My Ashes Pick

As a blog writer I will admit I read very few blogs (I know), but one blog I tend to always read is that of Oliver Brett on BBC Sport and when I recently read his Ashes Pick and I realised it is just over 8 weeks until England’s tour of Australia to defend the ashes begins in earnest.

Don’t worry we’ll have another 3 weeks down under before the first test begins in Brisbane. After reading his informative blog, it made me wonder;

Who would make my 16 man squad for the test series in Australia?

I’ll admit make the choice for the starting XI seems to have become an easy process for the England Cricket team and the board of selectors as they seem set to have six batsmen, wicket-keeper at number 7 and four out-and-out bowling options, especially with Graeme Swann’s (pictured below) amazing streak of form.

Below are my selections and my reasons will follow below the selections;

- Andrew Strauss (capt), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan, Paul Collingwood, Alistair Cook, Steven Davies (wkt), Steven Finn, Eoin Morgan, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior (wkt), Adil Rashid, Ajmal Shazhad, Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott.

To many it will seem a fairly straight forward selection but several debates have taken place over the choices of reserve wicket-keeper, back up spinner and the reserve seam bowling options, here are my reasons for those selections.

As mentioned the starting XI almost selects itself and that is a good thing, but the back up options need to be extremely competent, experienced and also players with whom the English national team can use to build for the future and apart from Ian Bell my other choices are in-line with that.

Ian Bell – An obvious choice in my opinion. A back up for several key batting positions at the top of the order and should Eoin Morgan fail to deliver early on the tour then Ian Bell will step into the number 6 position with obvious ease.

Adil Rashid – I like a good friend of mine, Chris Newton, are big fans of Adil and this season has seen his progression on the county scene to the pinnacle of the bowling stats with over 50 wickets as well as proving a handy back up with the bat. A definite pick in my opinion. 

Tim Bresnan – I’m a huge fan of this man, as my Recent Blog (click here) will recently back up. A fantastic all-round cricketer who will mature into one of the best all-rounders in the world game, He needs this tour for his natural progression.

Steven Davies - ”I’ve seen a lot of him this summer & with a first class batting average of over 50 for the year & a good keeper…he’s in” Nigel Webster, cricket fanatic. I agree though Craig Kieswetter is a better batsmen but Davies is the better glove-man and all-round performer.

Ajmal Shazhad – Has taken 28 wickets in only 8 county games this season and takes wickets when called upon for England duty. I am a huge fan of Ryan Sidebotham but feel his time has gone and it’s now time for the younger generation to progress.

Do you agree?

Let me know and as for the Australia squad, I am reliably informed they should select the following 16 players for the ashes series;

- Shane Watson, Simon Katich, Ricky Ponting (cpt), Michael Clarke, Mike Hussey, Marcus North,  Brad Haddin (wkt), Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Ben Hilfenhaus, Doug Bollinger, Philip Hughes, Steve Smith, Peter Siddle, Tim Paine (wkt), Ryan Harris.

Thoughts

Cheers for reading

Gaffers

P.s. below are all the tour dates for the ashes, bookmark then for ease of reference.

Friday, 5th November 2010

Tour Match

Western Australia v England, Perth, 0:00

Thursday, 11 November 2010

Tour Match

South Australia v England, Adelaide, 0:00

Wednesday, 17 November 2010

Tour Match

Australia A v England, Hobart, 0:00

Thursday, 25 November 2010

Test Match Series, First Test Match
Australia v England, Brisbane

Friday, 03 December 2010

Test Match Series, Second Test Match
Australia v England, Adelaide

Friday, 10 December 2010

Tour Match

Victoria v England, Melbourne, 0:00

Thursday, 16 December 2010

Test Match Series, Third Test Match
Australia v England, Perth

Sunday, 26 December 2010

Test Match Series, Fourth Test Match
Australia v England, Melbourne

Monday, 03 January 2011

Test Match Series, Fifth Test Match
Australia v England, Sydney

Plus 7 one-day internationals to follow…