Rash needs to play down under. Might as well just play Root as your spinner if picking Bess - Maybe you play Bess and Rashid at Sydney.Originally Posted by Burney
If Anderson is fit he goes to Aus. He's been getting better and better in recent years and I recall him bowling in India when we won there off about 5 paces (i.e. he can adapt). He's also been hovering around the 84/85mph mark in this series and he'll always be on the money. May not play in all 5 tests but certainly an asset to have.
Let's see how India goes first - potentially ten Tests against them before the next Ashes and that will have a big bearing on the team. Rashid has to prove his shoulder is up for Test cricket, which I very much doubt it is, sadly.
I doubt Rashid is a serious contender anymore. Moeen was clearly being lined up as England's spin option, but sadly he forgot how to bat and bowl.
Fit or not, he'll be 40. I'd offer good odds Anderson doesn't play in Australia. The nature of the selections this summer tells you that Silverwood and Root are looking at establishing a post-Anderson bowling attack prior to going into that Ashes series.
Rich's seam attack for Australia (any 4 from):
Broad
Olly Stone
Saqib Mahmood
Archer
Wood
George Garton
Plus:
Stokes
At the moment, I'd say Archer, Wood and Broad are first pick and the others are scrabbling for the other slot. That may change in a year, though, of course.
They're going to take Woakes, though. They just will. It's what England selectors do. They'll use phrases like 'He can do a job for us' and 'Look at the summer he's just had' and he'll end up bowling gun-barrel straight all series and taking about seven wickets at 40-odd.
Depends how Root wants to use Archer and Wood, though. If they want to limit their workload to say a maximum of 3 x 5 over spells per innings then it leaves a lot of slack for the others to pick up.At the moment, I'd say Archer, Wood and Broad are first pick and the others are scrabbling for the other slot. That may change in a year, though, of course.
They're going to take Woakes, though. They just will. It's what England selectors do. They'll use phrases like 'He can do a job for us' and 'Look at the summer he's just had' and he'll end up bowling gun-barrel straight all series and taking about seven wickets at 40-odd.
Agreed. I'm not convinced by the 5-over thing with Archer, though. He takes three or four to hit his rhythm and coming off after five clearly seems to frustrate him. There's a balance to be found between overbowling him as Root did in NZ and underbowling him as he did in this test.
I'd say Broad and Stokes as stock bowlers plus whatever excuse for a 'spinner' we take should be sufficient to accommodate the quicks, though.
Archer needs to bowl with pace. He did in the first innings of this game, at times. But on many other occasions he was the 'slowest' of England's seamers. He seems to bring everything in to the right hander (seam rather than swing) so either needs to ensure his pace is strong or find a way to nibble it away off the seam as well.
I'm a big fan of Broad's 'celebrappeal' where he wraps the batsman on the pads and runs of celebrating to the slips rather than bother to check with the umpire for his decision.
Garton is an interesting one - seems to have been around for a while but only 23. Best option of a left-hander - but you know Curran will be picked
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