Squad in full: Andrew Strauss (capt), James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Graham Onions, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Graeme Swann.
Do this make you confident for the bigger task ahead at the end of the year?
Squad in full: Andrew Strauss (capt), James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Graham Onions, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Graeme Swann.
Bit surprised as I thought the ECB would take the first chance they got to bring Vaughan back.
Overdue for Bresnan - had a good all-round season last year and has taken wickets at the start of this season.
If the intention is to bat Prior at 6 and Broad at 7 then having Bresnan at 8 would back the middle order up a bit too.
I think Prior's a racing cert to bat at 6, so Bresnan does help bolster the batting, I could even see him batting at 7.
As for the rest - a big test for Ravi having to bat at 3, especially this early in the season when the balls liable to do a bit more, but he deserves his chance. Also pleased that they've gone for Onions over Harmison, which is an easy decision on form, but we all know how that's not been the case over the past few years.
Squad in full: Andrew Strauss (capt), James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Alastair Cook, Graham Onions, Monty Panesar, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior, Graeme Swann.
Do this make you confident for the bigger task ahead at the end of the year?
That makes for a worryingly long tail. Only five specialist batsmen, including one (Bopara) who remains unestablished at Test level. I'm pleased to see Onions called up. He's the best current English fast bowler yet to win a Test cap IMO - Seems to have been rather injury prone in recent years though.
Seeing that selection I'm not especially confident for the bigger series later in the summer, though having said that we picked a relatively young side with a long-ish tail for the victorious 2005 series.
I think Prior's a racing cert to bat at 6, so Bresnan does help bolster the batting, I could even see him batting at 7.
As for the rest - a big test for Ravi having to bat at 3, especially this early in the season when the balls liable to do a bit more, but he deserves his chance. Also pleased that they've gone for Onions over Harmison, which is an easy decision on form, but we all know how that's not been the case over the past few years.
The batting order looks very weak for me. Bopara I don't think will ever be a no.3 and with Prior at 6 it puts way too much pressure on the others. Bresnan and Broad would help to pad out the tail but it still looks weak to me.
I'm surprised at Onions, he was injured a lot last season and he has only played 1/2 games so far this season.
Prior's greatly improved it seems and deserves a decent run at 6. Bopara doesn't strike me as a natural number three but lets give him a chance and see what happens. Owais Shah had his and blew it, the fidgety sod.
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