2009 Ashes

[Ironside]

Can we ban Scots from posting on this thread.

why?

Like Tighty said, every post just seems like an uneducated rubdown.

think you will find that today is the first rubdown i have given

as for uneducated i think my knowledge on the game compares favourably against most poster on this thread

I take you comments about Ponting declaring in the last test were a joke then?

wow your quick today

[Longy]

I vote Ramprakash to replace Bopara for the Oval. It will be Trott.

Somehow we have to get some steel into the batting. Without Pietersen and Flintoff the middle order is powder puff and the tail too long

I actually think this is about the only circumstances I would agree with bringing back Ramprakash as a pure 1 off option, our batting is all fine and dandy when batting is easy, or the match situation requires attacking shotmaking.

I am thinking they will wheel Freddie out if he is anywhere near capable of bowling for the final test.

[Ironside]

tighty there isnt much england can do when there team is built around a couple of world class players and a few journey men

if the world class players are missing then the journymen are going to struggle

the media have a habbit of building up the journymen after one good innings/match

england will struggle when freddie gives up

[gatso]

if I'm on the board of selectors I proper shake things up and throw in mascheranas for a debut in place of broad and throw in ramps instead of bopara

abs no point putting the same 11 out again

[TightEnd]

I think I finally ditch Bell too. Just not quite good enough

Colly is in his last year...gone a long way on limited talent.

When Freddie goes might as well do a thorough rebuild

[KarmaDope]

My team for the fifth test would be:

Strauss
Cook
Ramps
Trott
Collingwood
Prior/Foster (dependent on Prior's injury)
Blackwell
Broad/Swann (decision based on pitch)
Anderson
Harmison
Onions

[Ironside]

My team for the fifth test would be:

Strauss
Cook
Ramps
Trott
Collingwood
Prior/Foster (dependent on Prior's injury)
Blackwell
Broad/Swann (decision based on pitch)
Anderson
Harmison
Onions

u ruling out flintoff already?

[TightEnd]

Blackwell?  Not a hope

Swann is an automatic choice. Second spinner if played maybe roll the dice on Rashid rather than Monty.

[KarmaDope]

Flintoff - would play but when I chose my team it was based on the assumption that he wouldn't play.

Blackwell is arguably the most in-form man in the CC this year. His move to Durham has rejuvenated him plus he's a lefty. In other sports, we pick the players based on form, why not cricket?

[TightEnd]

Flintoff - would play but when I chose my team it was based on the assumption that he wouldn't play.

Blackwell is arguably the most in-form man in the CC this year. His move to Durham has rejuvenated him plus he's a lefty. In other sports, we pick the players based on form, why not cricket?

Blackwell blotted his copybook on the tour he was selected on, unfit, not popular with the management for being a party animal

Similarly Key had a ruck with the management at World 20-20 time. Probalby our most secure number 3, technically solid....unlikely to get a look in again


Much the same as someone falling out with Capello, or Martin Johnson...if your face doesn't fit or you blot your copybook its pretty hard to get back.

Unless you are Steve Harmison. Who gets seventeen chances to be forgiven for whatever the management got pissed off with him for last time, and the time before that......

[Ironside]

Unless you are Steve Harmison. Who gets seventeen chances to be forgiven for whatever the management got pissed off with him for last time, and the time before that......

harmison on form is the best bowler england has by a mile problem is he is out of form more often than inform

[nirvana]

Flintoff - would play but when I chose my team it was based on the assumption that he wouldn't play.

Blackwell is arguably the most in-form man in the CC this year. His move to Durham has rejuvenated him plus he's a lefty. In other sports, we pick the players based on form, why not cricket?

Blackwell blotted his copybook on the tour he was selected on, unfit, not popular with the management for being a party animal

Similarly Key had a ruck with the management at World 20-20 time. Probalby our most secure number 3, technically solid....unlikely to get a look in again


Much the same as someone falling out with Capello, or Martin Johnson...if your face doesn't fit or you blot your copybook its pretty hard to get back.

Unless you are Steve Harmison. Who gets seventeen chances to be forgiven for whatever the management got pissed off with him for last time, and the time before that......

Real travesty that Key doesn't get in this team

[Singheee]

My team for the fifth test would be:

Strauss
Cook
Ramps
Trott
Collingwood
Prior/Foster (dependent on Prior's injury)
Blackwell
Broad/Swann (decision based on pitch)
Anderson
Harmison
Onions

I would like to see davies the worcestershire wicket keeper play, i think hes a real classy player

[Pelham Boy]

Flintoff - would play but when I chose my team it was based on the assumption that he wouldn't play.

Blackwell is arguably the most in-form man in the CC this year. His move to Durham has rejuvenated him plus he's a lefty. In other sports, we pick the players based on form, why not cricket?

Lol @ Blackwell, and Maschrenus for that matter.

The media always say we must pick players in form, so how do you judge a player is form? Because he has plundered a few runs in county cricket? I'm afraid you don't get too many 75 mph long hops in international cricket. It's been said time and time again by many respected players that county cricket simply doesn't prepare players for the teat arena, and it never will in it's current format. When you go from a four day game, to a one day game to a 20/20 game, where is the time for practise and preparation?

Duncan Fletcher took a huge amount of criticism from the media because he wasn't 'media friendly', but the guy was a brilliant coach, and team manager if you like. When he selected Trescothick and Vaughan neither of them were 'in form' in county cricket, if i remember correctly Trescothick was batting at 7 for Somerset at the time, and Vaughan had hardly scored a run for Yorkshire. However Fletcher identified players that had the mentality to improve for the step up to test cricket. Rob Key is also certainly one of those players, until the last two or three weeks he had a poor season for Kent, but that's not important. Key showed a lot of promise in Australia in 2003, but i'm afraid he may have missed the boat , maybe his face doesn't fit now. David Sales is another that has somehow slipped through the net, a remarkable talent that has never played international cricket, partly due to injury, and also due to a lack of self fitness, someone somewhere should have addressed this though.

I was a big fan of Andy Flower as a player, and i was sure he was the right man for the England coach's job, i still am sure he is the right man, but surely he must have had something to do with the length we bowled this morning? Was no one in the England camp actually watching the area's the Aussies bowled on the first day?

You can bet your life that there will calls for mass change for The Oval in the media, but i would be very surprised if this happens, who should go? who should come in? I'm not sure right now. Ramprakash? Highly unlikely imo.

We bounced back from an awful performance at Cardiff, i believe we can do it again.

[mondatoo]

I don't no a great deal about cricket Pelham boy that the difference is huge between int cricket and county cricket.People like bell and bopara are completely unreliable to get you out of the shit bell isn't good enough he was lucky to get his 50 but he definitly shouldn't play for eng imo.Surely the suggestion of a wicketkeeper wasn't to replace prior ? since he's been one of our best players