England's Champions Trophy Provisional squad

England's ICC Champions Trophy provisional 30-man squad:
AN Cook (Essex, capt)
JM Anderson (Lancashire)
JM Bairstow (Yorkshire)
GS Ballance (Yorkshire)
IR Bell (Warwickshire)
RS Bopara (Essex)
TT Bresnan (Yorkshire)
DR Briggs (Hampshire)
SCJ Broad (Nottinghamshire)
JC Buttler (Somerset)
V Chopra (Warwickshire)
R Clarke (Warwickshire)
JW Dernbach (Surrey)
ST Finn (Middlesex)
AD Hales (Nottinghamshire)
JAR Harris (Middlesex)
C Kieswetter (Somerset)
SC Meaker (Surrey)
EJG Morgan (Middlesex)
G Onions (Durham)
SR Patel (Nottinghamshire)
KP Pietersen (Surrey)
JE Root (Yorkshire)
GP Swann (Nottinghamshire)
JWA Taylor (Nottinghamshire)
JC Tredwell (Kent)
IJL Trott (Warwickshire)
CR Woakes (Warwickshire)
CJC Wright (Warwickshire)
LJ Wright (Sussex)

Main headlines from that are the inclusion of Ballance, Wright and Chopra, with the omissions of Prior and Lumb. On a personal note surprised Kieswetter is in there

Main headline is inclusion of JWA Taylor!

Can't see Ballance, Wright or Chopra getting near the 15 man squad to be honest. Kieswetter either, Bairstow will be the back up keeper in the squad although there are still doubts over his ability to keep at international level. Buttler isn't great, but he is better.

No Graham Napier?

Don't think Kieswetter is going to make the final squad. He had his chances, this is just an indication that the door isn't quite closed on him, and I would say fair enough.
Prior, despite his superb test performances, never really took his chances in limited over games, there are issues with his batting method that would let defensive fields to easily restrict him. So long as that is the case, he might find it difficult to replicate his test successes at the limited over level. He hasn't played ODIs for a long time, no point in getting him into the mix at this stage.

msp83 wrote:Don't think Kieswetter is going to make the final squad. He had his chances, this is just an indication that the door isn't quite closed on him, and I would say fair enough.
Prior, despite his superb test performances, never really took his chances in limited over games, there are issues with his batting method that would let defensive fields to easily restrict him. So long as that is the case, he might find it difficult to replicate his test successes at the limited over level. He hasn't played ODIs for a long time, no point in getting him into the mix at this stage.

To be fair on Kieswetter though the area of weakness in his batting (being brought up on the bouncier, harder faster South Africa wickets) is against quality leg spin spin bowling on slower turning tracks which is what the Indians gave him many problems with in the Indian part of the tour during this winter. Anyway I believe that he still has the ability to one day become England's next wicketkeeper batsman at a test and one day level.

Most interesting thing from this squad is the number of Warwicks players - who knew England's coach was a Bear?

I'd have liked Chris Wood and maybe Azeem Rafiq personally. But realistically 30-man squads are pretty pointless. The 15 will be picked from a pool of about 17 players who have been part of the squad for the last year.

gboycottnut wrote:

msp83 wrote:Don't think Kieswetter is going to make the final squad. He had his chances, this is just an indication that the door isn't quite closed on him, and I would say fair enough.
Prior, despite his superb test performances, never really took his chances in limited over games, there are issues with his batting method that would let defensive fields to easily restrict him. So long as that is the case, he might find it difficult to replicate his test successes at the limited over level. He hasn't played ODIs for a long time, no point in getting him into the mix at this stage.

To be fair on Kieswetter though the area of weakness in his batting (being brought up on the bouncier, harder faster South Africa wickets) is against quality leg spin spin bowling on slower turning tracks which is what the Indians gave him many problems with in the Indian part of the tour during this winter. Anyway I believe that he still has the ability to one day become England's next wicketkeeper batsman at a test and one day level.

Cannot see Kieswetter as our test keeper. He's worth preserving with in ODI's though, well IMO.

I'd rather have Prior in there. Ok he hasn't been brilliant to date but neither has anyone else. He's a very good wicketkeeper and a tough character, you'd think there should be a place for him.

Keiswetter I find pretty terrible as he tries to hit every ball for 6 and due to his lack of technique only ever comes off against mediocre bowling.

VTR wrote:I'd rather have Prior in there. Ok he hasn't been brilliant to date but neither has anyone else. He's a very good wicketkeeper and a tough character, you'd think there should be a place for him.

Keiswetter I find pretty terrible as he tries to hit every ball for 6 and due to his lack of technique only ever comes off against mediocre bowling.

A perfect number 7..................well not a bad one.

Exactly. Don't put him in as a pinch hitter or that dubious term finisher. Just get him in the side in a position where he doesn't have to slog.

Then when we are bowling you also have the most reliable bet to take catches and make stumpings

My take on Prior is that:

a/ He has a poor ODI record and so were he picked he would be on trial.
b/ The selectors believe his Test form benefits from the breaks he gets by not playing one-dayers. Were he to play ODIs, he would need regular rests anyway to manage his workload.

I think that is really quite a reasonable position. Prior would not add enough to the one-day team for his selection to be worth the bother.

His exclusion from this squad should not be taken to mean that England don't think he's one of the 30 best one-day players in the country.

I think Jos Buttler has shown enough promise to get a few more chances. He's a decent wicketkeeper, and he has shown in his short career till ate that he's quite capable of taking the attack to the best bowlers in the world.

Buttler's List A record is quite good, and he has done well in T-20Is as well with a healthy average and good strike rate.

Just a shame though that Dave Houghton's nephew who played U-19 cricket for Zimbabwe, is turning his back to Zimbabwe cricket.

Buttler's done ok. Steve Davies anyone, or is he to gay?

Ballance could be a great value addition, as could be shaun Ervine for Zimbabwe cricket. Unfortunate that Zc is still letting such fine talent slip away.

Stella wrote: Steve Davies anyone, or is he to gay?

I would hope that is not counting against him, but realistically his shocking form last year saw his lose his place in all England squads.

If he has a good season then who knows. Otherwsie it seems strange for him to be dropped for good just because of one bad season as England seemed to be grooming him as Prior's test backup and possible replacement for several years

Kidderlad wrote:

Stella wrote: Steve Davies anyone, or is he to gay?

I would hope that is not counting against him, but realistically his shocking form last year saw his lose his place in all England squads.

If he has a good season then who knows. Otherwsie it seems strange for him to be dropped for good just because of one bad season as England seemed to be grooming him as Prior's test backup and possible replacement for several years

He was in Australia, playing in the ODI series. Was surprisingly omitted from the ODI world cup squad, then came out. Since then, he's been under the radar. A little odd.

What about Graham Napier as the bowling all-rounder?

With Luke Wright in there who can open both the batting and bowling, and perhaps even lead the side, England won't need another all-rounder.

these provisional squads of 30 are pointless...when only 14 or 15 will be selected.

Such meaningless is the excercise that Aus didn't really botehr to pick one and declared it a secret

I suppose the 30 man squad gives an indication of who is in the selectors thoughts outside the 15-18 'regulars' which must be a good motivator for the players.

I agree with KPF (!) - nobody seriously thinks Harris, Wright or Chopra will make the final squad, or indeed any ODI squad in the forseeable future (perhaps with a caveat for Harris who when fit is a seriously talented bowler), so what's the point?

Re Prior, his limitations for the ODI format are well documented - I don't see where you could place him in the batting line-up except at the top of the order, and at the moment there are 5 better candidates for the top 4 anyway.

Re Davies speaking to people his sexuality was known at least to the coaching staff for quite some time before he came out publicly. I would be extremely surprised and disappointed if that played any part. The reason he was omitted the first time (as far as I know and have understood) was two-fold:
1) Prior was playing fantastically well in Aus, and Flower had a hunch that he was worth a(nother) shot for the WC - let's face it England were a long shot in any case;
2) it was felt (unfairly in some people's views) that Davies wasn't a good enough motivator, and that one of the keeper's key functions was to drive the team in the field, and Davies wasn't doing this.

The reason he hasn't been picked since is because his form has been indifferent, and recently very poor (for very understandable reasons, but that is another matter).

Re Davies - yes, last season he was very poor and, no doubt connected, had depression. He's had a good break and I was very pleased that he scored century in pre-season friendly for Surrey. Hopefully he will have fully recovered his appetite for the game. For the moment England recall a long way off and its all about really re-establishing himself as front line county player.

One surprise inclusion in the squad is Dernbach

Like others I can't see much point in selecting squads that are vastly bigger than you are ever going to need.

I don't mind the 30 man squad for the same reasons as carrotdude. Surely the idea is to motivate those on the periphery to greater things. It's basically saying to those outside the regular players that if they start the season well they could end up playing for England.

It must be a great feeling to see your name on that list and if it means just one player pushes themselves and comes through I think its worthwhile.

I think the reason for the 30 man squads is so that brochures and other publicity can be prepared by the tournament organisers in advance.