There may be troubles ahead: England selection issues.

[Durhamfootman]

I had assumed when I saw the names of Vince and Ball that it was a 13 man squad and they were there as drinks carriers/motorway fodder, but it is a 12 man squad, so Vince will be playing and Ball is presumably there to give Finn a chivvy up, now that they no longer have Onions to *modded* around with

[Aidan11]

Ball will only play if one of the quicks get injured.

Other wise it's F.A.B. - Finn, Anderson & Broad.

[Aidan11]

Still puzzled as to how Moeen Ali still gets picked though.

[Durhamfootman]

with Finn keeping Woody's seat warm

[Aidan11]

I'm not convinced Compton should be there either.

[Durhamfootman]

me neither

[westoelad]

He's there because of a lack of competition. No number 3 scored big in the 1st month of the season to challenge, Scott in particular.

[Alviro Patterson]

Still puzzled as to how Moeen Ali still gets picked though.

Probably for his batting, which I don't object if England actually play him in a batsmans position (preferably the top 3). Not portraying to be a frontline bowler, which he clearly is not.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Jamie Overton and Sam Curran are the players not involved in winter tours/12 to face SL, to figure in the 'performance squad'.

[Slipstream]

Well both Vince/Compton and Ball's picks to some degree mock the system that England have explained forms the basis of their selections.

We got told runs early in the season will matter, but Hales has hardly player, Compton hasnt a fifty in 4 games, Vince has a hundred but nothing much else....... but its Robson who missed out with 3 x 100 and the most runs in the league.

A lot is made of the Lions and how England use it to develop players, but Lions performances dont seem to mean jack sh*t in all fairness.

Who was the worst bowler out of the Lions Tour to UAE???? ..... Ball...with his extraordinary 8 per over economy rate
Who was the worst batter on the tour? James Vince, who scored 26 runs in 5 completed innings for an average just over 5.....and at the worst strike, if it matters

Wonder what all the other lads on the tour felt like.

"By the way guys, these two that were rubbish all tour have been decided as the best of you lot"

Very good posting about the Lions.
Westley( 650) has scored more runs that Cook (523). Vince (275).

[hopeforthebest]

I wonder if Plunkett was not considered due to the Yorkshire problem with injured bowlers?

[Arthur Crabtree]

Plunkett's playing with a muscle injury for Yorkshire, and down on his pace.

[sussexpob]

Very good posting about the Lions.
Westley( 650) has scored more runs that Cook (523). Vince (275).

I think, I might be wrong though, that Ball and Vince were also the players who played the most (I think they both started all games, not sure anyone else did). It was clear the management were desperate for them to produce something, possibly because a decision had already been made for them to be the ones to make the step up, and the others had already been disregarded whatever they did. Really encouraging that......

This selection policy has Flower all over it. Id hazard a guess that Bayliss wanted to base selections on form as he has been keen to point out, but somewhere along the line the influence from around him has took over. Flower plays these two as the most prominent members of his Lions team despite failing, then they both get elevated to the next squad even though its inconsistency with the stated policy. It makes me wonder who is really running the show with selections?

Flower was always a guy who made judgement on players that werent based on actual performances. Its probably why he struggled to ever implement and adapt to losing members of his squad he had basically already inherited. I have always hated the "snap" judgement style of selection. Telling Chris Rushworth he didnt have enough pace to be selected and having the press rally around the opinion, but then having the press talk Ball up despite the fact by all accounts he bowls medium pace (although Selvey described it as the brisk side of Fast Medium) and has taken far few wickets at higher run rates than Rushworth. Flower destroyed the relevance of county cricket, I worry that his influence still exists.

After all, what can we say about this squad? It might be the right one, but it certainly ignored county form and ignored performances from the A team.

Not sure this message to guys like Robson is the right one. Id even had picked Robson as an extra man even if I wasnt going to use him, just to say "you did the right things, keep doing them, your in our minds".

At the moment the management are saying to players, dont bother scoring runs in county cricket becasue we dont care...... and dont bother performing for the Lions because we already made our mind up about who we want, based on certain arbitrary requirements?

[westoelad]

Ball will only play if one of the quicks get injured.

Other wise it's F.A.B. - Finn, Anderson & Broad.

So Ball will sit out Notts v Warks starting Sunday then sent home on Thursday. Notts and Warks will be delighted with that.

[Arthur Crabtree]

At least it's only a twelve person squad. Second and third reserves have sat out games in the past.