I doubt that this will be the team for Saturday's first game but it is the one I would pick:
Roy Buttler Moeen Ali Bairstow Livingstone Morgan Billings Willey Adil Rashid Wood Mills
This leaves out Malan, Tom Curran, Jordan and Woakes
Like your side but agree it wont happen.
I'm a fan of Willey and think he is a useful player to have in the squad but would I have him in the first 11? nah.
He's a budget Sam Curran, only good in the first 4 overs of the game - once the ball stops swinging he has nothing. Mills provides the left arm variation we have plenty of spin options and Wood/Mills with genuine pace. I think Jordan has to play. He is the best death bowler in the county by a mile. No world where he doesn't play.
I've been a big advocate of Jordan but left him out because he didn't bowl very well in these two games. In fact, his recent T20 international form has been poor particularly from the perspective that, as a death bowler, one would expect him to pick up his fair share of wickets late on. His returns in the last year have been (in chronological order working back):
So overall this reads 54.5-2-477-9 so that's an economy rate of 8.70 and just nine wickets. However, when one leaves out SL who were a very poor side when we met them in June (scores of 129, 111 & 96) his stats then read 42.5-1-404-7. That's an economy rate of 9.44 and has only taken seven wickets and he's bowling predominantly when wickets fall late on.
The other thing that confused me a bit was that he only played in one IPL game in the UAE. These wickets really should suit his style of bowling and I just wonder whether the Indians believe that they've worked him out. Those five games against India during which time he's returned 21.5-1-233-4 (ER 10.70) suggests that they might have done.
Agree about Willey potentially only being able to bowl at the start but his opening spell against India in the Power Play only went for 10 in two overs. He then came back and bowled the 18th over and only went for six runs and took the wicket of Surayakumar too. Could it be that on this surface he doesn't need swing so much as pace off cutters are what works best?
I certainly wouldn't initially raise an eyebrow if Jordan is picked because he is in situ. I just wonder though if, in playing so much franchise cricket, Jordan's familiarity has bred contempt. I hope not especially as he is a major asset in the field.
All good points - I see Willey as a good option but would pick Jordan and cant see them not picking him.
Bit of an imbalance in the groups. Potential banana skins from the qualifiers in Group A in the form of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, especially on these pitches whereas the likes of Scotland (notwithstanding the fact that they did beat Bangladesh) and Namibia really should not offer the same sort of threat. "Should" being the operative word:
A Australia England South Africa West Indies Bangladesh Sri Lanka
B Afghanistan India New Zealand Pakistan Namibia Scotland
When you look at the Australian side, it's a real headscratcher as to why they don't do better in T20:
Finch Warner Marsh (M) Maxwell Smith Stoinis Wade Cummins Starc Zampa Hazlewood
A top seven that just keeps coming with probably the best T20 batsman in the world (sorry Dawid) in the shape of Maxwell (six scores of 37 or more in last seven innings), three world class seamers, a top white ball spinner in Zampa and supplemented by the liquorice all sorts from Maxwell and cutters from Stoinis.
If they find any sort of form. the 8.6 (15/2) available on Betfair for them to win it might look big in a few weeks times. Therein lies the "if" though
Maxwell and Hazelwood played more matches and bowled more balls in the UAE part of the IPL than any other Australian and it is showing. Starc, who didn't, bowled the wrong length
I really like the format of this competition. The preliminary round served as a nice warm-up for the main event, we've had some good games between the associate members and we've been spared the predictable thrashing that one of the top teams would have given to PNG or NL. Roll on the England games; we could win this thing, or equally we could get turned over by Sri Lanka who have looked pretty good in the preliminaries.
Bit of an imbalance in the groups. Potential banana skins from the qualifiers in Group A in the form of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, especially on these pitches whereas the likes of Scotland (notwithstanding the fact that they did beat Bangladesh) and Namibia really should not offer the same sort of threat. "Should" being the operative word:
A Australia England South Africa West Indies Bangladesh Sri Lanka
B Afghanistan India New Zealand Pakistan Namibia Scotland
That's especially clear when you look at the net run rates of the 4 qualifying teams
Sri Lanka 3.754 Scotland 0.775 Namibia -0.523 Bangladesh 1.733
Scotland did brilliantly to beat Bangladesh and win the group, but 9 times out of 10 you'd expect them to lose that match
Gayle is exactly the sort of player that doesn't suit the sort of pitches/scores that AA keeps on going on about. Add in the fact that he can barely run anymore and he's basically a waste of space because the quick singles and 2s are key to these games.
Also how the hell does Ravi Rampaul still get in an international side? He was considerably worse (and older) than Jade Deenbach when he last played for Surrey about 4/5 years ago. And I certainly wouldnt want Dernbach in the side. Particularly since Jade is now mates with @Addickted2TheReds.
Comments
A
Australia
England
South Africa
West Indies
Bangladesh
Sri Lanka
B
Afghanistan
India
New Zealand
Pakistan
Namibia
Scotland
Finch
Warner
Marsh (M)
Maxwell
Smith
Stoinis
Wade
Cummins
Starc
Zampa
Hazlewood
A top seven that just keeps coming with probably the best T20 batsman in the world (sorry Dawid) in the shape of Maxwell (six scores of 37 or more in last seven innings), three world class seamers, a top white ball spinner in Zampa and supplemented by the liquorice all sorts from Maxwell and cutters from Stoinis.
If they find any sort of form. the 8.6 (15/2) available on Betfair for them to win it might look big in a few weeks times. Therein lies the "if" though
Sri Lanka 3.754 Scotland 0.775
Namibia -0.523 Bangladesh 1.733
Scotland did brilliantly to beat Bangladesh and win the group, but 9 times out of 10 you'd expect them to lose that match
Windies 9 for 2
England on fire
Also how the hell does Ravi Rampaul still get in an international side? He was considerably worse (and older) than Jade Deenbach when he last played for Surrey about 4/5 years ago. And I certainly wouldnt want Dernbach in the side. Particularly since Jade is now mates with @Addickted2TheReds.
Unbelievable stuff
Also would get Morgan in early for an opportunity to find some form with relatively low pressure