No room for Vaughan and Bell as Bopara bats at 3
The England selectors spring some surprises in their first test squad of the summer by including 2 new caps in the seam bowling attack and promoting Ravi Bopara to bat at number 3. The selectors have opted for form and promise over reputation and experience meaning that there is no place for Michael Vaughan, Ian Bell or Steve Harmison.
Graham Onions and Tim Bresnan are both in line to make their test debuts supporting James Anderson and Stuart Broad in the seam attack, assuming the decision is not made to play 2 spinners. Both have had promising starts to the season but the selections are still a surprise, that of Bresnan in particular.
The decision to replace the injured Andrew Flintoff with a specialist bowler means that Matt Prior will bat at 6 with Broad and Bresnan at 7 and 8. With Swann a capable player at 9, this almost has the look of a one-day team with lots of multi-faceted cricketers who are perhaps not quite world class at any one discipline.
The main talking point though is Bopara. Unsurprisingly it was decided that Owais Shah is not up to the job after his poor showing in the Caribbean. Michael Vaughan, however much some may want him back, has done nowhere near enough, and the omission of Bell sends him a clear message that a classy technique is not enough and only sheer weight of runs over a sustained period of time, allied to the demonstration of a hitherto well-concealed mental strength, will win him back his coveted number 3 spot.
This is conclusively the end of the old boys club which has dominated the squad for the past 4 years and there is plenty to discuss. To my mind, it is a short batting line up placing huge pressure on the top 5 to deliver. They must step up. And is this a bowling attack to strike fear into the heart of batsmen? Is it capable of taking 20 wickets regularly? I would be interested to hear your thoughts.
