For once, a selection announcement passed with little surprise.
After it was made clear that former skipper Michael Vaughan would not be considered for selection—and rightly so given his form in recent months—there wasn’t much to be argued about the selection of players to make up the Test squad for India this December.
Should a back-up wicketkeeper be taken? Yes, clearly so, and given that Matt Prior was already going to be in India with the One-day squad his selection was no big deal.
The likes of James Foster and Chris Read might feel hard done by, but they haven’t been given much of a shot by the selectors over the past three years and clearly aren’t currently in the selectors’ plans.
With the batting line-up more-or-less nailed down to include Andrew Strauss, Alistair Cook, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood, there is little in the way of controversy of the sort generated by David Gower’s omission from the 1992-93 touring side, let alone a D’Oliveiran crisis. Much more pressing is the question of the fringe elements of the squad.
Who should take the one batting place that was up for grabs? Owais Shah or Ravi Bopara?
Bopara may be disappointed given that he was in the squad for the last Test against South Africa, and had an excellent summer for Essex scoring over 1250 First-class runs at an average of more than 50, but he did not impress on last winter’s tour of Sri Lanka, scoring just 42 runs in five innings.
Shah, on the other hand, is considered an excellent player of spin, scoring 88 and 38 in his one Test the last time England toured India, and must be due another shot, having only had one chance since.
Your milage on this decision will vary on whether you think that Bopara’s skills or Shah’s will be more important to the team in India, but given that ultimately neither may play if five bowlers are selected, it may be a moot point.
Next we turn to the seam bowling department. Here there are a selection of players in good recent form. Steve Harmison clearly made his case at The Oval, and Andrew Flintoff will certainly play—whether he bats at six or seven is still to be decided, but he’ll play either way.
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