There may be troubles ahead: England selection issues.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Yes, I think that's really likely. More so in early summer.

[englandmad666]

The lions tour of SL has started today, with chopra 58 and out and currently taylor 55* and ali 59* the battle for places has begun in earnest

[Arthur Crabtree]

Cant get on cricinfo, presumably because of the traffic related to the IPL auction. Getting the score from ECB, but it doesn't tell you what the team is.

[D/L]

For the start of the summer, the Test squad will be the least predictable since the nineties. Apart from KP, I think Bresnan may not be included, and I don't think Cook wants Monty in the side. Maybe they'll line up like this:...

There's more chance of Pietersen being included than Bresnan excluded.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Borthwick is playing ahead of Kerrigan. I wonder if that means anything. Maybe everyone will get a game.

Not going so well for the Lions on day 1.

[englandmad666]

Borthwick is playing ahead of Kerrigan. I wonder if that means anything. Maybe everyone will get a game.

Not going so well for the Lions on day 1.

With all due respect to borthwick he is a harp back to a 90s bits and pieces player that left us stagnating for years... If we are to be serious about pushing on as a test team we have to give established bowlers the chance to progress. Kerrigan did have a horrendous debut but should be given time to prove he can do as well for england as he has lancashire

[KipperJohn]

If we really are rebuilding, and around the four players mentioned by MS, then clearly Bell should play at 3 if Trott doesn't return - I haven't ruled the latter out either.
Bell has enormous experience at 3 and I don't think he'll face a bigger challenge to make that position his own and be as effective, in a different way, as Trott. Could be another career defining time, one way or the other.
If Root is the long term view of the selectors to open, then he needs to go back there straightaway.
Whatever early season performances are like, I expect Stokes to continue at 6.
That leaves 4 and 5 up for grabs and there are only a small number of contenders, with Taylor probably the strongest contender.
I expect Prior to reutrn with the gloves and at 7.
Be interesting to see if Onions gets into the team given the 'failures' of Tremlett, Finn and Rankin in Oz.
I haven't a clue about who the spinner will be - there doesn't seem to be any stand-out candidates - although nobody could have predicted that Swann would become such a key player.
If Onions plays alongside Broad and Anderson, plus a spinner and they go for the old 6--4 with Stokes as a 4th seamer, it's difficult to find a place for Bresnan, although he's a strong contender - could be a straight fight between him and Onions, although Woakes is another possibility, particularly with the red ball.
Just a few thoughts - probably miles off the mark:

13 man squad:
Cook
Root
Bell
Taylor
'batter' (Compton/Carberry?)
Stokes
Prior
Borthwick?
Bresnan
Woakes
Broad
Anderson
Onions

PS Given our batting was as bad as it gets in Oz it's difficult to see how it can be strengthened in current circumstances.

[KipperJohn]

Sorry forgot Ballance - Bairstow a bit of an outsider at present?

[Arthur Crabtree]

I reckon Bairstow is out of the picture.

[englandmad666]

As much as i think root is a opener and a england opener he for me looks mentally shot and him and cook need to establish a way to score at a decent rate, one big big problem is when they get bogged down and fail to put pressure on the opposition bowlers. I think unless root scores heavy for yorkshire he maybe dropped for start of the year and i cant see carberry getting back in either... I reckon mooen ali is in with a decent shout, as should gary ballance who has only played the 1 test, not sure about james taylor and i dont think england like the look of him either. Early season runs will be the order of the day, it will be hard for the selectors to ignore an inform batsmen like chopra if he gets a couple of early season tons.

[KipperJohn]

Chopra is a good shout - I refrained from mentioning him in case anybody began to think erroneously that I was a Warwicks supporter, which I'm not - they just happen to have some decent players.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Robson seems to be getting more hype.

[meninblue]

This is the time where players who were not picked will supposedly be talked about as those who would have performed or will perform better than the established test batters. So more names will be put forward, more new lot will be tried, but we have seen England has been riding on success of Bell,Cook,Trott,KP,Prior.Not on the likes of Joe,Morgan,Johnny,Taylor who have done little of note,albeit in less chances as they have got dropped.same has happened with India.Many Indian fans were saying how easily Saurav,VVS,Rahul,Sachin,Sehwag and Gauti were to replace.Same fans who wanted seniors to be dropped are now realizing how cricket is played and are now putting names of new players forward to replace many from this new look Indian team.Suddenly everyone has realized Dhoni does not has an overseas hundred yet.How we are unable to beat even 8th ranked NewZealand in a format which suits our new look players.Same will happen with England. Hope the selectors do their job well.But no, they just dropped KP and see another KP in some young English batsman, like our selectors saw in our young batters. English selectors have to be very judicious especially at this stage.

[Making_Splinters]

This is the time where players who were not picked will supposedly be talked about as those who would have performed or will perform better than the established test batters. So more names will be put forward, more new lot will be tried, but we have seen England has been riding on success of Bell,Cook,Trott,KP,Prior.Not on the likes of Joe,Morgan,Johnny,Taylor who have done little of note,albeit in less chances as they have got dropped.same has happened with India.Many Indian fans were saying how easily Saurav,VVS,Rahul,Sachin,Sehwag and Gauti were to replace.Same fans who wanted seniors to be dropped are now realizing how cricket is played and are now putting names of new players forward to replace many from this new look Indian team.Suddenly everyone has realized Dhoni does not has an overseas hundred yet.How we are unable to beat even 8th ranked NewZealand in a format which suits our new look players.Same will happen with England. Hope the selectors do their job well.But no, they just dropped KP and see another KP in some young English batsman, like our selectors saw in our young batters. English selectors have to be very judicious especially at this stage.

The difference between England and India is that England's senior batters have not been dropped for a consistant lack of form over a series of years.

No matter how many times you bring the point up about the difficulty of replacing India's senior batsmen, you completely ignore the fact that Gambhir, Sehwag and Tendulkar had been contrbuting almost nothing to India's cause for years before they were dropped. The replacements have already done better than that.

In England's case replacing Trott, Swann, Prior and KP is far harder.

[meninblue]

This is the time where players who were not picked will supposedly be talked about as those who would have performed or will perform better than the established test batters. So more names will be put forward, more new lot will be tried, but we have seen England has been riding on success of Bell,Cook,Trott,KP,Prior.Not on the likes of Joe,Morgan,Johnny,Taylor who have done little of note,albeit in less chances as they have got dropped.same has happened with India.Many Indian fans were saying how easily Saurav,VVS,Rahul,Sachin,Sehwag and Gauti were to replace.Same fans who wanted seniors to be dropped are now realizing how cricket is played and are now putting names of new players forward to replace many from this new look Indian team.Suddenly everyone has realized Dhoni does not has an overseas hundred yet.How we are unable to beat even 8th ranked NewZealand in a format which suits our new look players.Same will happen with England. Hope the selectors do their job well.But no, they just dropped KP and see another KP in some young English batsman, like our selectors saw in our young batters. English selectors have to be very judicious especially at this stage.

The difference between England and India is that England's senior batters have not been dropped for a consistant lack of form over a series of years.

No matter how many times you bring the point up about the difficulty of replacing India's senior batsmen, you completely ignore the fact that Gambhir, Sehwag and Tendulkar had been contrbuting almost nothing to India's cause for years before they were dropped. The replacements have already done better than that.

In England's case replacing Trott, Swann, Prior and KP is far harder.

Yes, India has at least Chet and Virat who although are so far not as good as previous players we had in past , they are better quality than Joe,Morgan,Taylor,Ravi and others that England have tried.I mean at least we got couple of international quality new comers who can bat in all conditions.In that regards England are finding tough to even find one new comer for all conditions at test level.Not even a single new comer who is guaranteed selection.