[Haz]

hopefully he meant Arnie and not Ryan

[Pickles]

is Tresco gonna be back this summer or has he retired from international cricket or something?

[spotg]

Originally posted by Pickles:
is Tresco gonna be back this summer or has he retired from international cricket or something?

He's not coming back until he's sure that he's put his mental problems behind him to the extent that he would be able to complete a full tour in the winter.

And he doesn't believe he's there yet.

Absolutely nothing wrong with his batting at the minute, and I hope he's back soon.

Banger is such a legend.

[Pickles]

He's been smashing it all over the place so far this season hasn't he?

[Obaid Al-Dosary]

Lords refused to allocate me tickets to the 3rd day of the WI test

[Pedwar Pump]

I'd go with

Strauss (c)
Cook
Shah
Bell
Collingwood
Flintoff
Nixon +
Harmison
Hoggard
Panesar
Anderson

That's assuming KP's injury keeps him away. Nixon's earned a go in the test team so he gets a place, i'd have Foster if Nixon has to miss out. Ramprakash as the next batsman in line after Shah. Anderson nudges in ahead of Broad as he's not done badly enough to be dropped and has been showing signs of improvement.

Mahmood and Plunkett nowhere near the team, i'd be making calls to Gladstone Small and Martin McCague before they get back in. County grind for them this season so they can learn how to put the ball in the right place.

[rohan]

Manos \o/

[pjburrage]

I'd missed PJ's inclusion of Sidebottom. Awesome.

Sidebottom is bowling well at the moment. I'm just completely fed up with the continued 'old boys club' atmosphere that seems to be 'integral' to England's selections. Everytime a new coach comes in, he says he'll try and give guys on form a go, but it rarely happens, instead just picking the same old faces until they retire.

As for people bemoaning my Ramperkash inclusion, it came down to experience. If Vaughan, KP and Banger are missing then we are rapidly running out of players with experience in the batting ranks. Would really worry me if we are relying on Strauss, Cook, Bell, and Colly for the bulk of our runs, especially if we bat first on a cloudy day. Ramperkash continues to prove he his good enough with a bat, so why not give him a go to cover the injuries.

As for Sidebottom (again), he was a 1 of 3, will probably miss out to Broad or Anderson (or Plunkett/Mahmood/Lewis, who ain't exactly much better or on form).

At least those suggestions are slightly better than the ones of Tim Ambrose being the Wicketkeeper just because he got runs against a poor Worcestershire side.

[theis]

How has Harmison been bowling recently? As I believe there should be serious questions over his inclusion in the team right now.

[ericcantona7]

fair point on Ramprakash, if Pietersen, Vaughan, Trescothick and say someone else were all out then it makes more sense to play an older experienced batsman ahead of a young one as you'll have to drop them again afterwards anyway. But I don't think that our injury problem is that bad yet. We've still got enough batsmen with 3 players out who are already in contention and haven't really failed us yet:

Strauss
Cook
Bell
Shah
Collingwood
Flintoff

have all done well enough at test level, if one of them were to get injured then I would just prefer Ramprakash over the likes of Joyce or even Bopara for 1/2 tests. Ok there's not much experience, but at home against the Windies I don't think that will be much of a problem.