***Official*** England in Pakistan

[Craig]

Well, at a stretch, one for his match-saving fifty at Faisalabad, and five for his bowling in the first two Tests - but where the other two came from I've no idea. He's been almost as dumb as KP when it comes to dismissal methods recently.

Hardly surprising isn't it?

As good as they are, Pieterson, Flintoff, and Trescothick could write a book on how to throw away an innings.

 

[Craig]

i'm quite fine midn you , its just that with Strauss gone & if Vaughan cant make even though he is not that great of an ODI player added to the fact that he may not be at his best one would get worried about england top order, but then again you may be right about Bell he is in form & may well & score runs..

Since when have you been so interested in the England team.

You support (to use a Neil-like analogy) the Convict XI don't you?

 

[Craig]

god..you base that on 1 test :O
from the things ive seen from the test, he looked pretty good and he's young!!

Think he was being sarcastic

 

[Jono]

Since when have you been so interested in the England team.

You support (to use a Neil-like analogy) the Convict XI don't you?

Firstly, he's a cricket fan, not just an Australian cricket fan.

Secondly, people (you haven't really been the main culprit) should just let go of the fact that he supports England against everyone else bar Australia. He likes both teams because he lives in the UK, get over it.

 

[wpdavid]

Hardly surprising isn't it?

As good as they are, Pieterson, Flintoff, and Trescothick could write a book on how to throw away an innings.

The odd thing about Fred is that he's far worse in this regard overseas than at home. In England, he justifies his palce at number 6. Overseas, he looks at least a place too high.

 

[pakster]

Hardly surprising isn't it?

As good as they are, Pieterson, Flintoff, and Trescothick could write a book on how to throw away an innings.

Foreward by Shahid Afridi.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Firstly, he's a cricket fan, not just an Australian cricket fan.

Secondly, people (you haven't really been the main culprit) should just let go of the fact that he supports England against everyone else bar Australia. He likes both teams because he lives in the UK, get over it.

We never let Langeveldt forget owt... He's gonna continue to get it as he asks for it!

 

[honestbharani]

My ' predication' () for the ODI series... Pakistan 4-1... Would be glad if I am proved wrong and if we get to see a really closely fought competitive series, though.

 

[Barney Rubble]

My prediction is 3-2 Pakistan - I think it'll be a very tight one. England are an improving ODI outfit but Pakistan will most likely be pulled through by a couple of outstanding individual performances, as they tend to be in ODI cricket. England will probably be hurt by the fact that only one of their top 3 has been consistently getting runs recently.

 

[wpdavid]

5-0 to Pakistan. England's overseas form in ODI's is dreadful. I think they'll struggle to make serious inroads into the Pakistan batting, they'll lose quick wickets to Shoaib & co and they won't be able to score quickly enough against the spinners in the middle over.

 

[open365]

Foreward by Shahid Afridi.

Introduction by Butch.

 

[Gloucefan]

i'm quite fine midn you , its just that with Strauss gone & if Vaughan cant make even though he is not that great of an ODI player added to the fact that he may not be at his best one would get worried about england top order, but then again you may be right about Bell he is in form & may well & score runs..

Strauss is back in Pakistan although whether he plays is another matter...

 

[wpdavid]

Strauss is back in Pakistan although whether he plays is another matter...

.... I'd be surprised if he didn't, not by Saturday, anyway.

What are we looking at?
Tresco, Strauss, Bell or Solanki, KP, Fred, Collingwood, Jones, Blackwell, Kabir, Harmison & Anderson or Plunkett.

 

[BoyBrumby]

We look at least a bowler short there to me. Fred & Harmy are both sound as English pounds (assuming they stay fit), but we've somehow got to cobble together 30 overs from a combo of Kabir, Blackwell, Colly, Plunkers or Anderson. I could see them getting some terrible tap if things go badly.

 

[wpdavid]

We look at least a bowler short there to me. Fred & Harmy are both sound as English pounds (assuming they stay fit), but we've somehow got to cobble together 30 overs from a combo of Kabir, Blackwell, Colly, Plunkers or Anderson. I could see them getting some terrible tap if things go badly.

Yup, which is one of the reasons why I think we'll lose all 5. Technically, we're looking at 4 proper bowlers plus 10 from Blackwell & Collingwood, which isn't unreasonable. Trouble is that our proper bowlers aren't as good as we'd like.

I hope Blackwell does OK though. He actually bowled pretty well in a VB series in Aus a couple of years ago, but his batting was dreadfully disappointing. Maybe if he can get one big innings under his belt (not that there's a lot of space there, of course) then his confidence will pick up at this level.

 

[wpdavid]

We look at least a bowler short there to me. Fred & Harmy are both sound as English pounds (assuming they stay fit), but we've somehow got to cobble together 30 overs from a combo of Kabir, Blackwell, Colly, Plunkers or Anderson. I could see them getting some terrible tap if things go badly.

The other point this raises is the state of our pace attack in the one day game, which seems no more sorted now than it did after the 2003 WC. From memory, we've seen Gough, Anderson, Johnson, Flintoff, Harmison, Wharf, Hoggard, Kabir, Lewis & Jones in the space of 2 and a half years. Have I forgotten anyone? It seems an awful lot to me, but we still haven't found an attack that we're really confident about in this form of the game. As you say, it's not hard to see the Pakistanis taking them to the cleaners on their own wickets.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Yup, which is one of the reasons why I think we'll lose all 5. Technically, we're looking at 4 proper bowlers plus 10 from Blackwell & Collingwood, which isn't unreasonable. Trouble is that our proper bowlers aren't as good as we'd like.
I hope Blackwell does OK though. He actually bowled pretty well in a VB series in Aus a couple of years ago, but his batting was dreadfully disappointing. Maybe if he can get one big innings under his belt (not that there's a lot of space there, of course) then his confidence will pick up at this level.

Think that hits the nail on the head. We had the same prob in the tests too to some extent; Vaughan didn't seem to trust anyone other than Fred or Harmy (with the exception of Hoggy for maybe the first dozen overs), so we ended up bowling our two main strike bowlers as stock bowlers.

We won't have that safety net in the ODIs tho (which is almost certainly a good thing for Fred & Harmy's medium-long term fitness prospects!) so our second-string have to stand up. The depressing thing is that there's no-one who you would say has been really hard done by in not making the squad!

It would be nice to see Blackwell bowl half-fairly. I think he has a bit of an opening to play test cricket in India myself. Udal hasn't looked of the required standard (and is hardly a long-term option anyway), Gilo is far from certain of being fit & the other mooted spinning options (Swann & Panesar) have previously blotted their copybooks attitude-wise. Blackwell has everything to gain for me.

 

[Gloucefan]

.... I'd be surprised if he didn't, not by Saturday, anyway.

What are we looking at?
Tresco, Strauss, Bell or Solanki, KP, Fred, Collingwood, Jones, Blackwell, Kabir, Harmison & Anderson or Plunkett.

I'd like to see Prior in place of Jones, should give him a chance before India.

 

[BoyBrumby]

The other point this raises is the state of our pace attack in the one day game, which seems no more sorted now than it did after the 2003 WC. From memory, we've seen Gough, Anderson, Johnson, Flintoff, Harmison, Wharf, Hoggard, Kabir, Lewis & Jones in the space of 2 and a half years. Have I forgotten anyone? It seems an awful lot to me, but we still haven't found an attack that we're really confident about in this form of the game. As you say, it's not hard to see the Pakistanis taking them to the cleaners on their own wickets.

Tremlett's the only other one I can think of. Oh & think Sajid Mahmood may've played once or twice to no discernable effect!

 

[wpdavid]

Tremlett's the only other one I can think of. Oh & think Sajid Mahmood may've played once or twice to no discernable effect!

Yes, you're right. I think Sajid was absolutely taken to the cleaners by NZ in his one appearance a couple of years ago. And I'd completely forgotten Tremlett. I make that 12!

EDIT
To be fair, I suppose Jones & Tremlett would be there if available, which would put a better perspective on things. And, in theory, Gough, although I don't think he should be picked.