Cricket

[Shaggy]

Feel bad for Onions. Think he's had a real rough deal.

Pleased though to see Tremlett and Stokes in...and to a lesser extent Carberry.

[Neil Young]

No, he's just an opening batsman, but I suppose they could play him at 6.

Bairstow is the back up wicketkeeper, which is mental considering he hasn't really kept wicket all summer for England or even Yorkshire.

Oh ok, I must have misunderstood or misheard what Vaughan was saying on the radio.

Bairstow though, it's genetic. Although he's not as fat as his dad was.

[captainfog]

Feel bad for Onions. Think he's had a real rough deal.

Pleased though to see Tremlett and Stokes in...and to a lesser extent Carberry.

Yeah, feel bad for Onions too, I think he probably should have gone because he is the best Anderson replacement we have. I'm not totally surprised though because if he was ever going to play for England again he would have been picked for the Test Match at Durham. His county record is fantastic but I've not seen him bowl apart from one test match last summer where I thought he'd lost a yard of pace since his injury and looked largely ineffectual. I think the selectors have moved on.

I put Tremlett in the same category. I've not seen him bowl, but by all accounts he too has lost a yard of pace since his injury and hasn't look anywhere near as menacing. His figures for his county this summer are pretty modest too. If they wanted to take him to Australia then they should've picked him for the Oval Test Match to have a proper look at him. Barring injury there is only 1 seamer spot up for grabs and I'd imagine Finn and Rankin are ahead of him at the moment and so he'll have to bowl bloody well in the warm up games to jump ahead of them in the pecking order.

IMO Carberry is a ridiculous pick. I thought he looked ropey in the one day games, in his one decent score (60 odd) he played a missed about a hundred times! His form with the red ball this summer has been poor too and I just don't understand what he is doing in the squad. If they wanted to take another opener then it should have been Compton. Is it is sign they are worried about Root and are considering moving him down the order?

I still think Stokes could bat at 6, but maybe they'll give Balance a chance, Vaughan certainly rates him very highly.

[Shaggy]

Carberry's pick on the face of it isn't very inspiring - as you say his numbers in the longer form are not impressive. However I saw him play two memorable and utterly explosive innings on summer's evenings in the last few months. Two of the best knocks I've seen, scoring all round the ground. The guy is very aggressive and has all the shots. I've long lamented our painstaking scoring rates, especially at the top of the order, and I'm guessing the selectors like the option he could give us. Bit of a short-term punt, but I'm happy to see us pick a very attacking batsman.

[captainfog]

Carberry's pick on the face of it isn't very inspiring - as you say his numbers in the longer form are not impressive. However I saw him play two memorable and utterly explosive innings on summer's evenings in the last few months. Two of the best knocks I've seen, scoring all round the ground. The guy is very aggressive and has all the shots. I've long lamented our painstaking scoring rates, especially at the top of the order, and I'm guessing the selectors like the option he could give us. Bit of a short-term punt, but I'm happy to see us pick a very attacking batsman.

He's had a terrific white ball season

[Chazza]

Dean Wilson @CricketMirror
Monty Panesar in trouble for intimidating behaviour during a game v Worcs. Received a suspended one match ban. Difficult time for him.

Dean Wilson @CricketMirror
Should think this winter will be a chance for him to get back on track after a tough few months on and off the field.

Dean Wilson @CricketMirror
Panesar kicked out at batsman Ross Whiteley as he was about to turn for his second run. Batsman doesn't react though

Dean Wilson @CricketMirror
Might have been more a kick of frustration. More distance between the players than you can see. Judge for yourself youtube.com/watch?v=TUzle0…

[ame]http://youtu.be/TUzle0yHjy0[/ame]

Paul Newman @newman_cricket
Make no mistake, Panesar is lucky to be touring with England this winter. Could give you lots of examples as to why he shouldn't be but wont

Paul Newman @newman_cricket
And it doesn't matter if he is the next best spinner. There are certain levels of behaviour that have to be met by an England player

[Shaggy]

Completely bizarre thing to do. Genuinely looks like he's trying to boot the lad and not just the turf.

[Chazza]

Yeah looks like he waits for him to get close then has a mad hack.

Seems to be a bit troubled at the moment, not sure retweeting Piers Morgan helps.

Monty Panesar retweeted

Piers Morgan @piersmorgan
Wish everyone would get off @MontyPanesar 's back. Great bowler, top guy & since when was being 'intimidating' not an asset for The Ashes?

[captainfog]

Clarke a doubt for the first test. Bad backs are tough, once you've got one then that's pretty much it and all you can do is manage it. I don't think there are many more years in Clarke and the Aussies will really struggle without him. I reckon he'll retire after the World Cup.

[Chazza]

Is Haddin the vice captain?

[captainfog]

Is Haddin the vice captain?

Yep

[EwarWoo]

Less than 2 months and I'll be sat at the gabba for 2 days, in the Brissie sunshine, drinking beer and watching the lads

My new job at work as me sat next to an absolutely massive Aussie cricket fan, who's not going for the first time in memory, because hes so ****ed off with the state of Aussie cricket. So that's the rest of the series sorted too

[Shaggy]

Hotspot axed for the forthcoming series.

[Hollowman]

The Australians didn't cope with Ian Bell very well either. Are Channel Nine going to try to axe him too?

[Shaggy]