England 2012 Cricket Thread

[Villan For Life]

After a pretty damned good 2011 - world cup aside - England begin their 2012 campaign on the 17th January with a test against Pakistan in the UAE. There are a couple of warm up matches ahead of this.

It promises to be an interesting year for England. The Pakistan series is followed by a short visit to Sri Lanka then we host the West Indies and South Africa. The Aussies are also here for a one day series.  We finish the year with the T20 World Cup and an Indian tour.

I think that England have enough quality and strength in depth to still be the number one ranked test team come January 2013. The series against the Saffers and the Indians will be challenging but we should come out on top.

[PaulWinch again]

This is a very important season for England, we need to drive home our dominance of the game. I'll be looking for Morgan and Finn to emerge as Test players, and Bairstow, Taylor, Stokes and Woakes to push on as One day players.

[hipkiss92]

I think it's going to be interesting how we fit 5 international class quick bowlers into 3 positions. At the moment I would say Anderson, Broad and Tremlett is the main attack. But Finn and Bresnan are both good enough, with Bresnan's batting ability being a good advantage, while Finn looks like he's probably the fastest quick in world cricket.

Also, with tours of the sub continent coming up surely Panesar will join Swann as our second spinner, who will drop out of the batting line up to bring him in? You'd expect it to be Morgan, but after Bell he's probably our best player of spin bowling so would be a must for the tours this year.

Tough with these kinds of selection headaches, it looks like a positive 2012 is coming up for English Cricket.

[Dave Cooper please]

The temptation on the sub-continent would be to drop Pietersen who doesn't play spin at all well, but he can, on his day, take a game away from opponents so quickly it's unreal. Plus his part-time spinners could negate the need for Panesar at all?

Bresnan didn't train yesterday so expect Finn to play in the first warm up game to check on how he has got on while playing in New Zealand.

[OzVilla]

Not sure if anyone's been watching but the Aussies are sending us a message at the moment - this pace attack is looking rather tasty all of a sudden with Pattinson and Cummins.

We need a convincing win in this series to put them back in their box.

[Villan For Life]

Not sure if anyone's been watching but the Aussies are sending us a message at the moment - this pace attack is looking rather tasty all of a sudden with Pattinson and Cummins.

We need a convincing win in this series to put them back in their box.

The Aussies will always come up with a decent attack, the question is can they keep them fit.

Pattinson will miss the rest of the India series with stress fractures to a bone in his foot. Cummins is missing the Aussie season due to a heel injury. They are fine prospects but seem a little young to be suffering typical fast bowler stress/wear and tear injuries. Maybe they're being over bowled?

[OzVilla]

Not sure if anyone's been watching but the Aussies are sending us a message at the moment - this pace attack is looking rather tasty all of a sudden with Pattinson and Cummins.

We need a convincing win in this series to put them back in their box.

The Aussies will always come up with a decent attack, the question is can they keep them fit.

Pattinson will miss the rest of the India series with stress fractures to a bone in his foot. Cummins is missing the Aussie season due to a heel injury. They are fine prospects but seem a little young to be suffering typical fast bowler stress/wear and tear injuries. Maybe they're being over bowled?

Maybe, but Cummins isn't being overbowled as he'd only played 3/4 first class matches but Pattinson might have been - he's also very aggresive at the crease abit like Donald was which doesn't help regards his injuries.
Hilfenhaus seems to have gained an Andersonesque form turnaround is has added an extra 10 kph as has Siddle.  Having said that India have looked fairly poor and ,I hate to say it, disinterested again.

[taylorsworkrate]

Pattinson and Cummins do look to have some promise about them. They are however unknown quantities to an extent.

Many bowlers have had promising starts to their careers and then fallen by the wayside once oppositions garner more information.

I'd definitely take England's bowling attack over all others, even if Pattinson and Cummins reach full potential. I also think Steven Finn will turn into a considerably better bowler than both.

[Villan For Life]

The Saffers have a great attack and the Aussies have the making of another good attack too. What both lack in comparison to England is strength in depth. It enables us to rotate our attack whereas a Saffer attack minus Steyn is considerably poorer.

[PaulWinch again]

England have the best attack for depth and proven over a prelonger period. The Saffers have the best bowler in Steyn. Australia's attack will face stiffer tests, and be interesting to see how they do.

[Dave Cooper please]

Innings wins for both the Aussies and SA, they are chucking the guantlet.
Good stuff, if only the West Indies could get their act together. Test cricket is NOT dying, it could be on the cusp of a golden era.

[Woofles The Wonder Dog]

Test cricket is NOT dying, it could be on the cusp of a golden era.

It shouldn't be, buut the crowds for the Christmas Tests were very poor. Even before Christmas, SA vs Oz wasn't exactly packed, which was very sad.

On another note I work with a lot of Indians (Delhi and Bangalore) and have been giving them severe stick over making the Australians look good. They are besides themselves with anger, but admit it's probably down to the increasing emphasis on short-form cricket in India, where a lot of their talent is excelling and where the big crowds/money is. Which is a bit sad. Their younger players look good in T20 etc. but are struggling to displace the old folks in the test team.

[dave.woodhall]

Test cricket is NOT dying, it could be on the cusp of a golden era.

It shouldn't be, buut the crowds for the Christmas Tests were very poor. Even before Christmas, SA vs Oz wasn't exactly packed, which was very sad.

Swings & roundabouts. I was watching a repeat of a 1984 test v the WI yesterday, and the ground (think it was Old Trafford) was virtually deserted. This was to watch one of the greatest teams of all time.

[OzVilla]

Melbourne Test crowd aggregate (4 days) - 189,347
Average per day attendance = 47,336

Sydney Test crowd aggregate (4 days) - 115,112
Average per day attendance = 28,778

Very respectable crowds and TV viewing figures that were higher than last years Ashes Series (Aussies won't watch when they're losing).

[Stu]

Aussies won't watch when they're losing.

Yes indeed. I gave my Aussie mate some pelters over that.