Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Finn would be nice to have if he found his best form and his old pace.

I'm just waiting for the campaigns to bring back bresnan, bell and bopara

The Killer Bees !

Broad?

the final could end up being The Killer Bees v The Mitchs

Plus Ball, Billings, Buttler and Bairstow, England need three more.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Plus Ball, Billings, Buttler and Bairstow, England need three more.

Bell-Drummond ?

Briggs, but he'd have to be left out.

Bell-Drummond
Bell
Bairstow
Billings
Buttler
Bopara
Borthwick
Bresnan
Broad
Briggs
Ball

Borthwick. Yes. Ravi's back!

we've probably picked worse XIs than that when not just limiting ourselves to one letter of the alphabet

Have seen worse teams than the "B XI"

Persisting in my argument for Bairstow : I'd submit that his recent all round form means more than a modest career record in the format. And that his record also suffers from being in and out of various spots in the team rather than having a solid regular role .
But in any case I would not expect him to be in the XI ; just feel he could cover for both Root and Buttler (two rather important players ! ) in the event of injury ; and would be a better back up than Duckett. Handy sub fielder too.

Think the bowling is far from decided. I'd have no problem with a recall for Broad , say , for this tournament , though I wouldn't expect him to return to regular ODI duty. Actually think they ought to pick it on early season form - an old fashioned method of choice perhaps ? But I'm probably a bit old fashioned

Yes Ravi!

Looks a pretty open tournament.
Be interesting to see if SA, India suffer from having a far easier group to qualify for the semis.
Champions trophy is so short that it is won on momentum so NZ, Australia, England might do well since they would have been tested and had to play at their top game to qualify for the semis whereas india / SA would qualify with ease.
Hopefully it is India vs Australia/England/NZ Edgebaston ( going to the game).
not sure I can take india losing to SA and missing out on seeing them at the ground.

think it is between England, Australia and India with NZ/SA being the outsiders.
the rest don't have a chance at all.

India off the mark at last. I always make India favourites in Asia, but write them off to easily outside. Of course they won it here last time. Looking at their stats in England, Shikhar Dhawan has a great record (I think he was in career best form generally about the time of the CT last time) and their bowlers actually have good records, including Jadeja and Ashwin. But the other bats haven't excelled (yet), Rohit Sharma's SR is 71 in England! Hard to know how their new players will do.

Around of the time of the last CT, England were winning rain shortened matches (apart from the final) because there were no middle overs to get bogged down in. Harder to see that being a problem this time.

in ICC tournaments india shouldn't really get written off or write team off because of conditions etc considering icc tournaments especially white ball cricket is homogenised not sure home advantage even exist in these cups or events.
should be noted india quite good in england when it comes to white ball cricket, might actually make ashwin and jadeja more dangerous with the bigger boundaries, not sure ashwin liked the pitches for the odi against england recently.
suspect kohli will get more wickets and control from the spinners in england.
pandya for me will be the key if he plays well then india are looking dangerous.
although the lower order looks fragile but then they do have Ashwin/Jadeja at 9 and 8.

England look the team to beat with australia and India being the main challengers to stop them.