England squads for NZ...ooh controversial

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/current/story/598330.html

KP to be given more time off to look after his ego. I kinda wish KPF was still around to dissect this one, wasnt this the tour that was the bone of contention in the first round of this summers KP vs the world saga?


Root to captain the Lions, as obviously performing above and beyond the call of duty for the senior side means he isnt good enough for now.
Balance in the Lions too which I guess answers the Zimbabwe question.

Worryingly little change to the T20 sqaud, yeah they got a result but looks like Patel gets a free pass despite continued failure. Indeed it seems odd to name the ODi squad before the current set of matches has even been played.

Twenty20 squad: Stuart Broad (capt), Jonny Bairstow, Tim Bresnan, Danny Briggs, Jos Buttler, Jade Dernbach, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Michael Lumb, Stuart Meaker, Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, James Tredwell, Luke Wright.

ODI squad: Alastair Cook (capt), James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Ian Bell, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Jos Buttler, Steven Finn, Craig Kieswetter, Eoin Morgan, Samit Patel, Graeme Swann, James Tredwell, Jonathan Trott.

Lions squad: Joe Root, Gary Balance, Scott Borthwick, Danny Briggs, Varun Chopra, Matthew Coles, Ben Foakes, Alex Hales, James Harris, Simon Kerrigan, Toby Roland-Jones, Ben Stokes, James Taylor, Reece Topley, Chris Wright

Wasn't the KP issue with the NZ in England series, which clashes with the IPL? And he's simply being rested, like Anderson, Trott and Swann are being rested for the India ODIs.

I'd assume Root will be in the test squad, so I think him captaining the Lions is a fair decision, as I don't think that scoring Test runs means you should be called up to the ODI and t20 squads.

Regarding Patel, he probably should have scored more runs, but it's only 3 games a go that he scored 67 against Sri Lanka, so I don't think it's fair to say he's been given a free pass despite continued failure. And in the same amount of innings, he's actually scored more runs and scored them at a higher s/r than Bairstow has.

For me, Bairstow's the lucky one, as he hasn't scored many one day or t20 runs for England or Yorkshire...

Do they just pick the Lions captaincy out of a hat?

As for the actual squads, nothing that shocking bar the omission of KP. If he is going to play in some IPL then it makes sense to manage his workload anyway, so I'm not overly fussed that he's been left out.

Nice to see Jos Buttler in the ODI squad, which is clearly his best format at the moment and hopefully he can get a decent go there.

Agree it seems strange to name the ODI squad now, I would have liked to have seen the ODI team in action against India first and reward those who played well with the New Zealand trip.

Particularly interested to see Kieswetter in there again as I find him extremely frustrating at times, but he has real competition for the gloves now from Bairstow and Butler.