BBN - Top 10 All British Fights For 2009

Yep, he's definitely a major time bottler. Possibly an all-time great bottler. I could well imagine him in the South African team that threw the World Cup down the toilet. Plus he looks like a schoolboy cricketer with his fuzzy hair and freckles.

Get rid of him and Collingwood. And Harmison. Garbage.

 

Didnt realise this was eastsiderounders.com

 

We should have a cricket and football thread in the Brit forum. It's sometimes a hardship to click back and then scroll down and then to click on the lounge.

Bell needs to go to county cricket and get some balls. Perhaps they will always be too small, but he does have the talent and technique

Collingwood is a role reversal with Ian Bell. He has no technique, and looks like he could get out at any possible moment. Yet he's mentally tough and seems to always do just enough to drag out an agonising international career.

I would ditch both and play Shah and another promising batsman (not Vaughan :nut) in their place.

Harmison has to go. Unless every possible factor is in his favour he is useless and mentally fragile. How can you build up a strong mentality with such weak characters as Bell and Harmlesson.

If England were smart they would try to blood young Rashid against the hapless Windies, and produce turning wickets for the Ashes. They would have the pick of 3 decent(ish) spinners and Australia's are terrible. They could have Flintoff and Rashid and Prior as all-rounders, Swann bats a little, and hey presto they have a long batting order and 5 bowlers. I've been watching Hauritz and he would not get me out, I'm certain of that. Instead they will produce mundane wickets to last 5 days and get the £££££££ in.

 

Shah looks strong to me. I remember on his debut, he looked at that **** Singh in the eye and then blasted him over the fence. I don't imagine Bell doing anything like that. This game is 80% mental. Plus Shah has done enough in the one dayers, despite being mistreated.

The point is, with Rashid and Swann they can get a balanced side. They have been talking forever how to get a balance with Flintoff at 6. TFFP has solved the problem and come up with a gameplan to win the Ashes at the same time! With my proposed side they have a proper batsman like Rashid at 8, and Swann at 9. You could even have Broad as one of the two seamers, and have him at 9/10 and increase the depth further.

Australia are strong in the batting yet England are going to play to their strengths and produce flat wickets. I would produce abrasive turners so reverse swing and spin is more of a factor and give themselves a chance to bowl the ****s out. They would have a perfectly balanced attack with maybe Sidebottom and Broad/Anderson with the new ball (left and right armers), then Flintoff's height and speed, then an off-spinner to turn the ball in and the leggie turning it away.

 

Yes Shah is tough. He's saved England from a few embarrasing situations too.

I can see I am converting you to the 2 spinners / 5 bowlers theory.

I'm undecided on Broad/Anderson. I think each have their own merits. I wouldn't really consider Broad's batting because I already have batting down to 9 in my lineup. Broad has height and bounce, and he's more consistent in building up pressure. Anderson on his day is hot and is more likely to bowl a match winning spell, and I've a feeling he's a better reverse swinger so he fits into my gameplan. I remember a spell in Nagpur a few years back. Toss a coin.

Sidebottom is important to the Aussie left handers. I feel like left-handers get an easy ride against England. Think Chanderpaul, Prince, Smith recently never looked like getting out. There is not enough variety without Sidebottom/Swann. All they get fed is right hand over, and then Panesar spinning it in which is easy to deal with. They need Swann and Sidebottom against them.

I'm not converted on Prior either, but he is gonna be picked I would think unless he does something really terrible against the Windies. We should be thankful he can at least bat, unlike Geraint who could not do anything right. I like Davies too in the long-term.

 

You are right about Anderson. It's once a season, as opposed to once every two with Harmlesson. I've just got this instinct that under the right conditions, with an abrasive pitch Anderson might produce that one match winning spell in the series. Considering its likely to be a tight series with draws thats important. Broad is a steady eddy, but he doesn't move the ball enough yet. Either way I'm not that bothered, the advantage of 5 bowlers is you can maybe hide one if he does not perform. We'll see who is in form of the two.

I always was concerned with Flintoff's batting. This is why Prior probably will be picked because he looks like a solid batsman at the crease, not a wicket-keeper thats impersonating a batsman. The length of my order would hopefully compensate for Flintoff's shitty batting, but at the end of the day we have to hope he performs like he did last time on the big stage.

I personally would take a risk on Davis in the Carribean. But thats too bold for the England selectors. I'm trying to keep my team within the bounds of possibility considering how inept they are.

Strauss
Cook
Shah
Pietersen
????? (I'm thinking about this)
Flintoff
Prior
Rashid
Swann
Anderson/Broad (Form dependent)
Sidebottom

That looks like an ashes winning side to me.

 

I'm struggling for a 5 too. I might have to begrudgingly pick Collingwood over Bell due to lack of options. I like Bopara, he's got a lot of talent and character but thats one hell of a pick to leave out experienced players for a guy that had a nightmare in his debut series.

Panesar will be gone. Like you say, Swann did outbowl him, and when you can't do **** but bowl you are in trouble if you do not perform in that discipline. That is Panesar's problem, he has no variation in pace or spin. The only time he's looked dangerous since people figured him out is when he's bowling to right handers with some assitance from the pitch because he gets good drift and then spin away. To lefties he is useless as ****. I remember reading that he's developing a "doosra" and has used it in county cricket, WHERE is it. Go to county cricket and develop your game and learn to take a risk. You can come again, Monty.

I think Hayden will be gone after this series unless he does something in this innings. He may be gone anyway. The Aussies are ruthless.

Jaques
Katich
Ponting
Hussey
Clarke
Symonds
Haddin
Johnson
Lee
Clark
????? - Take a pick. This could be Hauritz, Krejza or an unknown from state cricket. I would say Hauritz is frontrunner right now because he's kept things tight and I think they'll use him in South Africa on the unresponsive pitches there since he's economical. But none of these are giving England any sleepless nights, hence why they should use spin to their advantage.

 

You're going with two spinners on an English wicket? England would never do that. I'm not sure Rashid will be ready for Test cricket in time for the Ashes. When he face burst onto the scene at Yorkshire he was an extremely talented but obviously raw leggie. Since then his batting has improved at a much faster rate than his bowling. His bowling has almost stagnated though there was a bigger imrovment towards the latter end of last season. I still think he needs another season in county cricket before playing Test cricket.

Mark Davies at Durham should be in with a shout. He's a very good seam bowler with an excellent FC bowling average (under 20). Harmison as you've said is shite but I'll bet he picks up some wickets against WI and then he'll be portrayed as this unstoppable, ferocious fast bowler who's going to terrify the Aussies again. Matthew Hoggard was and still is, IMO a MUCH better bowler. Scandalous that he was dropped after a no more than a couple of poor performances whereas the likes of Harmison get chance after chance.