England squad for tour of South Africa

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So what do we all make of that?

Bell out, Ballance/Compton in the main headlines in the batting department.

Woakes, Jordan and Footitt in, Plunkett out, Wood/Finn injured.

Samit ahead of Rashid.

Personally not sure what Plunkett ever did wrong bar get injured against India last year, bizarre that he is out. Samit ahead of Rashid also is puzzling.

Otherwise I think all the right moves have been made, happy Ballance is back in and hopefully he gets a shot

VTR wrote:Good to see England are practicing their batting collapses today - its a key part of their Test match strategy so its nice to hone it in the warm up games

Not sure England need much practice at collapsing.

Without practice even perfection can slip.

So did we learn anything from the first warm up ?

Guess Taylor confirmed his rising status , and arguably Compton settled any argument about the number three spot over Ballance : though Hales will want some runs in the next match. Not sure the bowling is much clearer - looks like Footit or Woakes but which ? Pity the second innings was stormed out.

If the second game is a proper first class one then England will have to play the Test XI , more or less - leaving no room for fringe players. Does this mean Jordan/ Buttler/Finn get no game time at all ?

Think they might perhaps let Stokes rest in order to play the the competing quick bowlers (because Jimmy will need to get some overs in after the washout) and just possible Ballance will get a shot while Root or Taylor sit out ; but I'd have thought Cook Hales Compton Root Taylor Bairstow Ali Woakes Broad Anderson Footit - with Stokes to slot back in on Boxing Day for one of the quicks.
Happy enough with all that except I remain anxious over Hales. Not to write him off over a couple of failures ; but given a "mixed" bunch of results at ODI over the reasonable number of matches he's now played , I think we'd all like to see him at least get some runs under his belt before a Test debut against Steyn and Morkel. Hopefully he'll get some on Sunday.

Alfie - press reports I've seen appear to give Woakes a slight edge over Footitt. Although the latter picked up a couple of wickets, he was apparently a bit wayward at times.

Also some speculation that Jimmy and/or Broad might be rested for the final warm up game to allow further assessment of the above two. Whatever happens and as you suggest, it does look like Jordan is very much on the outer fringe and may not play at all this tour. Whilst I realise some here are not keen on him, I don't feel anyone can really claim that is right.

Btw, I don't claim Footitt as a Surrey player until he actually turns out for us.

It sounds as if it is going to be Finn, Woakes and Stokes in the warm up game. 3 bowlers are going to be under cooked. Broad, Anderson and Steyn. No bowling (apart from the 11 overs) for 7 weeks. Probably the bowlers getting the most overs won't play in the Tests.  

I think England are worried about the next Test which is two days later but we have 5 bowlers now instead of the 4. Hopefully all goes well and we don't have to rest any or all of them.

Interesting goings on in the final warm up game.

South Africa A 91/5 off 40. Finn with 3/25 off 10.

A wicket each for Footitt (again the most expensive of the bowlers) and Broad.

Jimmy rested once more and no place for Woakes.

finn seems to be confirming both form and fitness and likely to play in first test. Not sure his body will hold up for all the matches, but best he plays at the start I reckon.

A 4for for Finn. reports suggest he looked pretty much up for anything. Hope to see him in action come that first test.

Indeed looks as if Finn is much further advanced in his return - you'd think he will play in the first Test now , provided he doesn't have any adverse effects from his exertions in this match. If he can continue this form , that is a big plus for England !
My only regret is I'd have rather liked to see whether Footitt could make a case for a left arm option - though I'm sure Olly would tell me it had to be Woakes anyway

Also good to see Hales get serious batting time against a very handy attack. Good day all round.

Just hope Jimmy isn't too underdone having bowled just five overs on tour...

Cooks starting to open up, and Comptons making a solid start again...although hes taken one to the head which does open up the questions about him and short pitched bowling again.


In terms of the first test side...

It looks like Finn is making the strongest case form the seamers, and Stokes has done enough with bat and ball to pretty much garuntee a place. They seem intent on a top 3 of Cook, Hales (Im really not convinced hes ready) and Compton.
Taylor pretty much has to play, and Roots an automatic pick. Bairstow as keeper, and I assume Moeen will play because they have to have a spinner. Broad and Anderson get picked by default.
4 seamers, 2 spin options. 7 players who could bat in the top 5. Sounds great in theory but .....

England racing towards a comprehensive victory this morning. The opposition has been quite feeble again so hard to gauge exactly what shape they are in heading into the First Test, but they can only play against what is put in front of them.

So it looks like an England side of:

1.Cook
2.Hales
3.Compton
4.Root
5.Taylor
6.Stokes
7.Bairstow (wk)
8.Moeen
9.Broad
10.Anderson
11.Finn

Against a SA side of:

1.Elgar
2.Van Zyl
3.Amla
4.De Villiers (wk)
5.Du Plessis
6.Bavuma
7.Duminy
8.Steyn
9.Abbott
10.Piedt
11.Morkel

With Bavuma moved back down the order due to fears over his 5'3'' stature opening the batting in South Africa. Van Zyl then moves up to open although he is really a number 3.

With ABDV having the added pressure of wicket keeping, a makeshift opener and a few out of form batsmen I'd say SA look quite vulnerable up the order as well as England.

At the sharp end of the innings I'd back Steyn and Morkel to do more damage to a fragile top order than an increasingly injured Anderson, a returning Finn and an often inconsistent Broad.

2-1 England is my prediction, nice to see Root and Cook getting some runs before the serious stuff starts. I have worries about Hales if he starts, but other than that, the batting order looks as good as it has for a while. Cook, Root and Taylor are three brilliant talents and, bowling-wise, Anderson can be depended on to deliver his one good test match, while Finn should prosper on these wickets.

I can certainly envisage the England bowlers relishing the opportunity of waging serious damage upon a rather meek and insipid home batting line-up - Amla and De Villers, excluded of course!

Yeah, 2-1 to the England.

3/1 that England win the series = delicious odds. 6/1 that Taylor is England's highest run-scorer might be worth a nibble to.

Anderson a doubt for the first test with a calf issue

Olly wrote:Anderson a doubt for the first test with a calf issue

Bit of a concern , that. Though it might get your man Woakes a game , eh , Olly

I did think it slightly odd Anderson rested this match after having only a few overs in the first warm up ; so not totally shocked to see he has a niggle. Of course he may yet come up in the next day or so ; but if not at least they have a few quicks with some useful overs under their belts to select from.
Other than that the warm ups could hardly have gone better.

This series looks very open to me : SA batting looks a lot less solid without Smith and Kallis (as it would !) so England may fancy their chances ; but they will need their own batting to fire on a regular basis if they're to take advantage of a potential opposition frailty. I am not given to betting on cricket ; but if I were I might gamble on England at the 3/1 Duty is quoting...

At any rate I am hoping to see some good competitive cricket.

king_carlos wrote:So it looks like an England side of:

At the sharp end of the innings I'd back Steyn and Morkel to do more damage to a fragile top order than an increasingly injured Anderson, a returning Finn and an often inconsistent Broad.

Broad though has been wonderfully consistent in 2015. His bowling has been excellent, though sometimes getting wickets for others rather than himself. On current form he is better than Morkel. steyn is a class above our bowlers, but is so reliant on his athleticism and SA will be worried his body lets him down.

Hi LT,

I fear that Broad will struggle to keep up his pace over a series with so much resting on his shoulders, especially with Anderson injured. If his pace drops as it has in the past then he'll struggle to make much headway on SA pitches.

Hopefully his continued absence from one day cricket see him keep up his consistency as he has this year. I've got concerns though. SA is a great place for pace bowlers but if we struggle to make early headway (as we may well do without Anderson) then it can quickly turn into a very wearing place for bowlers.

Should be noted that Rashid is currently bossing the big bash

Olly wrote:Should be noted that Rashid is currently bossing the big bash

Not surprised - he's a good limited overs player. I wonder if that will be his future at international level. Nothing wrong with that, its just a hard concept for us England fans to get our heads around. We could conceivably end up with quite a few players in that category (e.g. Morgan, Buttler, Roy, Willey). Its a sign of taking the limited overs more seriously rather than being a Test audition. I would love a World Cup win, certainly over winning any particular Test series

I agree VTR - think he will be a ODI/T20 player, and backup to Moeen in tests.

Guys like buttler/Roy have the potential to break into the test side ala Hales, but at this moment are one day only.

I also agree winning a world cup would be my #1 thing I want to see from England

SA have picked their ODI squad.

South Africa ODI squad: AB de Villiers (capt), Kyle Abbott, Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Chris Morris, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, Dale Steyn.

10 players from the Test squad. England will probably have 6.

England's squad will probably look something like
Hales Roy Root Taylor Morgan Stokes Buttler Billings/Bairstow Moeen Rashid Willey Woakes Plunkett Jordan Finn
so 9 or 10 from the actual Test squad?

Not sure if Bairstow will be in there - Jordan will be out for Topley surely?

Might rest root too

Topley for Jordan does sound likely. We should remember that Jordan is the world's first T20 super-over specialist so needs to be wrapped in cotton wool for that role only

VTR wrote:Topley for Jordan does sound likely. We should remember that Jordan is the world's first T20 super-over specialist so needs to be wrapped in cotton wool for that role only

No Plunkett or Bairstow and Finn and Morkel likely to be rested after the 4 Tests.

Hales Roy Root Morgan Stokes Buttler Ali Rashid Willey Jordan Woakes
Amla de Kock du Plessis de Villiers  Miller Duminy Behardien Morris Steyn Rabada Tahir

Jordan's 20/20 death overs 12-0-108-5 econ 9.00. Would like to see him bowl at de Villiers at the death.

Dawid Malan going well for the lions in the one day stuff - always been impressed whenever I've seen him play

Olly wrote:Dawid Malan going well for the lions in the one day stuff - always been impressed whenever I've seen him play

I recall Mike Selig posting about Malan's potential.

Duty281 wrote:Yeah, 2-1 to the England.

3/1 that England win the series = delicious odds. 6/1 that Taylor is England's highest run-scorer might be worth a nibble to.

He shoots, he scores! Well, the outside punt on Taylor didn't come off, but the main one did.

Interestingly Nick Hoult has pointed out that Scott borthwick has scored a century today in New Zealand and calls him a candidate for a batting spot next summer (I think hoult is well sourced usually)

He'd need to develop his bowling again first Olly. As a batsmen alone I can't see him coping right up the order where he plays for Durham. As a lower middle order batsmen and leg spinner he could sneak in if conditions were right.

Even then that role is currently filled by Rashid though.

In order to really make anything of his bowling he'll need to move county by the looks of things tho...