England Squad in 1st Test VS Tigers

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Bell gets in ahead of Pieterson, nice one, good to see the selectors are finally picking an England side on merit! Lewis will play if Jones isnt fit.

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England squad:

Batsmen: M P Vaughan (Capt), I R Bell, M E Trescothick, A J Strauss, G P Thorpe, A Flintoff

Wicket-keeper: G O Jones

Bowlers: A F Giles, M J Hoggard, S J Harmison, J Lewis, SP Jones

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This is probably going to be the squad for the Ashes, with Big Kev waiting in the wings if Bell doesn't impress, but I strongly doubt it.

 

I see several Englishmen made it into that world squad to play Australia as well. Seems fair given their current form. Only two New Zealanders in the squad, which really seems like two too many, given that the world team is going to play Australia, and we just got monstered by them. I guess Vettori and McCullum's inclusion goes to show that there aren't that many great spinners and 'keepers around at the moment (outside of Australia).

 

Tal should make a separate forum for you guys.

 

He did, but the rest of you butted in with your crazy topics about computer games.

 

Big Kev decided to start to find form, just after the squad was picked!
125 from 111 balls and 80 from 55 in last two innings...

It's a nice problem to have at least .

 

All that matters is performances on the international stage.

Even Shane Warne managed to get a century in county cricket. And Stephen Fleming who couldn't hit a pumpkin in test cricket this year has been smashing runs all over the place on the county scene this season.

 

Someone explain to me what we will gain from warming up to play the best test side in the world, arguably the best test side of all time, by playing the worst one?

Well, that should really 'test' us. Pun intended.

 

Confidence!

But I do see your point, though - Bangladesh shouldn't really be playing test cricket; not yet anyway. It's all just about getting a few centuries and 5-fers under everyone's belts before the Aussies start ripping into us. Well, that and we have to play them at some point, to fulfill ICC regulations.

 

Sri Lanka were that bad when they started out. But seeing as everyone else is playing Bangladesh as well, you need to play them so that your player stats will be comparable to everyone else's.

 

Nice to see Harmy top of the wicket takers table so far this season. He will be the key if we are going to beat Aus.

Our batsmen, on the whole, are playing like a bunch of nobheads though, they need to sort it out.

Playing against Banglabloodydesh before we play, arguably, the best cricket team to ever exist is hardly going to prepare us properly though.

I'm slightly concerned that the ECB is more interested in this going for 5 matches and maximising profits than hoping more that England win...


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game wrapped up in 2 days and half a morning session, by an innings and 261 run margin.

Easy.

These 'matches' really benefit nobody at all. Bangladesh continue to travel thousands of miles round the globe to get completely humiliated and shown to be hopelessly out of their depth.

What do England get from it apart from a slight boost in morale?

Our batsmen are lured into a false sense of security because they make an easy hundred, they suddenly think they are in form. No hundred is a bad hundred but Michael Vaughan's ton was as scratchy a century i've seen by anybody. If he plays like that against the Aussies in the first test, they will get on top of him straight away and will have him for the rest of the series.

Our bowlers aren't getting enough overs under their belts. Jones aside, we bowled poorly in this match. The australians have nothing like the alarming technical flaws that the Bangladeshi's have, once again bowl like that against Hayden, Langer, Ponting, Martyn, Katich, Clarke and Gilchrist and we'll be dead and buried.

[ May 28, 2005, 20:30: Message edited by: Barmy Army ]