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with 16 ODIs to go until the world cup and rumours flying around that england will be making large changes to their team (mainly batting you would suspect)

who would you like to see given a run in the side?

-the first thing i would do is remove cook as captain since we have zero chance of winning the world cup with someone who cant play off the front foot opening the batting, then it would either be morgan or bell as captain i suppose (probably morgan)
- secondly i would try very hard to find someone who is going to take wickets in the middle overs, with the new fielding restrictions it is impossible to stop teams scoring 80+ in the last ten overs so taking wickets in the middle overs is now more important than ever and since the retirement of swann and downfall of finn an area england have struggled.

my team would look something like this

bell
hales (has to be given a chance)
vince
root
morgan
buttler
ravi
broad
anderson
tredwell
Another

cant decide between jordan/gurney and the others who the other bowler would be. IMO though 10 overs between ravi, who is quite often our best bowler in ODIs, and joe root will be good enough as a fifth bowler and since we dont really have any stand out options strengthening the batting seems the better options

it will be very interesting to see what sort of squad is picked for the upcoming series against india, i really hope cook is not in it as i dont think we have any hope in hell of doing well at the world cup with such a limited player at the top of the order. especially when the other opener is ian bell who can get bogged down at time as well

I don't dislike the look of that side , I would still be worried about bopara and root sharing the 5th set of ten overs in every game and having no other option in the top 6 who can bowl the odd over

hales has to be an absolute certainty to open with what he is doing today just cementing his spot

Possible squad for the India series

Hales
Vince
Roy
Stokes
Morgan
Buttler
Bopara
Jordan
Tredwell
Finn
Gurney

Rankin
Willey
Moeen
R.Patel

I'd like Samit for Bopara, but that's a long shot. He and Taylor don't seem attractive to the selectors.

rich1uk wrote:I don't dislike the look of that side , I would still be worried about bopara and root sharing the 5th set of ten overs in every game and having no other option in the top 6 who can bowl the odd over

hales has to be an absolute certainty to open with what he is doing today just cementing his spot

Vince can/does.

SaintPowelly wrote:

rich1uk wrote:I don't dislike the look of that side , I would still be worried about bopara and root sharing the 5th set of ten overs in every game and having no other option in the top 6 who can bowl the odd over

hales has to be an absolute certainty to open with what he is doing today just cementing his spot

Vince can/does.

hes only bowled 13 overs in 75 list A games so altho in theory an option I don't think he would be someone you would want to rely on either unless in a real emergency I would have thought

rich1uk wrote:I don't dislike the look of that side , I would still be worried about bopara and root sharing the 5th set of ten overs in every game and having no other option in the top 6 who can bowl the odd over

hales has to be an absolute certainty to open with what he is doing today just cementing his spot

one option is to give ravi a go at three then play either moeen or rashid as 5th bowler number 7 batsmen

ravi should bowl 10 overs much more than he does, in fact his bowling is the only reason i would pick him as there are certainly more consistent hitters of the ball out there

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Possible squad for the India series

Hales
Vince
Roy
Stokes
Morgan
Buttler
Bopara
Jordan
Tredwell
Finn
Gurney

Rankin
Willey
Moeen
R.Patel

I'd like Samit for Bopara, but that's a long shot. He and Taylor don't seem attractive to the selectors.

i would keep bell, we need some experience at the top of the order, especially because since the start of 2012 he averages 45 with a SR of 82 (SR is 90+ so far this year)

i actually think bell will benefit from opening with hales, as when he opens with cook it always falls to him to play the big shots when the run rate dips so he often gets out when on 20/30, whereas hales will be striking at a run a ball most of the time taking the scoring pressure off bell and allowing him to just bat properly

backfootpunch wrote:

rich1uk wrote:I don't dislike the look of that side , I would still be worried about bopara and root sharing the 5th set of ten overs in every game and having no other option in the top 6 who can bowl the odd over

hales has to be an absolute certainty to open with what he is doing today just cementing his spot

one option is to give ravi a go at three then play either moeen or rashid as 5th bowler number 7 batsmen

ravi should bowl 10 overs much more than he does, in fact his bowling is the only reason i would pick him as there are certainly more consistent hitters of the ball out there

not disagreeing with your assessment of bopara at all , I think there is a difference tho between saying he should bowl 10 overs more often to basically needing him to bowl ten overs in virtually every game as your only backups are root and maybe vince

and that's not even allowing for the odd game when one of your 4 main bowlers aren't able to bowl their full ten

Ali at three? This would give that extra bowling option.

Agree that our chances will improve if Cook isn't in the ODI squad, with a heavy test schedule next year I'd like to se him focus on the red ball.

Unlike previous World Cup campaigns, I hope there are is more emphasis on fresh faces or players with good limited overs pedigree than the tried and tested route.

15 man squad is going to be difficult to pick with emerging players knocking on the door.

Batting: Bell, Hales, Root, Morgan, Bopara, Taylor
Keepers: Buttler, Bairstow
Bowling: Broad, Anderson, Gurney, Rashid, Willey, Jordan, Plunkett

I've left out all the players who've played all the Tests, apart from Moeen, who I think will get a chance to be the main spinner.

Big changes have been hinted at. Really, Ballance and Root should be given a chance to cement places, and Woakes was in the last squad and hasn't been tried much. I was mainly looking at 'big changes' though.

Dr Robert wrote:Ali at three? This would give that extra bowling option.

maybe either moeen or ravi at 3 then bat stokes at 7

that would make this the team

bell
hales
ravi/moeen
root
morgan
buttler
stokes
broad
jimmy
tredwell
gurney?

5 proper bowlers plus a couple of good part time options, looks about as good a balanced side as we could have, obviously there will be no broad for the time being and i would rest jimmy from all of the ODIs in sri lanka and maybe a couple of the ones versus india

i would also hope jimmy will retire from limited overs cricket after the world cup to get another year of test cricket out of him

I'm not convinced by Vince at this level yet, I'd like to see England take a gamble on Roy who looks the sort of player who can demolish bowling attacks, turning 5 an over into 7 an over.

Hales has to play, I'd be surprised if Ballance was dropped. Realistically if England are to mover forward either Cook needs to stand down as skipper or Bell needs to be dropped.

It's hard to believe there's a test match tomorrow which will be last for 8 months. The interest is so loud I can hear a pin drop.
One of the top six in ODI should be a bowler who is likely to take wickets rather than try to fill in. Rashid is a likely contender.

backfootpunch wrote:ravi should bowl 10 overs much more than he does

Bopara and Tredwell aren't going to bowl in the first ten or the last fifteen much outside Asia. It depends what the pitches are like, but it's hard on the captain to have to bowl 20 overs of these two in the middle overs. There won't be much wicket taking pressure there. I can't see England accepting Bopara as one of five.