There may be troubles ahead: England selection issues.

[andy]

Apparently Jaigar Naik is the best off-spinner in the country

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/26276842

lol that cracked me up when i saw that!!


Ive been campaigning Taylor to get in the side for a long time now, and he has to get in there against sri lanka!!! He is the best young batsman in the country and has scored stacks of runs for years now in county cricket, and fully deserves a long run in the test side! He is also potentially a future captain, has captained many sides on numerous occasions and looks good in the role.

[D/L]

Big runs for Taylor, surely must finally be in line for a recall.

His county record and these runs will make him hard to ignore

Yes, Taylor did little wrong when he first got his chance against South Africa (I think) but seems to have been ignored since. He deserves another chance.

It was very unlikely James Taylor would be in the England squad whilst Kevin Pietersen was about. No way a player with stand out batting figures could possibly be ignored.

"Ignored" in the sense of not being selected, perhaps.

[Alviro Patterson]

Apparently Jaigar Naik is the best off-spinner in the country

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/26276842

lol that cracked me up when i saw that!!


Ive been campaigning Taylor to get in the side for a long time now, and he has to get in there against sri lanka!!! He is the best young batsman in the country and has scored stacks of runs for years now in county cricket, and fully deserves a long run in the test side! He is also potentially a future captain, has captained many sides on numerous occasions and looks good in the role.

Good shout with Taylor's potential captaincy. I'd have Taylor in the ODI squad as well, emulating the position of Jonathan Trott.

Always a funny moment with Jaigar Naik, from bringing a Minidisc player whilst with the England Performance Programme to being declared best off-spinner after Graeme Swann.

[englandmad666]

Have i missed something here, why couldnt JT (you all know that will be his nickname now ) be considered for the squad with KP in it? They have a falling out or something?

[Alviro Patterson]

Have i missed something here, why couldnt JT (you all know that will be his nickname now ) be considered for the squad with KP in it? They have a falling out or something?

Apparently KP made some derogatory comments about James Taylor in front of the dressing room during the South Africa test at Headingley, it was something well documented at the time.

[KipperJohn]

I can't believe England are actually using an A tour in Asia as an judge for selection.

Changed your mind MS?

[Arthur Crabtree]

It was reported that KP said Taylor wasn't good enough to play for England. Though Taylor stated that KP was very helpful to him. I tend to approach leaks from the England camp with an open mind. Certainly Taylor seemed to be getting a lot of encouragement from the former number 4 during their partnership in Leeds. This was the game where Pietersen complained about the fake KP twitter account/etc, so they weren't happy times.

Nice piece about Kevin on the Guardian site, more so for those appreciative of his England career.

[englandmad666]

Missed that one but surely he aint that much of a T** to belittle someone on there debut! Either way change is coming to the england line up and james taylor certainly did himself no harm against some decent bowlers

[D/L]

Missed that one but surely he aint that much of a T** to belittle someone on there debut!...

Well, he's insulted team menbers far senior to Taylor, and admitted doing it.

I'll be surprised if Taylor does not figure at some point in this year's test series.

[andy]

Taylor should be there from the start and given all 7 tests in the summer to prove himself.

[m@tt]

Taylor should be there from the start and given all 7 tests in the summer to prove himself.

Like many, I agree with you. He has done pretty much everything asked of him by the selectors.

However with Whitaker now the head selector, it's likely that Ballance is ahead of him in the queue, rightly or wrongly. Taylor's inclusion then depends on what England do with Root and whether they recall Morgan.

[KipperJohn]

As well as a replacement for KP, the big spot is 3 if Trott doesn't return.

There isn't a better No. 3 on home soil in the country at Test level than Bell, so why just about everybody's team has Bell batting elsewhere is beyond me.

I can only suppose that they are worried about a lack of experience at 4, 5 and 6.Personally I think that has been Flower's achilles heel in not finding or having the confidence in replacements for the likes of Colly, Strauss, Trott and KP.

There should have been rebuilding over time - instead we've hit a brick wall and had to start again.

[Durhamfootman]

I can only suppose that they are worried about a lack of experience at 4, 5 and 6.

It's certainly the reason why I'd be reluctant to have Bell at 3

[Arthur Crabtree]

Bell hasn't done well at three though. Which doesn't mean he won't but it gives room for doubt. I thought his not batting there in the winter was a big fat red herring. Particularly as he didn't have such a good series batting where he was. His form in the past two years is in as much of a slump as everyone else's, which doesn't suggest his success there is inevitable. However, he is our experienced middle order bat, and I'd play him in the prime spot at four and play three openers, 1-3, to protect him from the new ball.

[Making_Splinters]

Something like;

Cook
Root / Robson
Ali
Bell
Taylor
Stokes
Buttler
Bresnan
Broad
Anderson
Onions

Or

Cook
Root / Robson
Ali
Bell
Taylor
Ballance
Stokes
Buttler
Broad
Anderson
Onions

I'm still not convinced that there's no chance of us seeing Trott back at three.