***Official*** England in India

[aussie]

How's this for an England lineup, for my two cents:

Trescothick
Strauss
Vaughan
Bell
Pietersen
Flintoff
G Jones
Blackwell
Harmison
S Jones
Panesar

well probably but the reason i may still Keep Hoggard in their is because England should look to win with the seamers. Especially in the venue England are playing from recent memory of matches on those grounds i think it will assist seam bowling.

 

[marc71178]

Would it have been any less exciting if they disrespected each other on the field?

One never knows, but it sure shows your theory to be wrong.

 

[marc71178]

Fact is, Panesar is the best spinner available, but he'll never play unless Blackwell is there to bat 8. So it's neither or both.

Unless:

Trescothick
Strauss
Vaughan
Bell
Pietersen
Collingwood
Flintoff
Jones
Jones
Harmison
Panesar

 

[UncleTheOne]

Unless:

Trescothick
Strauss
Vaughan
Bell
Pietersen
Collingwood
Flintoff
Jones
Jones
Harmison
Panesar

Hmmmm, seems like the lineup I may edge towards. I think Flintoff at seven is something that has to be seriously looked at, he just isn't a top 6 test batsman, especially away from home. But I still fear that Udal will be picked as the spinner.

 

[marc71178]

Udal will be picked if w go the 4 seamer option I think.

I feel that with Flintoff, Harmison and Jones there, we can pick Panesar and then have a mixture of Collingwood, Bell and Vaughan (plus Pietersen and Trescothick) as 5th bowler.

 

[aussie]

Unless:

Trescothick
Strauss
Vaughan
Bell
Pietersen
Collingwood
Flintoff
Jones
Jones
Harmison
Panesar

this line-up is also possible, we'll just have to wait and see i guess..

 

[UncleTheOne]

Udal will be picked if w go the 4 seamer option I think.

I feel that with Flintoff, Harmison and Jones there, we can pick Panesar and then have a mixture of Collingwood, Bell and Vaughan (plus Pietersen and Trescothick) as 5th bowler.

Yeah that mixture looks better and better the more I look at it. Vaughan should give himself some more overs as well, quite like him as a part-timer. Didn't he bowl Sachin with a beauty when India toured here in 2002?

 

[aussie]

Didn't he bowl Sachin with a beauty when India toured here in 2002?

lol yea, a beauty of an off-break at trent bridge that would make Murali proud..

 

[silentstriker]

One never knows, but it sure shows your theory to be wrong.

My theory is that you should give your team a real home advantage. I never said anything about cricket not being exciting otherwise.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Yeah that mixture looks better and better the more I look at it. Vaughan should give himself some more overs as well, quite like him as a part-timer. Didn't he bowl Sachin with a beauty when India toured here in 2002?

His knee will fall off.

 

[Autobahn]

Well the last time Vaughan bowled was in the 3rd ashes test for 5 overs and before that his last bowling was in SA so even if he was fit he's well out of practice.

It looks like bell is going to be the part-timer on this tour

 

[irfan]

Unless:

Trescothick
Strauss
Vaughan
Bell
Pietersen
Collingwood
Flintoff
Jones
Jones
Harmison
Panesar

Personally, I like the look of Marc's side. Having Flintoff out of the top 6 would be ideal in terms of player burnout issues as he's probably going to do a lot of bowling if the Indians bat to their potential. I've also heard that this Panesar bloke took 54 wickets at a tick under 22 in the CC and unless the English wickets are a spinners paradise or Panesar dyed his hair blonde and got an ear-ring, those seem like very good figures. Who cares if he can't bat or field (Pratt should solve that), what you need in India is wickettaking bowlers and if you goin with a spinner against India you go with the best you have got. None of this Udal rubbish. The fact that GoJo comes in at 8 means the lineup bats deep anyway as the bowlers shouldn't be reliant on to make runs. The addition of Collingwood is also vital as he can bowl his mediums to give the others a break and both he and Bell supplements the brazen firepower of KP & Freddie.

 

[Jono]

Yeah that's probably the team I'd least like to see from an Indian fan-point, hence its probably the best team for England. Plenty of batting depth, their best spinner from what I've read and lots of bowling options. On top of that, Freddy will be fresh and have less work to do with the bat (ideally for England unless batting collapses occur and he has to do a lot of the batting).

Good side Marc.

 

[honestbharani]

I think it was suggested earlier as well. It is the most sensible thing to do in such situations, to go in with your 4 best bowlers and a few guys like Bell, Collingwood, Vaughan, Pietersen and Tresco who can make up the fifth bowling option.

 

[aussie]

will be interesting to see if Vaughan & co are think along the lines of that side, because seemingly its the best possible option for England.

 

[Gajanayake]

The Board President's XI for the tour match has already been announced.

Board XI squad Venugopal Rao (capt), Wasim Jaffer, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, S. Badrinath, Dinesh Karthik, Dheeraj Jadhav, Pragyan Ojha, Amit Mishra, Ramesh Powar, SS Paul, Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, VRV Singh.

In terms of picking a second Indian X1, the selectors have done a good job.
I hope that squad gives a good account of itself.

There's obviously a lot of interest on the exciting pace trio of VRV, Munaf and Sreesanth.
But equally interesting will be the battle of the three openers Jaffer, Gambhir and Jadhav against a powerful England pace attack.
I hope all three play at positions 1,2 and 3 respectively.

 

[adharcric]

I agree, Gambhir, Jaffer and Jadhav need to come in 1-2-3, squaring off against Flintoff, Harmison and Jones will be a tough test for them. These three are clearly the three best test openers in India right now after Sehwag, so they need to all play here. Raina has shown his class and Rao looks like a player who can grind out big scores. For the first time, we will see 3 Indian pacers bowling at 85+ mph consistently, should be exciting.

G Gambhir, W Jaffer, D Jadhav, V Rao, S Raina, D Karthik, R Powar, M Patel, A Mishra, VR Singh, Sreesanth

Does anyone know anything about the first warmup match (in Mumbai?) for England? Who are they playing against?

 

[IqbalJaved]

How's this for an Indian test squad:

Dheeraj Jadhav
Sehwag
Dravid
Laxman
Yuvraj
Dhoni
Pathan
Z Khan
Kumble
Harbhajan
Munaf Patel

Reserves:
M Kartik
M Kaif
Rudra Pratap Singh
V Rao

Left out Sachin as he's past his best..Ganguly and Gambhir are not test class
and we need a quick, right arm paceman in our squad - hence Munaf.

We can't be sentimental ....our test side needs revitalising after the hammering at Karachi so Sachin and Saurav have to go and Yuvraj must get a permanent spot.
Also Munaf will add variety to the bowling attack.

Playing four bowlers plus Pathan is a positive, attacking move and a different philosophy to the stale, traditional six batsmen 4 bowler theory.

 

[sirjeremy11]

Left out Sachin as he's past his best..

You must be joking...

 

[sirjeremy11]

Just thought I'd share this classic observation from Andrew Strauss about India...

"It is very different to England in February"