Rebuilding for the next World Cup.

[Alviro Patterson]

No sympathy for Ravi Bopara - he has had ample opportunity to make a statement in Sri Lanka and Australia, but was more bothered about playing for his place rather than guiding England to victory.

[from_the_stands]

Shouldn't this thread be titled "Rebuilding for the next rebuild?"

[Aidan11]

Shouldn't this thread be titled "Rebuilding for the next rebuild?"

One thing is certain - we wont be any further forward in four years time.

[Alviro Patterson]

Shouldn't this thread be titled "Rebuilding for the next rebuild?"

Nope, Colin Graves will have sorted all of the problems and come 2019 Yorkshire will be a dominating force in World Cricket.

[bigfluffylemon]

I dunno, I'm rather taking heart by Australia's performance.

Think about where Australia were four years ago. Lost a home Ashes, out in the World Cup quarter final (their worst WC performance since 1983), 5th ranked team in the world at one point, and they'd go on to lose at home to New Zealand and South Africa, and be dismantled overseas by India when players were sent home in disgrace for not doing their homework.

Fast forward two years from that India tour and Australia are world beaters again in all three formats. It's incredible how quickly all that's come together.

Consider Australia's current squad. Of the XV, only four - Clarke, Watson, Haddin and Johnson were central to the Australian team in 2011, and Johnson's confidence was shot after a horrible Ashes and he had quite some time out of the Australian side. Smith was around but no-one rated him as international class. Doherty, Starc and Hazlewood were on the fringes of selection. Warner was a T20 specialist who had been tried and failed miserably in a few ODIs and no-one rated him in the longer formats. Bailey, Maxwell, Faulkner, Cummins, Finch, Marsh were all yet to debut in ODIs when Australia played the World Cup in 2011. From that a squad has come together that looks as though it will be world beating for years to come.

So if Australia can rebuild in less than four years, so can we. It doesn't need us to identify the XV that we'll be taking in four years time now, as many of them have probably still to be discovered. It needs solid plans in place for developing the team over time.

[Slipstream]

Think James Taylor had a good test against fast bowling facing Starc, Johnson, Hazlewood and Marsh for his 98. He faced more balls against Starc than any of the other England players. Fastest ball 93.6. Also Starc's highest economy in the world cup was in this match at 5.22. All the other matches econ of 2 and 3 only getting up to 4.0 against Pakistan.

So first name on the team sheet
J Taylor (c)

[Aidan11]

[captaincolly]

Bob Willis was on Sky Sports News earlier today - "visibly furious" was how one online article described his appearance-surely not
He is calling for all of the senior players-Bell, Morgan, Broad & Anderson-to be dropped from the one day team. He did pick an X1 but I didn't catch all of the names- Jason Roy was in as were Stokes ( batting in the middle order) and Mark Wood and he wants Buttler to bat higher.

He wasn't all doom and gloom, reckons England will at least be competitive in The Ashes but said the batsmen shouldn't get carried away when they return from the West Indies tour ( easy win a formality according to Bob) averaging in the 50's or 60's!

[Aidan11]

Pretty much a reserve side for the ODI against Ireland on May 8th although others are likely to be added -



http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/32 ... um=twitter

[dan08]

Some really exciting players in the squad. We'll probably lose the match but would be good to most of them play.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I guess Tredwell and Wood are likely to be added from the Caribbean? Possibly Rashid? Jordan if he is dropped for Bridgetown.

[sussexpob]

Some really exciting players in the squad. We'll probably lose the match but would be good to most of them play.

Ansari really deserves his call up

[dan08]

Some really exciting players in the squad. We'll probably lose the match but would be good to most of them play.

Ansari really deserves his call up

I've seen worse players called up before. I guess they've got to look for the future and in 4 years time he'll probably be in contention. This is the easiest match we'll have for a while so it makes sense to try them out here.

[Arthur Crabtree]

No one can be said to have been dropped from the WC. Finn, Taylor and Hales are in the squad. The following are unavailable:

Jordan
Anderson
Broad
Bell
Morgan
Buttler
Bopara
Tredwell
Moeen
Ballance
Root
Woakes

[Arthur Crabtree]

Is there any need to go back to Bresnan?