Australia in England - 2009 Ashes Tour

[Mars Maximus]

Sad that. The home of cricket should always have the best pitch, well the best everything cricket related..

 

[Leicester Fox]

It's pathetic, the ECB are so obsessed with money that when they aren't associating themselves with criminals and refusing to accept responsibility they will ensure that we get awful pitches so that they can sell 5 days worth of tickets.

 

[Themer]

It's pathetic, the ECB are so obsessed with money that when they aren't associating themselves with criminals

I wouldn't call Australians criminals anymore that was donkeys of years ago

Looking forward to this series. Have no idea how England are gonna go could be awful could be great.

 

[King Pietersen]

England starting to look good coming into the Ashes, well the batting is anyway. We've got alot of class batsmen hunting for the 5 places, with Strauss and Pietersen being the 2 real assured members of the top 5. Then battling for the other 3 places are:

Alastair Cook
Owais Shah
Ravi Bopara
Paul Collingwood
Ian Bell
Michael Vaughan
Joe Denly
Robert Key

There's alot of competition for places, and that can only be a good thing. I'd like to see Pietersen moved up to 3, with Bopara at 4, Collingwood at 5, Prior at 6 and Flintoff at 7. Think that's our strongest line-up. Then we've also got abit of competition for the 4th bowling position, with Anderson, Broad and Swann looking shoe-ins for the First Ashes Test, plus Jones, Amjad, Sidebottom, Harmison, Rashid, Tremlett, Bresnan, Kabir Ali all hunting for that 1 place. I'd go for Jones personally if fit, if not I'd go with either Amjad or Tremlett. I'm amazed that Tremlett's just been discarded, he's got a decent Test record, averaging under 30, with 13 wickets in 3 Tests. Definitely the next Harmison, and a bowler capable of getting some good bounce. He's been seriously unlucky.

 

[Leicester Fox]

How is Collingwood not assured of his place?

Denly would get majorly shown up by the Aussies. I would rather see Bell in the team and that's saying something.

Plus you ignored a bowler better than all those you mentioned, Hoggard.

 

[Themer]

I don't think Denly and Key have much of a chance now. They've done poorly on the current England B series so they might rule themselves out.

The batting in my eyes is just Shah vs Bopara atm, the rest pick themselves. Which is very difficult to say the least, Bopara may edge it with his century in the last innings but Im not sure.

Bowling I'd go with Anderson, Broad, Swann and who ever is the bowling the best out of Sidebottom, Jones, Tremlett and Hoggard.

 

[Dr. Pepper]

I hope that Horton would be in the mix for a place.

 

[Themer]

Don't see Horton being able to do enough in the short time to get himself a place. Especially with Bopara, Shah, Vaughan and Bell on the outskirts of the team as it stands.

 

[King Pietersen]

How is Collingwood not assured of his place?

Denly would get majorly shown up by the Aussies. I would rather see Bell in the team and that's saying something.

Plus you ignored a bowler better than all those you mentioned, Hoggard.

Yeh I suppose Collingwood is assured of his place, and I put him in my team anyway, so meh.

Reason I didn't include Hoggard is because I don't think he's good enough anymore. He may be taking wickets in FC cricket, but I don't think he's got enough nip and pace anymore. He'd just be the same as Sidebottom, but a right-armer. Sidebottom doesn't look effective because of his pace, and Hoggard's pace is almost identical. The reason Hoggard was so effective in his prime was because alongside the swing he had the nip off the pitch, and seemed to rush the batsmen, he doesn't have that nip anymore. So for me, it's time to move on, and for the balance of the bowling attack I'd like to see someone with geniune pace and bounce, which is what Jones (pace) and Tremlett (pace and bounce) offer.

My Team'd be:
Strauss (C)
Cook
Pietersen
Bopara
Collingwood
Prior (WK)
Flintoff
Broad
Swann
Jones/Tremlett/Amjad (depending on Jones' fitness)
Anderson

 

[Themer]

Reason I didn't include Hoggard is because I don't think he's good enough anymore. He may be taking wickets in FC cricket, but I don't think he's got enough nip and pace anymore. He'd just be the same as Sidebottom, but a right-armer. Sidebottom doesn't look effective because of his pace, and Hoggard's pace is almost identical. The reason Hoggard was so effective in his prime was because alongside the swing he had the nip off the pitch, and seemed to rush the batsmen, he doesn't have that nip anymore.

Hoggard bowled around 82MPH, he was so effective because he bowled accurately and with the new ball swung the new ball. He still bowls at around that pace so I don't really agree with you there. Sidebottom's main problem has been his line not his pace. Hes bowled wide of offstump continously, if that had been Hoggard he'd have it on offstump nearly every ball.

 

[RoboRocks]

Hes bowled wide of offstump continously, if that had been Hoggard he'd have it on offstump nearly every ball.

I agree. He's wasted the new ball when there was swing available for him. Sidebottom has done that for a while now.

I would look at Amjad and Rashid in the next test against the Windies to see what options we have.

Of course Simon Jones would be a major asset since has pace, a skiddy action for variation and can reverse swing the ball. The Australians have continued to struggle against the swinging ball with the likes of Jones, Flintoff in 2005 and Steyn and Zaheer in recent series.

Shah and Bopara is an interesting one. I would go for Shah in the next test and picking 5 bowlers, if he fails then select Bopara for the two match series against the Windies in England and see where we go from there.

My team for the ashes:

Strauss (c)
Cook
Pietersen
Shah/Bopara
Collingwood
Prior (wk)
Flintoff
Broad
Swann
Jones/Sidebottom/Amjad
Anderson

 

[Chimp132]

id like to see ian bell back for the ashes, he woulda got a hundred if theyd stuck with him for the last test match, he got 77 in the warm up game before the last test i think

 

[King Pietersen]

Even I've given up my love for Ian Bell, Ravi's come in with jet lag and scored 2 hundreds. Bell's had enough chances, and although he does have a good record in England (although enhanced by runs against Bangladesh) he simply hasn't done enough to warrant being in the side. It's a simple choice between Bopara and Shah for the final place in the batting line-up, if Freddie gets/stays fit anyway. Belly'll be back, I still believe he's the most talented batsman in England, and once he gets over his psycholigical issues that are obviously haunting him atm he'll be back playing for England. There's no doubting the guy's class, just has to get things right in his head, and get some runs for Warwickshire. He'll be back, just not for The Ashes unless we get massively hit by injuries.

RoboRocks team = win.

 

[Chimp132]

id go for bopara, ian bell should defently be back for the ashes, hes got a really good record v australia hasnt he ? well when he played in aus he batted really well, anyone that bats well against warne should be in the england team haha

 

[Mars Maximus]

Your Ashes preparations?

What I have done, so far, is watch the 2005 Ashes series dvd's, then I watched the Alan Border and Ian Botham 35 years of Ashes Clashes, and now I am in the middle of watching the 06 07 Ashes Glory dvd's. But I shall slow down a bit, and only watch a bit at a time, coz I think I started too early lol. But yea it's great doing all this leading up to the 09 Ashes series. Just adds to the excitement.