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This was England’s 500th one-day international. It was Yuvraj Singh’s 219th. Yuvraj is 26.
Once again Yuvraj hit a hundred. This time, he also took four wickets.
We’re not sure it would make a huge amount of difference, but we’re inclined to agree with everyone else in the entire world about England’s team selection.
There seems to be an attitude of ‘this is our best team and that’s the end of it’. We agree with that mentality to an extent, but there should be an acknowledgement that playing one-day cricket in England isn’t the same as playing one-day cricket in India.
Specifically, if pitches are conducive to spin, surely it makes most sense to employ your best spinners. That would be Monty Panesar, but he’s not in the squad, so Graeme Swann’s the next best.
England have a funny attitude to the art of spin bowling. They’d never dream of leaving out their best pace bowlers, no matter what the pitch. If there’s a hierarchy of roles in the England camp then spin bowlers are at the bottom. Just beneath the guy who pre-warms KP’s jockstrap.
i think eng need to seriously re think their batting line up as well as their opening combo.
whats wrong with cook ? he played well last time out in ind. he is a good player of spin.
bell and prior are just not working out. kp needs to realise this and make some serious changes to the team.
id have cook opening with bell at 3.
I remember once reading in an interview with one of the ex-ECB heads on the same debate many years ago.
And his logic was on the lines of England picking their best bowlers in the country for a tour. So if the top 5 bowlers are all pace in the domestic circuit, then so be it.
It sounded logically illogical then… maybe it is their way to simplify their selection headaches. And nothing has changed since then.
Maybe it is the British thing, when they like something, they just stick to it no matter what, not bothering to check if anything better is available time to time. Maybe you can add more light here.
Cheers
Can that KP jockstrap fellow “give it some rip” with both ball and bat on a turning pitch? If so, why don’t we play him in the Yuvraj Singh role?
Jockstrap boy is clearly Harmison in case you’re not aware of their “special” relationship.
I would like to think, at the risk of actually going in favour of exactly what KC is whining about, that cook should always be selected regardless in order to really try and build a genuine;y great batsman, an England hero for many years.
It’s a sad state of affairs when even the Saffers’ first-choice spinner is better than ours.
I believe Swann refused the jock-strap role, this is why he’s been overlooked.
Or England could wait for another 25 years by which time Adil Rashid will be eligible at 40 to play for England going by past history.
Horatius, at that point Adil will stop being ‘too young’ and overnight he will become ‘too old’.
And where the frock is Dangeranus?