the squad tho; especially to see Sammy get a go. Really think he's a live chance for #6 as his SLA is more likely to be of use than Ravinder's mediums.

If Bres is fit promoting Prior to six and going for the five bowler option a possibility too.

Yeah but I am pretty sure that if Swann was Injured/ ill they would just bring in a quick, is not as if playing two spinners is suddenly a hard and fast rule.

Ravi obviously far from a certainty to get runs but can see him doing ok and then plundering the Windies (after being dropped 65 times) all over again.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Vaughan played 88 matches in pyjamas for England. So he counts.

But he was good in one format, for a period. Which is one more format than sad sack.

Far from convinced about Samit Patel's batting in Test cricket. I think you could make an argument for him at 7 and you shuffle Prior up one. I think he's too loose to bat in the top 6. Bopara is just outright **** obviously. It becomes more viable if England pick three seamers obviously - I could always see Panesar being successful against Pakistan because they played him badly in the past, I don't think he'll be a great factor against Sri Lanka (or India).

 

[Agent Nationaux]

Unfortunate that Bops is replacing Morgan. And the Sri Lankan's play spin better than we do, so expect Monty to be not as good.

 

[SeamUp]

It was also the last Sri Lankan tour that did Ravi in as well. Talk about going to have to exorcise demons.

Interesting what England do if he fails. Do they go for the James Taylor or Ben Stokes route?