England 17-man squad

[Golaxi]

yea lol that was crazy. first time in my lifetime it was AUSTRALIA being saved by the rain :-p.

dunno why your even arguing about that now. they clearly picked the right choice. bell took the most catches in the series, peiterson hit a couple of important knocks. on thorpes fitness, there was no way he was fit. he would've been a tough nut but a tough nut we had to drag through. in the matches and the bangladesh matches leading up to the series he was having a nightmare just trying to run between the wickets. he got run out cause he was an injured snail, even though he still had great batting ability.

he was a defensive player though who required lots of wicket to wicket running, and he just wasn't up to it.

bell did grind out one tough half century aswell. one of the great things about our team then was that we were a young team. much younger than the aussie pensioners. thorpey didnt fit that mould. do you seriously think thorpe could be diving about at silly point with a creaky back?

 

[Richard]

All the info I've read suggests he wasn't fit to last a full series.

As I said above, there are plenty of players who've been less fit than Thorpe was in 2005 and still been picked - especially against Australia.

 

[Richard]

dunno why your even arguing about that now. they clearly picked the right choice.

How on Earth did they clearly pick the right choice? Thorpe was dropped for no good reason. That is the definition of the wrong choice.

bell took the most catches in the series, peiterson hit a couple of important knocks. on thorpes fitness, there was no way he was fit. he would've been a tough nut but a tough nut we had to drag through. in the matches and the bangladesh matches leading up to the series he was having a nightmare just trying to run between the wickets. he got run out cause he was an injured snail, even though he still had great batting ability.

he was a defensive player though who required lots of wicket to wicket running, and he just wasn't up to it.

bell did grind out one tough half century aswell. one of the great things about our team then was that we were a young team. much younger than the aussie pensioners. thorpey didnt fit that mould. do you seriously think thorpe could be diving about at silly point with a creaky back?

England dropped hundreds of catches that series and still won - Thorpe was a poor catcher for his last few years but it's extremely unlikely his poor fielding would have damaged England's chances in 2005. As for Thorpe being a defensive batsman, well, I can only say you don't really have a clue about him in that case. Thorpe was a noted counterattacker and a damn good one at that. Not sure where you hallucinated his being run-out in the run-up to the 2005 Ashes either - his last run-out in a Test occurred against Pakistan in 2001 with a direct-hit from mid-on.

 

[Stapel]

So, we are discussing the 2005 selection. Why???

Let's see if we can get this back on track to the 2009 selection.

There is only 1 place up for grabs for the 1st test (providing Flintoff is fit) and that is for the 4th seamer/2nd spinner role. Strauss, Cook, Bopara, Pietersen, Collingwood, Flintoff, Prior, Broad, Swann and Anderson will be in the XI barring injury.

I guess this is simply it. Only one place to discuss. The way things look now, the line up currently used for the Eng XI vs Warwickshire will be the one for the 1st Test. My guess is that either Swann or Panesar will be dropped for the Lord's test, and replaced by Onions or Sidebottom......., or by Harmison, Hoggard, or in the tradition of English selction methods, by someone we've never heared of.

Serious question: Does Hoggard have a chance to return to Test Cricket? I haven't heared too much about him recently.

 

[Golaxi]

after being englands unsung saviour for many years hoggard had 1 bad game/series and was slapped in the face by the ecb harder than ...

the ecb hate him now so he will never be in contention for anything again

 

[Richard]

Hoggard's chances of an England return have been zero for some time. With every Darren Pattinson, Amjad Khan, Sajid Mahmood etc. picked ahead of him this becomes clearer and clearer and clearer.

So, we are discussing the 2005 selection. Why???

More to the point, why not?