I think you've hit the nail on the head there. The 1-1 result is respectable enough away to a good side, it's just a shame we saved our limpest performance until last.

Steyn isn't number 1 in the rankings for nothing and Morkel is a fearsome proposition. I saw him in a T20 match on an outground a couple of years back (Kent v Surrey at Beckenham) when I knew nothing about him. He took 1/12 in four overs and bowled as fast as anything I've ever seen, which allied to amazing accuracy and his height (around 6'6" at a guess) made him almost unplayable. I swear Geraint Jones was standing closer to the boundary rope than the stumps and on two occasions Surrey pinched a bye to a delivery that went straight into the keeper's gloves without him having to dive.

England no longer seem to have any bowler who can unsettle batsmen through sheer sustained speed, as Flintoff and the admittedly erratic Harmison could. Saj Mahmood looks pretty quick but doesn't seem to have the accuracy or consistency and really ought to have matured further by now; Steve Finn at Middlesex is a prospect, as is Stuart Meaker at Surrey, who is also a good number 8 batsman and outstanding fielder, but he's a at least one full season of county cricket away from being ready for Test cricket.

Ajmal Shazhad. You forgot Ajmal Shazhad.

Agree with a lot of what has been said here

- Ashes win
- drawn series in SA

you'd have taken that this time last year - part of me feels we've been lucky, part of me feels we 'toughed it out' and got results, top six still need to up the consistency and yes we do lack a killer bowler.

All in all though, the mentality seems to be improving, KP will be back, and the eventual emergence of Swann has been a huge bonus.

Very quiet and non-committal over whether Strauss is going to Bangladesh leads me to believe he wont be going...I think, as captain, he has to go. The only 2 players who I'd "rest" would be Collingwood and Anderson as they have been excellent and both have niggling little injuries.

Part of me thinks we should try the likes of Carberry, Denly, Moore, Sayers for the Bangladesh tour as they surely cant do any worse than this shower...the other part of me thinks we should pick this lot as a kind of penance for their inept performances!!

I didn't forget Shahzad, I just didn't place him in the 90mph+ bracket. He's certainly a Test prospect from what I've seen of him, but more similar to the likes of Anderson & Onions in terms of pace in my estimation. Maybe he's quicker than I thought. I saw him in the Yorks game at Basingstoke in August and was very impressed, although that was a slowish pitch where both batsmen & bowlers had to earn their rewards through hard work and shrewdness.


We can't pick a second XI - I reckon we can only really afford to rest three or so members of our regular XI, which let's not forget has lost just two of its last 15 Tests, mostly against Australia & South Africa. I reckon Strauss & Anderson are possibly those most likely to benefit from a rest. maybe Collingwood too, who has the least to prove right now. Swann would probably benefit from a Test tour of the Subcontinent, maybe Broad too. Ideally we probably want two spinners; Rashid's patient, wristy, technically sound bating style ought to be well suited out there so get him in at seven without him having the pressure of being the sole spinner expected to destroy teams single handed when conditions are spin friendly. Pietersen needs this tour to play himself back into form after his long lay off before the SA tour, and I still feel he really ought to bat at three being our most talented and destructive batsman. I wonder whether Trott might make a good opener as he seemed a pretty cool customer until falling apart in the last two Tests. He's still inexperienced at the highest level and hasn't yet played against an Asian team in Tests. Rest Strauss & collingwood, move the rest of the middle order up a place, maybe give Carberry a go at five and Rashid at seven and Plunkett (a decent number 8 or 9 batsman) instead of Anderson and see what our options look like with a five man bowling attack.

Another major weakness which seems to plague England is our lack of a top order batsman who can bowl a bit, maybe 15 overs in an innings and chip in with a wicket. JP Duminy took eight wickets in the series just ended for not much more than 20 apiece, while Simon Katich just took three wickets in an innings for Australia against Pakistan. There are many others such as Chris Gayle, Sanath Jayasuriya and Michael Clarke. If you're only going to field four front line bowlers you need one or two of these "batting all-rounders" to back them up. Even the greatest teams of recent decades had the likes of Viv Richards and Steve Waugh to bowl ten or fifteen competent overs where necessary and break a partnership. We never seem to trust our part time bowlers with enough overs to make an impact like this. Some like Vaughan & Butcher were inhibited by injuries, but others like Collingwood, Bell, Pietersen and Hick have just never been fully utilised or trusted.

Disappointing result but overall a drawn Test series in SA and a winning the OD series has to be regarded as a success.

No Strauss or Anderson for the Bangers which in Strauss case is a disgrace really. He's got 4 weeks off before the tour and won't be playing in any T20 comps after the tour so I don't see why he's not going. He's basically going to be off bar the odd game for Middlesex now for over 5 months which i just can't get! Batting can't be that physically draining



Carberry, Tredwell and Shazad in the squad with Cook captain.

Is Shazad any good? heard he's an allrounder but thats about it.

We need an allrounder capable of batting at 7. There is no way looking at Broad scratch about he'll ever be good enough for that position imo and Swann isn't a 7 either because he only plays well when he has abit of freedom.

I'd have had Bresnan in the squad and looked at playing him at 7.

Squads for Bangladesh...

Test squad: A Cook (captain), I Bell, S Broad, M Carberry, P Collingwood, S Davies (wkt), G Onions, K Pietersen, L Plunkett, M Prior (wkt), A Shahzad, R Sidebottom, G Swann, J Tredwell, J Trott, L Wright.

One-day squad: A Cook (captain), T Bresnan, S Broad, P Collingwood, J Denly, E Morgan, M Prior (wkt), K Pietersen, L Plunkett, R Sidebottom, A Shahzad, G Swann, J Tredwell, J Trott, L Wright.

Only 2 spinners in the squad is a big surprise to me and no Rashid doesnt make sense. Flower has already said we'll be playing 2 spinners so to only pick 2 in the whole squad doesnt seem to make sense.

Shahzad is a big call but his batting abilities have probably swung it in his favour ahead of the likes of Woakes or Finn.

Seems odd that Rashid is not going? Strauss should have gone, he is hardly flowing with runs is he!

Rashid needs to be put back in county cricket for a full season, along with other fringe players. Geoffrey Boycott called it 'the best finishing school in the world' and, after a few years of treading water, it is a serious competition again. It's no good having Rashid etc. bumming around playing 2-bit tour games against some sheep shearers. They need to be playing good, hard, competitive cricket.

I can't believe Strauss isn't going! Surely he doesn't need a 5 month break from batting

No wonder they're mentally weak at times with the bat when they're being offered rests like this. I'd imagine most cricketers worth their salt would want to go and fill their boots with big runs in Bangladesh after having 2 tough series recently.

I'd have taken 3 spinners aswell if they're going to play 2 but looking at the county stats you can't blame them for taking Tredwell. If they were looking at taking 3 maybe they should have taken Rashid but then if he just went and carried the drinks again everybody would just talk about that and it could damage his confidence. Maybe they could have given Monty a chance to get some confidence back but then i'd guess the Bangers will play spin pretty well and if he's low on confidence getting whacked about the place by Bangladesh won't do him any good.

Rashid just hasnt played enough cricket. He bowls plenty of overs during July & August and that's it for the year. He's then expected to bowl in a competitive 20/20 international a couple of months later with hardly any overs under his belt.

His selection as team waiter for the last two international tours has set him back years. It would be a mistake to take him to Bangladesh as, if selected, he would be making his debut without being in any sort of form with either bat or ball.

He needs 3 or 4 months of regular cricket before playing for England. Otherwise there is a real danger that a major talent will be ruined.

That's a fair call. I just don't see why they took him to SA then? They might aswell given him the winter off and allowed him to play elsewhere.

Quote ="PAUL M"That's a fair call. I just don't see why they took him to SA then? They might aswell given him the winter off and allowed him to play elsewhere.'" I could see the logic of taking him to the Windies to give him experience of being with the squad. I just dont understand why it was repeated in SA. He was never a serious option to play. He needs to be bowling regularly prior to playing in a test and in this day and age there aren't enough games between the tests. His debut for England, if it comes (and it really should) should be in late summer in England after bowling a string of 20+ a day overs for Yorks. Have to say I agree with Moxon's view, although I dont think Yorks have handled his development that brilliantly www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 19,00.html

Quote ="PAUL M"That's a fair call. I just don't see why they took him to SA then? They might aswell given him the winter off and allowed him to play elsewhere.'" I could see the logic of taking him to the Windies to give him experience of being with the squad. I just dont understand why it was repeated in SA. He was never a serious option to play. He needs to be bowling regularly prior to playing in a test and in this day and age there aren't enough games between the tests. His debut for England, if it comes (and it really should) should be in late summer in England after bowling a string of 20+ a day overs for Yorks. Have to say I agree with Moxon's view, although I dont think Yorks have handled his development that brilliantly www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 19,00.html

It's nice to provide some continuity for England's squad through the winter.

They've had one promising Yorkshire cricketer waste three months of his life carrying drinks around in South Africa, so they may as well have another one doing the same in Bangladesh.

If the reason for not taking Rashid to Bangladesh is because he hasn't bowled enough, how much bowling has Tredwell done in the last 2-3 months? It's a horsesh*t excuse IMO.

As for the captain deciding he can't be bothered (that's effectively what it is, don't swallow the BS coming out of Geoff Miller about him being "rested"icon_wink.gif he can count himself lucky that there isn't another strong captaincy candidate around or I would have taken it off him. It should be the biggest honour for any English cricketer, and to opt out of doing it because you don't fancy a trip to the sub-continent is a disgrace.

I can honestly see England being lucky not to lose in Bangladesh if the ECB are basically allowing players to pick and choose whether they can be bothered. It just sets a completely negative tone for the whole trip from the kick-off, and anyone who has watched Bangladesh against India this week will see they're not a bad side by any stretch of the imagination.

Agree 100%...what Im wondering is A) how much authority Cook is going to have when everyone knows he's just a stand-in, and B) if Strauss is "fatigued" and needs a rest, then why arent other players who've played in all the same tests he has??

If you're not taking Rashid to Bangladesh, then it's time to admit that you'll never pick him for a Test match and stop all the fannying about right now.

Can you imagine Ponting or Smith not going on tour with 'their' side? It's beyond belief and as for Cook taking over the captaincy I don't get that either. He's been struggling with his form for a year and looked like in South Africa he was just getting back to near his best. He's now got that much on his plate outside of batting that I can see him going back into a slump.

I'd have asked Collingwood to do it and believe he would have thrived on it in the way that Ponting and Smith do.

I believe that both Smith and Ponting has both been rested for a series in the last 12/18 months.

Bit too Northern for the job old chap, look what happened when they made that Flintoff fella captain.

Ponting and Smith were only rested for ODIs werent they??

For test series?

Fair do's if they were but I don't remember it. I know the Aussies gave Ponting a couple of weeks off at the end of the Ashes whilst the one dayers were on but I couldn't see him sitting out test matches.

Strauss has 5 months off now from England duty which is laughable for a guy that doesn't play international t20 or in the IPL. It annoys me when the batsmen don't play much county cricket because there is surely no better way of them getting into nick but to now be rested for test matches whoever the opposition is a step too far imo.

As for Cook again being selected in the one day squad

From what I know yeah.

I really don't see the issue with Andrew Strauss being given 'a rest'

Teams in other sports rest their star/busiest players when they see fit against weaker opposition, so what is the problem. I admit he has not batted particularly well recently and could do with the time in the middle but I would rather see younger players given a run out in a series such as this. Which makes the absence of Adil Rashid a total mystery to me!! How is he ever going to develop if they just take him to carry drinks in the major series' and don't even bother in the lesser series'. The 'not having bowled enough' excuse is just $h1te. He hasn't bowled enough because the England management have not let him bowl

The problem with him having a rest for me is the lengh of it! He'd have a good 4 week break even if he had been picked in the squad and even longer if they'd just selected him for the test squad only.

It doesn't send a good message out to the rest of the squad imo when the skipper is missing the trip because 'it's only bangladesh'. They aren't a bad side and are improving all the time and we could be in for a shock if the players are just treating it as a 2nd string tour.