quote:

It is now officially '2' tests and counting since Fletch was awarded Clown status....

quote:

Rob, this thread is completely pointless you clown.

Surely not????

I'm not sure the clown-o-meter is going 'doolally' but it's getting close

quote:

Originally posted by Rob:
Trying to select a team so far ahead is a bit of a joke, but anyway.....

Strauss
Key/Joyce
Cook
Shah
KP
Bell
Foster
Broad
Trembler
Panesar
Onions/ other random quickie

Based on a few provisos- that Tresco is most unlikely to play again, and Vaughan, Jones and FLintoff will have succumbed to their respective injuries. HArmi will imho have retired by that stage.

Cook is an opener - and despite technical frailties exposed by the Aussies, he remains one of the brightest batting talents to emerge in the English game for a long time. I think Varun Chopra might be in with a shout by 2009 as well for a batting place.

Write Freddie off at your peril.

I think Stephen Davies will have established a regular place by 2009.

As for the extra quick bowler, I would not write off Anderson or Mahmood, but would also add Footitt

quote:

Originally posted by B@sil:

quote:

Originally posted by Rob:
Trying to select a team so far ahead is a bit of a joke, but anyway.....

Strauss
Key/Joyce
Cook
Shah
KP
Bell
Foster
Broad
Trembler
Panesar
Onions/ other random quickie

Based on a few provisos- that Tresco is most unlikely to play again, and Vaughan, Jones and FLintoff will have succumbed to their respective injuries. HArmi will imho have retired by that stage.

Cook is an opener - and despite technical frailties exposed by the Aussies, he remains one of the brightest batting talents to emerge in the English game for a long time. I think Varun Chopra might be in with a shout by 2009 as well for a batting place.

Write Freddie off at your peril.

I think Stephen Davies will have established a regular place by 2009.

As for the extra quick bowler, I would not write off Anderson or Mahmood, but would also add Footitt

Cook should go back to Essex and tidy up his game. He'll be a good player one day.

Strauss (c)
Key **
Shah
Pietersen
Joyce
Davies or Prior +
Flintoff
Rashid
Tremlett
Harmison ***
Jones ****

** I've been toying with the idea that Scott Newman might turn out to be a 'surprise' star in that opening slot, but the more I've thought about it, and the more Christmas booze I've slept off, the more I'm coming around to the belief that Super Bobby Key might actually turn out to be a good player.

I remember his double hundred against the West Indies. The first sixty runs were the biggest pile of crap I've ever seen. But from sixty on, he batted like a Rolls Royce and bullied the bowling in a way not witnessed for many a year, before or since.

He then followed it up with an unbeaten 90-odd in a successful run-chase, which was not only classy, but ballsy too. He kept sledging the fast bowlers so they'd bowl him bouncers and tire themselves out. I love that. He seems to relish the fight - I suppose being a lard-ass all your life, you learn how to stick up for yourself.

I think he could be a dark horse. A dark horse who has eaten another dark horse. And some fries.

*** Harmison could go either way after this tour. He actually pulled himself back together pretty well after the horror show of the first two Tests, and I think this series will prove a watershed moment for him. Hitting rock-bottom, as he did, will either be the kick in the jaffers he's needed for a while now to get his act together and make the most of his talent, or it'll be the end of his career. I hope it's not the latter - that'd be a terrible waste.

**** He might be fit. You never know. If he can't even get fit for hypothetical future sides, then he really is top of the crocks.

Cook's not a bad player now you know - 4 test centuries and all that

Yeah, I'll give you that Basil.

But, by the same token, he's looked totally out of his depth on this tour - and desperately poor against the spinning ball in previous series.

Rather he fixed his game up away from the international scene as opposed to learning on the job.

You don't tend to win too many Tests when one of your openers needs stabilisers. And water-wings.

quote:

Originally posted by B@sil:
Cook's not a bad player now you know - 4 test centuries and all that

Aye... and he's still twice the player the Blobster is!

quote:

Originally posted by BGR:
Yeah, I'll give you that Basil.

But, by the same token, he's looked totally out of his depth on this tour - and desperately poor against the spinning ball in previous series.

Rather he fixed his game up away from the international scene as opposed to learning on the job.

You don't tend to win too many Tests when one of your openers needs stabilisers. And water-wings.

He wouldn't be the first left-handed opener who's been made to look ordinary by the Aussies. Graeme Smith anyone?

quote:

Originally posted by B@sil:

quote:

Originally posted by BGR:
Yeah, I'll give you that Basil.

But, by the same token, he's looked totally out of his depth on this tour - and desperately poor against the spinning ball in previous series.

Rather he fixed his game up away from the international scene as opposed to learning on the job.

You don't tend to win too many Tests when one of your openers needs stabilisers. And water-wings.

He wouldn't be the first left-handed opener who's been made to look ordinary by the Aussies. Graeme Smith anyone?

Smith still has time on his side.

quote:

Originally posted by Jonatho Darrow:

quote:

Originally posted by B@sil:

quote:

Originally posted by BGR:
Yeah, I'll give you that Basil.

But, by the same token, he's looked totally out of his depth on this tour - and desperately poor against the spinning ball in previous series.

Rather he fixed his game up away from the international scene as opposed to learning on the job.

You don't tend to win too many Tests when one of your openers needs stabilisers. And water-wings.

He wouldn't be the first left-handed opener who's been made to look ordinary by the Aussies. Graeme Smith anyone?

Smith still has time on his side.

So has Cook - even more so when you consider he must be 4/5 years younger than Smith.

quote:

Originally posted by BGR:
I think he could be a dark horse. A dark horse who has eaten another dark horse. And some fries.

I'm coming around to the idea that it is the balance of personality types in a side that influence how they perform. They lacked aggressors this series - Strauss recognised this, and tried to take on that role with little return; it's a role alien to him.

If Key can bring that to the team, then great - as long as he's sorted his technical deficiencies when driving. S.Jones, Shah and Broad also have it, from what I've seen, as does KP, Vaughan and even Monty(!). Flintoff is to an extent, more in his ability than personality.
They don't need an entire team of them, just enough so that the others (Collingwood, Bell, Strauss, Cook, Harmison, Jimmy, Saj) respond to it. Hoggard is the exception as Mr. Consistant, plugging away regardless of what the others do.

They won the Ashes in 2005 by out-Australianing the Australians, and lost it in 2006 by being all-too-English.

quote:

Originally posted by BGR:
Cook should go back to Essex and tidy up his game. He'll be a good player one day.

That assumes that the bowling in Division 2 will be of sufficient quality to test Cook, and there was an awful lot of dross there last season.