Bopara

I don't see why England keep going back to him. He's never been much of a test player, except that purple patch when he scored something like 3 consecutive hundreds. Surely someone like Taylor deserves a chance instead of him. They took a risk with replacing Bopara with Trott and it worked, why not try it again?

I think Jimmy Taylor was very unlucky. He's a serious talent, averages close to 50 in both first class and domestic one day cricket. Bopara seems a poor fielder as well, mind you that might be because of his Indian roots lol.

Hindsight is 20:20

Graeme Swann's Cat wrote:Hindsight is 20:20

When Bopara was announced as Trott's replacement, the overall reaction I saw on blogs/forums/comment sections was very negative, so it's not a case of hindsight at all.

Bopara was unlucky in that in many ways it was a no-win situation. But he had an opportunity to take his chance and, like with the Lions games this year and his numerous ODI and T20I games over the years, he didn't take it.

If he didn't bowl, he probably would have played his last Test today, if not before. As it is, he can bowl and that may still keep him around for a while still.

England have a habit of going back to players so it wouldn't surprise me if he was on the Plane for the Sri Lanka tour.

Hopefully they'll take Taylor, or at least have him for the one-dayers against India. He made a century against Sri Lanka A today, I think it was 106 off 120?

Maybe they picked Bopara because they knew it would only be for one test.
Perhaps they think that, should Taylor be chosen, he will need to be given a decent run in the side.