England 2012 Cricket Thread

[Villan For Life]

No Bopara in the England squad - not selected for "personal reasons". James Taylor of Notts called up.

Taylor looks a good prospect, let's hope he slots right in. The number 6 position has been a problem now since Colly retired.

[cdbearsfan]

Hopefully they will call up about 11 Nottinghamshire players.

[PaulWinch again]

Taylor looks talented to me and I hope he takes his chance. He looks like the most 'test' type batsmen we've tried to play at 6. That's not to say Bairstow, Buttler, Morgan etc couldn't develop more in that way. Whatever the issue is with Bopara must be serious, because that could essentially end his Test chances.

[bertlambshank]

Good news for me the Bears as well.

[PaulWinch again]

Right England you need to turn up for this Test and hit the Saffers hard.

[PaulWinch again]

Swann dropped for Finn, that's pretty interesting.

[PaulWinch again]

Broad desperately poor again.

[PaulWinch again]

Our catching has dropped off so badly in the last few months.

[taylorsworkrate]

Really poor all round from England this morning. Absolutely no reaction from the previous game.

[PaulWinch again]

Bresnan woeful again. We look awful and we will lose this game.

[taylorsworkrate]

Bresnan woeful again. We look awful and we will lose this game.

Possible weather disruptions aside I agree. Hate to say it but there seems to be no fight at the moment.

England should have gone livid at the Finn thing. The umpire was correct, but why the hell wasn't it called a dead ball the 1st 3 times it happened?

[PaulWinch again]

I think to be honest the team needs some sort of change. We've looked poor on the whole for the duration of this year. We're now playing a very good side and getting hammered. I agree with the policy of consistently of selection, as it got us to where we are. However there needs to be pressure on places as well. At the moment we look to have too many players who are coasting.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

I think it's now proving that England are not as good as they were hyped up to be, clearly not in the same class as South Africa.

[Villan For Life]

It looks like the South Africans are more up for this series than we are. They're hungry for the number 1 status and we seem to have coasted through every series since last summer when we achieved number one status.

The players have not become poor players overnight, they're just resting on their laurels therefore we need to freshen things up a little. Give players with a bit of hunger a go.

[taylorsworkrate]

I think it's now proving that England are not as good as they were hyped up to be, clearly not in the same class as South Africa.

I just can't accept that to be the case. Especially when you consider the comparative results the teams have had recently.

England hammered Australia 3-1 away, whilst SA could only draw with them 1-1 at home. England hammered India 4-0, whilst SA only drew 1-1 with India.