Countdown to the Windies - Part 1
Photo by Dominic Sayers
After all the controversy surrounding the future of Kevin Pietersen and Peter Moores, everything seems to have settled down somewhat. Moores has left his position as coach without a whisper, Pietersen is back to being ‘just’ England’s best batsman and Andrew Strauss is the new skipper.
With this in mind, it seems as though the time has finally come to preview the West Indies tour. What is the best way to do this I hear you ask? Well, how about a brief summary of what we can expect from each player over the next couple of months?
Andrew Strauss – The new captain needs to lead from the front and continue his excellent form. A century in the first Test would do wonders for him.
Alistair Cook – We need to see more of a man that too often gets out after making a decent start. How many Test matches has he actually won for England?
Ian Bell – This is a huge tour for the Sherminator. He needs to repay the faith shown in him by scoring plenty of big scores batting at number three.
Kevin Pietersen – Been in the news for the wrong reasons recently and could do with winning back a few fans by showing why he is one of the best batsmen in the world.
Paul Collingwood – Like Ian Bell, could do with a few runs to establish his place in the side. Colly always seems to get a big innings when it matters though!
Owais Shah – Probably the unluckiest England cricketer. Seems to perform wonders in the one-dayers, but still likely to miss out to Ian ‘can’t buy a run’ Bell.
Andrew Flintoff – Anyone else get the feeling that Fred is going to peak just in time for the Ashes in the summer? It’s going to be a very productive tour for him in my opinion.
Matt Prior – The Sussex man is likely to start off with the gloves in West Indies and in all honesty, I wouldn’t be totally confident that he will still have them by the end of the tour. Needs runs.
We’ll leave it there for now and complete the preview next week where I shall be casting an eye over back-up keeper Tim Ambrose and the England bowlers charged with ripping through the West Indies batting line-up.
Until then – what would you top 6 be for the first Test? Does it pick itself or should Shah be given a go?
By Thomas Rooney – A sports writer who blogs about cricket betting
