England squad for South Africa tour

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mas cambios

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England squad for South Africa tour

No real surprised although the selectors have pretty signalled the end of Harmison's test career. I'm sure an announcement saying that he's retiring from international cricket can't be that far away.

Other than that, it seems that Steven Davies has moved up as reserve keeper and Liam Plunkett gets a recall. He had a reasonable season for Durham but I expect the fact that he can hold a bat swayed his inclusion.

Not happy with Luke Wright being in the squad, the guy isn't test class - surely there as a drinks waiter?

Test squad: Andrew Strauss (Middlesex - captain), Alastair Cook (Essex - vice captain), James Anderson (Lancashire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Paul Collingwood (Durham), Steven Davies (Surrey), Graham Onions (Durham), Kevin Pietersen (Hampshire), Liam Plunkett (Durham), Matt Prior (Sussex), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Ryan Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire), Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire), Jonathan Trott (Warwickshire), Luke Wright (Sussex)

One day squad to follow...

Predicting that LionsthenDaylight will post to say how shit England are.
 
Re: England squad for South Africa tour

One-day squad: Andrew Strauss (Middlesex - captain), James Anderson (Lancashire), Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Paul Collingwood (Durham), Alastair Cook (Essex), Joe Denly (Kent), Sajid Mahmood (Lancashire), Eoin Morgan (Middlesex), Graham Onions (Durham), Kevin Pietersen (Hampshire), Matt Prior (Sussex), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire), Jonathan Trott (Warwickshire), Luke Wright (Sussex).

One thing I missed is that Bopara has been culled from both squads - he truly has had a roller coaster year.
 
Re: England squad for South Africa tour

Another notch in the belt of Luke Wright, prince of Sussex. He'll probably get 2000 runs in division 2 next season
 
Re: England squad for South Africa tour

Dont mind Luke Wright being there, dont agree with Plunkett ahead of Bresnan though or the decision to take Bell or Davies. I would bat Wright at 6 before giving Bell a game

Just seeing the one day squad, Mahmood and Cook? As well as Denly and Trott, bloody hell, feel sorry for Shah
 
Re: England squad for South Africa tour

Harmison has to be one of the most mis-managed cricketers of all time. Anyone who bowls seam, at any level, knows that you need plenty of bowling (and I don't mean in the nets) in order to gain and maintain any sort of rythm. I think this applied to Harmison more than any other bowler. However, time after time, England have taken Harmison abroad when he has not had the opportunity to bowl properly for months - leaving him out of Lions tours etc, and then wondered why he fails to hit the spot from the word go.

It was very noticable how well he started to bowl again under Alan Donald's guidance (and Plunkett too, for that matter). As usual, all we have done here is shown how backward out coaching and selection procedures are. Ridiculous.

I'd love to know how people think we're going to take 20 SA wickets without a wicket-taker.

What a shambles!
 
Re: England squad for South Africa tour

According to Geoff Miller, one of the reasons Harmison wasn't selected was because he said he wouldn't go to Australia for the next Ashes so they felt they had to move forward 'in a different direction'.
 
Re: England squad for South Africa tour

Pretty pitiful looking ODI team, why the hell would you drop Shah after his performances in the Champions Trophy? At least take him in the bloody squad, surely over Cook.

Anyone got an itinary
 
Re: England squad for South Africa tour

Shah absolutely robbed, not sure what he has to do to stay in the side. Interesting to see Mahmood back in the one-day side, must have had some good county form to get there because the last time I saw him he was horrible. Having said that, England's bowling in the NatWest series was terrible, surprised Tremlett wasn't given a call-up or at least come into calculations.

Batting looks better with Pietersen and Trott there but with the exception of those two and Strauss they might struggle again.
 
Re: England squad for South Africa tour

Shah hasn't looked comfortable for a while, add that to his poor running between the wickets and dodgy fielding and you see why he's gone. Whether or not there is better out there is another debate.

Cook is portrayed as a poor OD player, but he's not that bad - certainly no worse than Shah.
 
Re: England squad for South Africa tour

How do the ECB select teams?

Shah not featuring after that innings in South Africa vs South Africa? What does he have to do. I understand the criticism over his running and fielding position but is he next Solanki. I would have picked him over Bell as he is a very destructive player which is something which England have lacked.Bell has not shown that he can play on bouncing wickets and dont be surprised if the wickets are hard and green.

Bresnan not in the side - another surprising choice. He is a bowling all rounder and definitely a better selection than Luke Wright. I am in agreement with mas cambios over him - he can get away with it in ODIs and T20 but not in 5 day cricket.

I suspect it is game-set-match over Harmisons career. I get the idea that Anderson and Broad is the "other direction" mentioned by Geoff Miller.

Gentleman - one thing the last series - which England won the Test Series is was Matthew Hoggard and his swing bowling that was the factor. My one question is can the Test Side take 20 wickets in South Africa?....
 
Re: England squad for South Africa tour

It is funny that you mention that because I was thinking the same thing. Twittergate could just be the reason why Bresnan got the message saying " sorry but we have picked Liam to go to South Africa"
 
Re: England squad for South Africa tour

It's a tough one but I guess they also felt that Plunkett offered more in South African conditions. He took 49 wickets at 24 during the last season (compared to 54 at 22 for Harmison) and averaged 40 with the bat (scoring 400+ runs).
 
Re: England squad for South Africa tour

Ljp86;369334 said:
Shah absolutely robbed, not sure what he has to do to stay in the side. Interesting to see Mahmood back in the one-day side, must have had some good county form to get there because the last time I saw him he was horrible. Having said that, England's bowling in the NatWest series was terrible, surprised Tremlett wasn't given a call-up or at least come into calculations.

Batting looks better with Pietersen and Trott there but with the exception of those two and Strauss they might struggle again.
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Mahmood and Plunkett is unexplainable, going back to the day old days

As for the batting, I dont see why everyone leaves out the man who is about to becomes Englands highest ever run scorer and averaging over 40 this year making him clearly Englands best ODI batsman
 
Re: England squad for South Africa tour

eddiesmith;369422 said:
Mahmood and Plunkett is unexplainable, going back to the day old days

As for the batting, I dont see why everyone leaves out the man who is about to becomes Englands highest ever run scorer and averaging over 40 this year making him clearly Englands best ODI batsman
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Collingwood? Decent player but I haven't seen him make a big score for a while.

England are relying on Anderson a lot here. If the ball is going to swing, Anderson is going to be England's key player and he'll be the barometer as to how well England play. If he takes wickets, it'll help the confidence of the other bowlers and they'll do well. If he doesn't they may struggle and another player is going to have to step up and take charge. That's a situation which Flintoff excelled in but he is no longer there.
 
Re: England squad for South Africa tour

Im surprised there hasn't been much talk about Cook, who struggled in the Ashes and averaged 20 odd I think. There was even some talk about him being captain when the team goes to Bangladesh early next year, which seems somewhat early considering his form in the Ashes.

If England are relying on Anderson then they might as well not show up, because he is an ordinary cricketer who postures around like a superstar. South Africa isn't the swing bowling paradise people make it out to be, when we were there early this year the ball would swing early under humid conditions but after 20 or so overs the swing would taper off considerably. Hilfenhaus bowled one near unplayable spell early on during his debut but after that toiled hard.

Johnson had the ball swining for a few overs max at the start of each innings, thats all, during that brief period however he was unstoppable, after the swing faded he'd drop back to use the pace and bounce with equally effective results.

South Africa does offer something for the hit the deck seam bowlers though, the bounce and movement off the pitch is hard to negate if you play from the crease, as most of the of the English batsmen do.

England don't really have those bowlers with the strong upper body to do that type of work. Anderson especially, who is built like a stick. Broad, likewise, is lightly built and in the past has been spanked to all corners when he trys the short stuff.

England IMO don't have a bowling attack that can take 20 wickets outside of England, its not sour grapes from the Ashes or anything, its just my opinion based on watching cricket for 15 years.

It will also be interesting to see if they go with 4 bowlers or 5 including an allrounder. They'll probably want to bolster the batting to be safe on the South African wickets which can be a bit sporty.

Overall I expect South Africa to win fairly comfortably, Graeme Smith is surely due to win a toss and Strauss is surely due to lose one.

England still have a lot of flaws in their team which have been papered over by the Ashes win, which isn't a stretch to say was undeserving.
 
Re: England squad for South Africa tour

Move on from the Ashes, it is done and dusted. I think even the most one eyed England fan will concede that overall Australia played the better cricket but England edged the crucial sessions - that is the nature of sport sometimes.

It's also fair to say that few are under any impressions that the England side will go on to dominate or that the Ashes win will be a catalyst for this scenario. There are too many weaknesses and a serious lack of depth.

As a team England are fine, the bowling is fine and the batting is fine but neither is great. We have some good players but they tend to fire inconsistently and rarely all at the same time. At the moment we lack a true out and out fast man and there are few if any coming through.

Batting wise then you always feel on the verge of a collapse, the likes of Collingwood generally bat one place too high and no one seems able to set a tempo, be it for one day or test cricket.

Flower has had less than a year in charge and it's generally felt that a coach in cricket needs two years in order to stamp his mark on the side. There are positive green shoots but it will take time. The end of the Fletcher era and the Moores debacle set us back a bit.

Now, reading the above and it may seem that I'm pessimistic but as I said there are some green shoots. I don't think that this tour of South Africa will see England blown away although on paper South Africa are the better side but they have their own problems. England will need to fight hard and seize any opportunity that comes their way, something which Flower and Strauss will see to.
 
Re: England squad for South Africa tour

mas cambios;369593 said:
Move on from the Ashes, it is done and dusted. I think even the most one eyed England fan will concede that overall Australia played the better cricket but England edged the crucial sessions - that is the nature of sport sometimes.

It's also fair to say that few are under any impressions that the England side will go on to dominate or that the Ashes win will be a catalyst for this scenario. There are too many weaknesses and a serious lack of depth.

As a team England are fine, the bowling is fine and the batting is fine but neither is great. We have some good players but they tend to fire inconsistently and rarely all at the same time. At the moment we lack a true out and out fast man and there are few if any coming through.

Batting wise then you always feel on the verge of a collapse, the likes of Collingwood generally bat one place too high and no one seems able to set a tempo, be it for one day or test cricket.

Flower has had less than a year in charge and it's generally felt that a coach in cricket needs two years in order to stamp his mark on the side. There are positive green shoots but it will take time. The end of the Fletcher era and the Moores debacle set us back a bit.

Now, reading the above and it may seem that I'm pessimistic but as I said there are some green shoots. I don't think that this tour of South Africa will see England blown away although on paper South Africa are the better side but they have their own problems. England will need to fight hard and seize any opportunity that comes their way, something which Flower and Strauss will see to.
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Thats where the loss of pieterson really hurts them.
Pietersen usually scored lots of runs and quickly, while collingwood rotated the strike it was a near perfect combination for england.
Since pietersen has been injured its made a huge gap in the team.
espeacially when bopara isn't performing.
 
Re: England squad for South Africa tour

mas cambios;369599 said:
Even with Pietersen it always seems too easy for one wicket to bring three.
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True but usually only if that wicket was pietersen.
When pietersen went out england go into panic mode.
 
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