There may be troubles ahead: England selection issues.

[m@tt]

Westley will surely be in the Lions squad.

Yep, knew I'd miss someone - maybe ahead of Malan if the focus is 4-5 day cricket. Browne possibly too, but is there room?

[backfootpunch]

4 spinners in the squad suggests three are likely in the XI. Anyone else think Anderson and/or Broad will be rested in Bangladesh considering the 5 tests in India ahead and the no. of bowling options in the squad?

Jimmy and broad don't play white ball cricket so will have had plenty of rest

I don't think we can afford to rest them Bangladesh aren't push overs anymore

[Arthur Crabtree]

Can't see them taking anyone to BD except to play, given the security debate.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I expect Hidreth won't go, but there are a lot of openers doing well and not so many middle order bats. I might have had Clarke, but overwhelmingly picked from CC1 (so left out Westley too).

Not sure Borthwick will be picked.

Was going to include a Curran and an Overton on the bench, but didn't fancy looking up which ones.

[Arthur Crabtree]

4 spinners in the squad suggests three are likely in the XI. Anyone else think Anderson and/or Broad will be rested in Bangladesh considering the 5 tests in India ahead and the no. of bowling options in the squad?

They want to give themselves options, especially with a much longer tour in India immediately following the series.

It's an interesting question though - if they do play 3 spinners, who drops out? Do England make a difficult decision over a seamer, or do they do the easier option and drop Ballance?

01 Cook 02 Hameed 03 Root 04 Bairstow 05 Stokes 06 Ali 07 Woakes 08 Rashid 09 Batty 10 Broad 11 Anderson

Still bats to 9, but just 3 specialist batsmen.

If they have three spinners, they have to have two pace bowlers. You can't really justify both.

[backfootpunch]

I think I'd pick Duckett

Cashing in against the Bangladesh and Indian seamers may be very important

We don't want to be under pressure to score before the spinners are even on

[Arthur Crabtree]

Spinners will open the bowling. Certainly in the second innings.

[Making_Splinters]

It's a tad worrying to see the hype train picking up speed around Hameed with both the press and himself drawing comparisons between the young man and Boycott. As much as I dislike the Yorkshire man I will concede he was one of the better Test openers England have had in the modern era, Hameed on the other hand has barely played a full season of first class cricket. Have we learned nothing from the unrealistic expectations forced upon all rounders over the last 30 years? I wouldn't be so worried if it was the just the press but the player himself making comparisions is too much even for an excited teenager.

[sussexpob]

Been out of the loop on a week off, but this squad annoucement has to be the most underwhelming I can remember when supporting England. Even in the mid 90's when we were terrible, you got the feeling that one of those new guys they kept picking might come good, but I really cant fathom the understanding shown in the selection of this squad.

Ansari is going as the spinner allrounder, but he has hardly bowled for Surrey this year, and his batting is in the mid 20s averages. Assuming he can even replicate that batting form in tests, it doesnt justify his bowling that seems to be at best a second county part-time option that never bowls. Do England seriously think Ansari can be a viable front line bowling option? Where does he fit in the 11 if he plays? His batting is not good enough to be a county top 6 er despite most of his innigs being in Div 2, and you sacrifice a bowler or batter to put him in as a bits and pieces player?

That leads me to Gareth Batty. Why? He has taken 5 wickets in his last 5 FC games, he is 38, he was utterly rubbish before.... need I go on? Are back to the "if we dont know what to do, select someone from Surrey" era again? It makes me judder to think that Batty will be required to lead the attack for 40 overs on a slow turner against India. I believe Batty's experience in Tests came largely against a very poor early 2000s BD team, one that had nothing in the batting department, yet he still looked as threatening as your average hollywood horror movie.

Hameed is very young. Needed another year to prove form, I hazard a guess playing in India on pitches that are increasingly being bunsens for spinners might wreck his prospects for the future. Jos Buttler back despite not playing any longer formats hardly.... Ballance retained. Rashid back in.... the only selection that I like is Duckett, but even he is unproven and a risk.

Dead pitch, no pace, no bounce..... England throwing the ball to Mo Ali/Rashid and Batty all day.... I can see India's middle order scoring big

[Dr Cricket]

Looks like ECB have rebranded the winter performance squad to International Pathway programme.
Still looks like ECB are struggling for fixtures though no proper real games till Feb and march and all they are doing are having camps and training in 4 countries and playing games against UAE and Afghanistan.

Lions (for training camps at Sandhurst, Loughborough, Dubai): Nick Gubbins (Middlesex), Keaton Jennings (Durham), Tom Alsop (Hampshire), Daniel Bell-Drummond (Kent), Tom Westley (Essex), Joe Clarke (Worcestershire), Liam Livingstone (Lancashire), Ben Foakes (Surrey), Liam Dawson (Hampshire), Ollie Rayner (Middlesex), Jack Leach (Somerset), Sam Curran (Surrey), Tom Curran (Surrey), Toby Roland-Jones (Middlesex), Jake Ball (Nottinghamshire), James Fuller (Middlesex), Craig Overton (Somerset), Stuart Meaker (Surrey).

*Tom Helm (Middlesex), Matt Parkinson (Lancashire) and Josh Poysden (Warwickshire) have been invited to join the Lions camp in Dubai.

Young Lions (for training camps in Loughborough): Max Holden (Middlesex), Harry Brook (Yorkshire), George Bartlett (Somerset), Josh Dell (Worcestershire), Tom Banton (Somerset), Ben Green (Somerset), Ollie Pope (Surrey), Delray Rawlins (Sussex), Amar Virdi (Surrey), Josh Coughlin (Durham), Will Jacks (Surrey), Euan Woods (Surrey), Liam Banks (Warwickshire), Aaron Beard (Essex), George Panayi (Warwickshire), Jack Blatherwick (Nottinghamshire), George Scrimshaw (Worcestershire).

Pace Programme (to train at counties / Loughborough and Potchefstroom): Paul Coughlin (Durham), George Garton (Sussex), Tom Helm (Middlesex), Saqib Mahmood (Lancashire), Matt Taylor (Gloucestershire).

*Reece Topley (Hampshire) and Jamie Overton (Somerset) may also join the Pace Programme in Potchefstroom as part of their return from injury.

Overseas Placements: Matthew Carter (Nottinghamshire) and Rob Sayer (Leicestershire) - Wellington; Mason Crane (Hampshire) and Matt Critchley (Derbyshire) - Sydney; Dominic Bess (Somerset) - Adelaide; Tom Abell (Somerset), Aneurin Donald (Glamorgan), Dan Lawrence (Essex) and Tom Moores (Nottinghamshire) - Perth.


Does explain why they named 17 for bangladesh and india since most of the players would be in dubai or south Africa or somewhere not close to india or bangladesh.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/con ... um=twitter

[sussexpob]

Selected Downton and Flowers name for it.....

This seems ridiculous that so many people are involved at some level. With so many camps and people involved, I cant see how the England setup has managed to do anything but dilute the standard of coaching available. I cant see how going to one of these programmes does anything but blur the message of the county setups they work for.

[Dr Cricket]

lot of it looks like a waste of money.

[Alviro Patterson]

Winter training at an indoor cricket centre, or winter training outdoors in a different country? I know which one I would rather take part in.

[Arthur Crabtree]

With fifty players named, maybe more notable who isn't there.

[sussexpob]

50 players sounds like anumber used to justify a job