Boyd Rankin has made the touring party for England. Seems like a bit of a weird squad selection all around to me. Nine players picked themselves really (ten if you include Bresnan, who has not been named in the official squad but will tour if fit). In Finn, Tremlett and Rankin they have three very similar back up bowlers: all tall men that get bounce. The logic is understandable given there is more pace and bounce in Aussie pitches, but they seem to me to have got themselves into a bit of a cul-de-sac in their thinking. Ignoring Onions, whose numbers have been sensational in leading Durham to the Championship and who would have given a bit more balance to the party, just seems like the product of overthinking it.
The other big calls are firstly to take Carberry as the spare opener instead of Compton. This is another odd looking decision, and looks a bit spiteful. Compton publicly expressed disappointment when he was left out for the summer Ashes, but not in any real kind of a bad way. You could tell that it pissed Flower off though. Compton went away and kept on banging in the runs for Somerset, but has been ignored in favour of the older Carberry, who has scored far fewer runs in Division Two for Hampshire. He was also fairly dismal in the ODIs. He had a horror in the field against us and didn’t score many runs in that game or the series against the Aussies. The England setup keeps banging on about stuff like character; it reads to an outsider that they only want one type of character, who they can largely control and keep on message. It’s really contributing to my growing dislike of this England team, along with the horrible conservative brand of cricket they play most of the time (admittedly punctuated by spells of brilliance, often at key times). If KP was even marginally less talented than he is, I’d say they’d drop him at the first available opportunity.
Gary Ballance of Yorkshire the other big choice. Have to admit that I don’t know much about him. Only time I’ve seen him play was getting a second ball duck in Malahide. He’s been in the runs for Yorkshire though. Worth noting that he’s another African born player too; he grew up in Zimbabwe.
England squad: Alastair Cook (Essex, capt), Matt Prior (Sussex, vice-captain), James Anderson (Lancashire), Jonny Bairstow, Gary Ballance (both Yorkshire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Michael Carberry (Hampshire), Steven Finn (Middlesex), Monty Panesar (Essex), Kevin Pietersen (Surrey), Boyd Rankin (Warwickshire), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Ben Stokes (Durham), Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire), Chris Tremlett (Surrey), Jonathan Trott (Warwickshire)
:D:clap: