England knee jerk thread.

[SaintPowelly]

Ned Eckersley for the keepers slot

[Arthur Crabtree]

Fair enough. Foakes is probably the most predictable long shot, seeing as he seems to be in every junior squad picked.

[Making_Splinters]

I'm not taking the final two Tests as my last reference point. The team was in complete disarray by Melbourne, and sensible selection had been utterly lost. I'm not going to see Ballance as a continuity selection any more than I am Borthwick, Bairstow and Rankin. Taylor has made an irrefutable case for selection through the accepted channels. In Sydney, the England team had lost its mind.

Ballance is in blistering form, and made the tour unlike Taylor but now is suddenly below him again?

You're sounding awfully like Flower here.

[Durhamfootman]

Brooks is in for the unthreatening Anderson

[ianp1970]

Cook/Carberry/Root/Bell/Taylor/Stokes/Prior/Jordan/Broad/Anderson/Panesar.

Waitrose Lions:
Robson/Chopra/Moeen/Vince/Ballance/Woakes/Buttler/Borthwick/Finn/Kerrigan/Rankin.

How about an old fashioned probables versus possibles trial game?

[hopeforthebest]

Cook/Carberry/Root/Bell/Taylor/Stokes/Prior/Jordan/Broad/Anderson/Panesar.

Waitrose Lions:
Robson/Chopra/Moeen/Vince/Ballance/Woakes/Buttler/Borthwick/Finn/Kerrigan/Rankin.

How about an old fashioned probables versus possibles trial game?

Or Players v Gentlemen. With so many public school players the Gentleman's team will be pretty strong.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I'm not taking the final two Tests as my last reference point. The team was in complete disarray by Melbourne, and sensible selection had been utterly lost. I'm not going to see Ballance as a continuity selection any more than I am Borthwick, Bairstow and Rankin. Taylor has made an irrefutable case for selection through the accepted channels. In Sydney, the England team had lost its mind.

Ballance is in blistering form, and made the tour unlike Taylor but now is suddenly below him again?

You're sounding awfully like Flower here.

It was erratic, have a punt selection that got Ballance on the tour in the first place. He got a cap in Sydney because the tour imploded. His logical place in the set up is behind Taylor.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Brooks is in for the unthreatening Anderson

Brooks is the new Onions who was the new Anderson.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Tom Smith gets Woakes in the head to head for the heritage all rounders role. Stokes shakes his plaster of paris fist at the sky.

[Durhamfootman]

Tom Smith gets Woakes in the head to head for the heritage all rounders role. Stokes shakes his plaster of paris fist at the sky.

he'd probably break his ankle kicking the locker door

[D/L]

Cook/Carberry/Root/Bell/Taylor/Stokes/Prior/Jordan/Broad/Anderson/Panesar.

Waitrose Lions:
Robson/Chopra/Moeen/Vince/Ballance/Woakes/Buttler/Borthwick/Finn/Kerrigan/Rankin.

How about an old fashioned probables versus possibles trial game?

Good idea. I wouldn't see Panesar being in either of those two sides, though.

[hopeforthebest]

Sometime ago I proposed that an England v England Lions game should be in the calendar, perhaps replacing the CC champions v MCC fixture in Dubai.

[SaintPowelly]

Sometime ago I proposed that an England v England Lions game should be in the calendar, perhaps replacing the CC champions v MCC fixture in Dubai.

Or even a county champions vs England Lions fixture at Lords.

[Hampshire]

It would be too embarrassing for them when the lions won though! Maybe two mixed teams would be better .

[Gingerfinch]

Cook has cemented his place for the first test, after another ton.