England in India

4-0 clean sweep for India because ENGLAND WILL NOT LEARN

Why is Patel playing?

Having a discussion with Shauny at the moment. I have an ideal England XI.

Cook
Compton
Trott
KP
Bell
Prior
Woakes
Swann
Anderson
Tremlett
Finn

Dropping Tremlett for Panesar on the sub Continent.

Englands lack of an All Rounder has been so brutally exposed recently. Everybody was talking about Englands brilliant attack, but in reality their brilliant attack was only fantastic against a second rate India. They are all fantastic bowlers, probably the best set in the world right now, baring maybe South Africa, but the Saffa series kind of exposed the lack of an extra bowler. The bowlers get so tired that come 40 overs into the new ball they're already wrecked, and are unwilling to try anything for fear of being tired come the new ball. Overs 40-80 killed England against South Africa, as they allowed Amla and Kallis to dominate.

It's no coincidence that Englands best times have come when they've had a good All Rounder in the ranks. Be it Flintoff or Collingwood, they had that extra bowling option in order to protect Anderson et al, while still being able to offer wickets. Playing bit part players like Patel may work well at ODI and T20 level, they get shown up in test cricket. Woakes is the perfect option. He averages 38 with the bat and 25 with the ball in Division 1 County Cricket. The average drop is usually 5 or so in the step up to test cricket, which still leaves him at an extremely useful all rounder. Let's not forget he's on fantastic form, he averaged what, 75 odd this summer? The guy needs to be blooded and introduced into the side ASAP. A good quality 5th bowling option is imperitive to Englands chances of regaining the No 1 ranking in future. He's also not a bowler that's ever relied on pace, meaning he'll be equally useful in the sub continent.

As for Tremlett, he is superior to both Broad and Bresnan. Broad is a petulant little bastard, and while he takes wickets in big bursts, he just goes through phases of absolute dross, giving up enough runs before his magic burst to still leave him an average bowler. Anderson, no questions asked on of the best bowlers in the world right now. Probably the best when it comes to ability to work the ball and intelligence. If he had the Steyn pace there wouldn't even be any competition. Bresnan? Well, he hasn't impressed me in a while now. Finn has been devastating, and even when bowling poorly will still take wickets. Must also be one of the only bowlers in the world that I reckon could find bounce on this current track.

I realise that line-up leaves England with a huge tail, but if they stop batting like idiots, that shouldn't be a problem. Better teams have carried worse tails around with them. All the top 7 have the potential to score big runs (except obviously for the unproven Woakes and Compton, but I'll judge them on the fact they've been world class in the county game), and one should almost always fire on a given day.

Yeah, it's a mix of lacking a 5th bowler (A/R), and just batting badly in Asia. Compton and Cook are going alright in this second dig.

As it is right now I can't see us taking 20 wickets in a match. That's depressing.

Atm at least they had a bit of a recovery, would be amazing if they got a draw out of it.

Going slightly better this time around!

Dominant. Should (touch wood) be a victory. Panesar has been a revelation.