[url=http://www.espncricinfo.com/england-v-india-2011/content/current/story/523636.htmlEngland's 12 man squad announced[/url no surprises in there, no doubt Yorkshire will have to do without Tim Bresnan in the Roses game while he's carrying the drinks at Lord's.

India are toiling a bit in their warm up at Somerset and seemed to have a very cautious approach to their series in the West Indies - I think if our bowling unit can fire we've got a reasonable chance of winning the series by 2 tests which will take us top of the rankings.

Can't wait for this. This will tell us how good we really are.

Surely it's time Broad was sent back to his County for a period to try and gain some form. Finn would actually be my choice instead of Bresnan, but if the do want the extra batter then surely from this squad, Bresnan must play!

They sent him back to Notts during the one-dayers, and infuriatingly he managed to get some wickets. That should be enough to keep him in the England side, unfortunately.

In every statistical category over the last couple of years at Test level (average, economy, strike rate) he's below Bresnan and Finn, yet seems to be an automatic choice for England fitness permitting.

OBN in full flow, given one of his Dad's contemporaries is England's current chief selector?

In my opinion he shouldnt have been rushed back for the SL tests and left to get form back with Notts at the start of the season. If he was bowling well they could have brought him back in for the ODIs against SL with an eye on bringing him back in for the India series. As with all players it's incredibly hard to get back both form AND fitness at the highest level of their sports. Same thing happened with Pietersen when he was crocked.

I think so, undoubtedly.

Broad has been England cricket's golden boy for a long time, he showed signs in 2009 that he was about to justify the faith and hype, but he'd gone backwards since then IMO.

With regard to this test I think the trio of Anderson, Tremlett and Bresnan gave the seam attack great balance and variety Down Under and deserve the chance to have first crack at the Indians - the fact we have a few options if it doesn't work out is a very good position for us to be in.

I'm assuming if Bresnan gets released back to Yorkshire tomorrow morning they can use him to replace Wardlaw in the Roses game? That's my understanding of the rules anyway...

I don't know to be honest. Would they (Yorkshire) not have had to name him in a 12-man team for the Roses game for that to happen or not? Would be a massive bonus if you could get him playing for the last day or two.

How can someone be replaced in the middle of a game, now that the Roses game is in full swing?

I agree with all of that. I remember being at Colchester for Surrey v Essex on the day Broad skittled the Aussies at The Oval and the crowd cheering every wicket as news came through. He seemed to have cracked it, but now he's beginning to resemble a bowling version of Ramprakash or Hick, except instead of being dropped then recalled on county form he just never gets dropped! I even found myslef agreeing with Kent fans in a conversation at The Oval last week, and that's saying something!


Broad originally lost his place to Tremlett through injury, then when Finn was dropped for Bresnan one match later we seemd to have hit upon the perfect unit, winning the last two Tests by an innings and plenty.

Alright, that was on the other side of the world in different conditions and Bresnan, as well as Anderson briefly, have had spells out injured since, but it just seems like the selectors can't wait to ink Broad's name in on the teamsheet. For what it's worth we clinched the ODI series after he'd been "rested", yet it seems he only has to bowl in the nets after injury or take a couple of county wickets after a loss of form to get back in.


I'm not sure how this works any more, and I think it's a bit of a farce. In an ideal world this round of county matches would start a day after the Test (and finish on the same day) so the England twelfth man could comfortably join his county and the ECB could potentially upset the tourists by summoning a gymnastic whippet from a local second XI to act as substitute fielder for England, but the fixture list is such a mess at the moment we have matches taking place on all sorts of random days of the week.

Personally i feel replacements to the XI should only be allowed if a member of the original XI is summoned as an injury replacement for England, as Jade Dernbach was a few weeks ago. In fact even under those circumstances I'd be inclined to suggest England should just have to pick someone else not already involved in a match.

If someone isn't available when a match starts that's just tough. There was a ridiculous situation a few weeks back when Warwickshire picked William Porterfield and Boyd Rankin for a Championship match in the full knowledge they were required to fly to Ireland for a couple of ODIs (against Pakistan I think?) after day one, and they were still allowed two full replacements.

Agree with all that above, and it's just reminded me of the lightning quick Gary Pratt running out Ponting in 2005! It may have been unethical but it was certainly sweet!

That specific incident wasn't unethical as Pratt was on the field for Simon Jones, who was clearly injured and took no further part in that game or any other for England since. If you're allowed a substitute fielder you might as well pick a good one.

However the practice of substituting fast bowlers with a "specialist" fielder so they can have a rest / ice bath is well dodgy. I think there was a proposal recently to abolish "runners" for injured batsmen - after all, when bowlers are injured you just have to manage with one bowler less. I'm all for that, and I'd go further by not allowing members of the fielding XI to return to the field for the duration of that innings if they've been replaced by a substitute, and not allowing them to bat higher than 7 in their next innings. If someone wants to go off for a breather his team should have to manage with ten men until he returns.

Is the rule still in place that says you are not permitted to bowl until you've been back on the field for the same duration you were off it?

I would imagine so. I'd forgotten about that TBH. I think you were allowed up to ten minutes off the field before that kicked in, or something like that.

Hope golden boy does better with the ball than he has with the bat.

Great knock from Pietersen though, dug in and done the job the team needed from him.

How has this India team got to no1 in test cricket with this bowling line up and fielding prowess? They are hopeless.

We're probably about to find out....

Ok probably not, England's bowlers making some serious inroads here. Dare I mention India need 92 to avoid the follow on?

They're a one dimensional team, completely reliant on their batsman scoring a shedload of runs. They can't bowl or field to save their lives.

Fair play to Stuart Broad, totally proved me wrong with that effort today.

We still need to put some runs on the board though, can't see the Indian batting go so meekly second time around.

If that one dimension is powerful enough to get them to No.1 they're still No.1. I mean, West Indies haven't had a great spinner since Lance Gibbs retired in 1975! (Before their fifteen years of domination without losing a single Test series.)

India have consistently started slowly in overseas Test series in recent years, although their bowling certainly seems to lack strength in depth beyond Zaheer, Ishant and Harbhajan.


I'm glad Broad did well and hope he continues to do so, but that's not to say Bresnan couldn't have done a similar job, and he'd done more to justify a place for this particular series IMO.

Agreed.

Think some people have been too quick to write India off, their bowling attack isn't going to challenge any of the all time greats, but they've got us on the rack a bit here.

Shaping up to be one hell of a last couple of days.

Not doing too shabbily this morning this "one-dimensional" side are they??

We're back in command now (or should be), India have suffered for being left with only 3 front line bowlers available - if they'd had Zaheer to help turn the screw earlier it would have been up for grabs.

Hope we have at least an hour at them tonight.