***Official*** England in Pakistan

[Scaly piscine]

If anyone outside this combination of seven is selected I will be very surprised.

Robert Key
James Anderson (Chris Tremlett)
Matthew Prior (Chris Read)
Gareth Batty (Graeme Swann)

If Alex Loudon is picked I'll quite possibly break something.

I see that the England squad has been announced...


Test Squad Michael Vaughan (capt), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Geraint Jones, Simon Jones, Alex Loudon, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Andrew Strauss, Chris Tremlett, Marcus Trescothick, Shaun Udal.

ODI Squad Michael Vaughan (capt), James Anderson, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Steve Harmison, Geraint Jones, Simon Jones, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Liam Plunkett, Vikram Solanki, Andrew Strauss, Chris Tremlett, Marcus Trescothick

So is CW Money Makers taking bets on what was broken?

 

[Isolator]

I say he broke his foot.

 

[marc71178]

My money's on Roy Keane's metatarsal.

 

[sledger]

england touring party announced.

no huge suprises in there i dont think, although i myself am thrilled to see sean udal called up as reserve for giles, hes had a good season and really deserves it, good to see gareth batty amd gough dropped as well. No suprises to see the ashes team in there, be intresting to see how plunkett performs in the one dayers as well, although for some reason james anderson has again been named in the side, after last year i would have thought the selectors would have learned their lesson but evidently not, but then again.....there isnt really anyone else who i would have over him, asides tremlett who has also been picked, why anderson hasnt been relegated to the odi side or the A side is anyones guess.

 

[greg]

no huge suprises in there i dont think, although i myself am thrilled to see sean udal called up as reserve for giles, hes had a good season and really deserves it, good to see gareth batty amd gough dropped as well. No suprises to see the ashes team in there, be intresting to see how plunkett performs in the one dayers as well, although for some reason james anderson has again been named in the side, after last year i would have thought the selectors would have learned their lesson but evidently not, but then again.....there isnt really anyone else who i would have over him, asides tremlett who has also been picked, why anderson hasnt been relegated to the odi side or the A side is anyones guess.

Personally I don't find it that surprising that the selectors are keen to encourage a 23 year old who showed enormous potential when he burst onto the international scene, but then struggled for a number of reasons, probably not unrelated to the rapid nature of his ascent, but maybe that's an illogical view. Then again you seem a bit mixed up in what you think yourself!

Gough wasn't dropped.

 

[Shoaib]

So true!! Pak team's front line opening pacer is of a club level.

But he is 100 times better than your street level bowlers like Irfan Pathan,Zaheer Khan,Ashish Nehra & Laxmipathi Balaji.Sami is a good bowler in ODIs but he hasn't been able to drop his bowling average in tests because he hasn't got many chances to play against Bangladesh Like Irfan,Nehra & Zaheer who have bowling averages in atleast sixties if we exclude their performances against Bangladesh.U have no right to criticize our bowling lineup because your country hasn't been able to produce a good fast bowler (excluding Kapil Dev) for last 58 years since independence.

 

[honestbharani]

Thanks "nehrafan"...

Did u really 'have' to respond to him?

 

[Go_India]

Did u really 'have' to respond to him?

thats all what MARC can do

 

[Shoaib]

This opening pair is the weakest of all the test playing nations, don't thiink these openers have either the balls or the chalange to stand up against the great English pace attack.

Name Mat I NO Runs HS Ave SR 100 50 Ct St
Shahid Afridi 19 35 1 1198 141 35.23 78.71 3 6 9 -
Yasir Hameed 17 33 3 1168 170 38.93 58.75 2 7 13 -
Taufeeq Umar 24 44 2 1711 135 40.73 45.50 4 9 32 -

W e r grateful to God that he has blessed us with some quality opening batsmen & a genuine allrounder like Shahid Afridi who has the capability to make any opposition bowling lineup even worst than that of club just like he humiliated your street level pace bowlers in your home ground,scoring 102 of just 45 balls.We have a lot of quality opening batsmen while India is still crying to find an opening partner for Virender Sehwag.What a pity that they cant find a good oper among 1000 million people.He has scored 122 of 95 balls in a test against WI recently who have bowlers which r lot better than yours.

 

[Shoaib]

Bowling is very weak, Razzak and Rana proven failures at test level, English batters in particular Freddie and Kevin will murder such half skilled cricketers.

Razzaq is a failure because he stole the Mohali test from your so called "world class team"?And Rana is a failure because he made your so called "great batsmen" look like even worst than Bangladesh Batsmen?

 

[Dasa]

Hmmm I really shouldn't respond, but I will anyway...

Name Mat I NO Runs HS Ave SR 100 50 Ct St
Shahid Afridi 19 35 1 1198 141 35.23 78.71 3 6 9 -
Yasir Hameed 17 33 3 1168 170 38.93 58.75 2 7 13 -
Taufeeq Umar 24 44 2 1711 135 40.73 45.50 4 9 32 -

W e r grateful to God that he has blessed us with some quality opening batsmen & a genuine allrounder like Shahid Afridi who has the capability to make any opposition bowling lineup even worst than that of club just like he humiliated your street level pace bowlers in your home ground,scoring 102 of just 45 balls.We have a lot of quality opening batsmen while India is still crying to find an opener for Virender Sehwag.What a pity that they cant find a good oper among 1000 million people.He has scored 122 of 95 balls in a test against WI recently who have bowlers which r lot better than yours.

You have to admit Pakistan have a problem with their opening batsmen. I think I'd be right in saying that only the minnows, WI and NZ have openers averaging less. India have a fairly stable Sehwag (world-class) and Gambhir (developing). Aus obviously have Langer and Hayden, England Tresco and Strauss, SL Atapattu and Jayasuriya and SaF have De Villiers and Smith... compared to all of those, any combination of Yasir Hameed, Taufeeq Umar and Shahid Afridi doesn't look great. At any rate, those innings' you mention of Afridi's..one was in an ODI, and in the other he was batting at 6. It was against a fairly poor attack as well, comprising Edwards, Powell, King, Collymore and Gayle.

 

[Shoaib]

Hmmm I really shouldn't respond, but I will anyway...

You have to admit Pakistan have a problem with their opening batsmen. I think I'd be right in saying that only the minnows, WI and NZ have openers averaging less. India have a fairly stable Sehwag (world-class) and Gambhir (developing). Aus obviously have Langer and Hayden, England Tresco and Strauss, SL Atapattu and Jayasuriya and SaF have De Villiers and Smith... compared to all of those, any combination of Yasir Hameed, Taufeeq Umar and Shahid Afridi doesn't look great. At any rate, those innings' you mention of Afridi's..one was in an ODI, and in the other he was batting at 6. It was against a fairly poor attack as well, comprising Edwards, Powell, King, Collymore and Gayle.

I agree that Pakistan have a problem with their opening batsmen but the combination of Edwards, Powell, King, Collymore and Gayle is 100 times better than that of Nehra,Zaheer,Balaji,Pathan and Harbhajan.Sehwag is an excellent opening batsmen but Gambhir is not better than Taufiq Umar & Yasir Hameed because his Performance has been nil against good sides.He has a fine looking average just because of his innings against Banfladesh.Other teams like SA,AUS &ENG have opening pairs lot better than ours.

 

[Pothas]

im just delighted to see Udal get picked, he has been brilliant for hampshire in recent years and has been better than ever before this year averaging around 18. It will just be great to see old shaggy playing a test for England at long last

 

[Pothas]

On a different note i am shocked and very disapointed that matt prior has gone ahead of Chris Read as the second wicket keeper role it seems to me that Fletcher just must have something against Read who really does deserve another chance

 

[Neil Pickup]

Yes, it's the fact that he can't bat. Merging into the Tour Thread.

 

[Pothas]

Yes, it's the fact that he can't bat. .

but he averaged 11 runs more than Prior this season with the bat

 

[Neil Pickup]

but he averaged 11 runs more than Prior this season with the bat

So have Rikki Clarke, Will Smith, Alex Tudor, Stephen Moore, Jon Batty, Paul Weekes, Tom Webley, James Benning, Usman Afzaal, Rob Woodman, Wes Durston, Ian Salisbury and Danish Kaneria.

 

[Jamee999]

Key isn't the obvious choice because he's rubbish and is unlikely to have the stamina anyway. England don't particularly need a true top order batsman (especially a bad one) as cover in a country like Pakistan, they just need a good batsman as cover.

Aren't we allowed bowlers at cover?

Or is it a specialist fielding position so you can't afford to be running off to bowl?

 

[greg]

but he averaged 11 runs more than Prior this season with the bat

Actually I think that there is another factor in the debate which is that he doesn't bat in the right way. England don't just want a keeper who can bat but one who can counter attack, score quick runs when having to bat with the tail, turn a game in 40 mins etc.

Read may manage to push up his average in county cricket but he is not going to achieve that. Aside when he is (sometimes quite effectively) slogging at the end of a ODI game, he basically offers a decent defensive technique with a few shots. A bit like Collingwood really (who should not be the first reserve batsman IMO).

 

[steds]

Udal? What a ****ing joke