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Eoin Morgan is a real cricket star. everyone has it ups and downs. i'm sure he will show what he worth again.

The question that Morgan will be expected to answer at some point is whether he is capable of batting out a game where winning is not possible. It's a negative attitude but there are times in Test cricket where occupying the crease and running the clock down is what is required. I don't think getting out to a reverse sweep will be looked on to kindly in those circumstances.

Having said that, it is extremely exciting to think that England could have the sort of batting firepower that Australia possessed at test level for so long - score 600+ in 1 and a half days and put the opposition in.

Good luck Morgan!

With such flamboyant and dynamic rising stars like Eoin Morgan, England's future looks bright.

Morgan played a pivotal role in England's recent success in the Caribbean. I am certain this brilliant, colourful lad will adjust quite well to the preeminent format of the game and add the kind of flash so many have taken away from Test cricket by blocking and nurdling all day long.

Good luck, Eoin!

i agree with 'uk086242' on this one, i'm a big morgan fan and really want him to do well. but the question remains could he hold out on the final day of a test match with 40 overs to go and mitchell johnson and shaun tait steaming in at him. hopefully he'll prove me wrong but until then i do have a few doubts.

Good luck Morgan!!

I'm more interested in what this will do to the batting order if Morgan succeeds. Colly is certain to come back in for the Pakistan / Australia series which means (on current form) Trott is likely to make way. In that scenario I really hope that they push Pietersen up to 3. For the Pakistan series we could look at KP at 3, Morgan at 4 and have Colly ready to come in at 5 in case things get wobbly...!

It is time to bank these youngsters like Morgan and put them in to stay for a while - I would love to see an England line-up in Australia like this:
Strauss
Cook
Bell (he needs to be up at 3 - he can really play - give him the nod)
Pietersen
Morgan
Prior
Bresnan
Broad
Swann
Anderson
A N Other Quick (Finn, Shazad, Shreck etc)
Sadly, I would remove Collingwood from the test side - but keep him as the one day captain. Although, if you want an extra batsman - he would be a good bet in place of, say, Bresnan.
An interesting summer ahead and if we get it right, there is every chance that we can retain the Ashes on foreign soil, which is always a good thing.

Enanjay

Yeh, he can really play, but not at 3!

Everytime he moves down the order he gets runs, everytime he moves up he fails!

Keep him at 5. I think if Morgan succeed's it might be the start of the end for Bell

Strauss
Cook
Bell
Pietersen
Collingwood
Morgan
Prior/Kieswetter
Swann
Bresnan
Broad
Anderson

Remove one of Bell/Morgan etc. when an extra bowler is needed. This team considering Graeme Onions injury, otherwise he would have been in it instead of Bresnan.

@splendidsparrow

Surely it means Ireland's cricket future is bright?! If we stop losing our better players (Joyce & Morgan) to England then we'll become far more than plucky underdogs. The hurling skills Morgan uses on the cricket pitch shows just how good the Irish could be?

I hope the case of Morgan enlightens Ireland to their cricketing credentials.

In the mean time though, the lad's done brilliantly for himself, and i hope he's in the test side for many years to come!

IMO morgan wont make the first ashes test match. I think collingwood will come back in for the test against pakistain. Dont forget he did get a double hundred on the last tour there. Bell & trott are the ones most likely to come under pressure, but with trott at 3 i think he will score sufficient runs against bangladesh to ensure that the pressure is off of him.

I think morgan will do well in this form of the game, but his overall first class average and the one from last summer suggests he needs to work on this form of the game.

BTW im fairly pleased with this team selection. Its a huge 18 months or so with lots of cricket to be paid. Giving players like collingwood & broad a rest now is important. In addition Id look to give 1 or 2 more a rest come the ODI series. Why not give KP a rest in say the 3rd game?

Bell in the team!!! Who next? Rampers (Mark Ramprakash)? Come on, Bell and for that matter MR have had multiple chances in the England test team and they simply have not delivered often enough to justify re-selection. They are both known quantities at test level - good players and no more. Unfortunately, county circuit averages are not the best yardstick for judging success at test level.

Whilst it is fantastic for Morgan to have his chance in the Test arena, as an Englishman I would prefer to see players like Morgan and Joyce push Ireland towards Test status so that we can have another potential opponent on the World stage.

And as for Ian Bell at number 3... I think 6 is his position!

I dont understand all this 'extra bowler' nonsense, a test team should have 6 batsmen, the keeper at number 7 and then a spinner and 3 seamers. I really think that if the England selectors keep saying horses for courses, we will pick form players etc etc then Rob Key should be getting the nod, with the team looking something like this...

Cook
Strauss
Key
Pietersen
Collingwood
Morgan
Prior
Swann
Bresnan
Broad
Anderson if its cloudy, Finn if its not

Notice the distinct lack of Warwickshire middle order batsmen, And other players like Kieswetter and Onions and Rashid, all ready to step in as soon as form or conditions dictate!

UK086242 - agree with the Ramprakassh bit, but Bell came of age in South Africa this winter and deserves his place up the order now to make runs with partners rather than when running out of them. Pietersen at 4 is a great place for him as, he may well be coming in with 200/250 on the board and then we have a springboard - if not, he can still play a more circumspect innings.
I am really encouraged about the line-up for the Ashes - bring it on - we are miles ahead of where we were on our last trip down under. The Aussie bowling attack is hardly 'life threatening' and we have the best chance of retaining the Ashes for ages.
I admire Collingwood immensely, but, surely, we must move on and build for the future - that means younger players - if they have flair (like Morgan) all the better for it.
At least we now have a debate about who is best in the team, not pick the best of a bad bunch, which we have had for some time in the middle order. Healthy I call it!!

Disagree with Saami that Bresnan gets the nod ahead of Anderson. Anderson is our spearhead and is a better wicket-taker than Bresnan. Bresnan is good, but not with greatness potential. Anderson has that.

Shimmie,

I fully agree with you that Ireland's great talents should remain in Ireland to help that nation gain more success at the international level and perhaps Test status one day.

At the 2007 WC in the Caribbean, I had the pleasure of watching Ireland and South Africa compete and it was a treat to watch those lads play against the world's top teams.

And don't forget that Ireland sent Pakistan home on 17 March after that infamous game in Jamaica in which coach BOb Woolmer died mysterously that night.

The ICC must recognize Ireland's great potential and do whatever is necessary to assist the players there. If Bangladesh are allowed to play Tests, why not Ireland?

" 15. At 1:28pm on 26 May 2010, Saami wrote:

I dont understand all this 'extra bowler' nonsense, a test team should have 6 batsmen, the keeper at number 7 and then a spinner and 3 seamers."

That is simply wrong.It can work, but it is a substantial risk and not that common in the best teams.
Assuming that you have six decent batters, then playing the extra one should mean you score roughly an extra 60 runs (in 2 inns) compared to playing a bowler who can bat a bit. You probably will bat for maybe an extra two hours as well. So if you are trying to draw, it makes some sense.
However, a 4 man attack is always a risk because bowlers can and do get injured and tired. Lose any of the four and you immediately have a problem - how do you bowl 90 overs with just three bowlers?
Even if you don't lose a bowler, taking 20 wickets means each bowler needs to average 5 per test (maybe just below to allow for run outs).
Only Swann (85 in 18) is anywhere near this of the current team: Anderson is less than 3.5 (156 in 46), the others are below 3 wkts per match(Onions and sidebottom are 3.5, but they aren't in the squad).
It isn't because they are poor, it is pretty rare to find someone averaging 5wkts per match: Muralitharan and Steyn both do, but Johnson is only 4.4.
The 4 bowlers is almost entirely due to Australia's recent dominance, and the fact that they had two of the best bowlers in the world for 15 years. The old West Indies did play with four fast bowlers (again, they had the best bowlers around - Garner, Holding,Marshall, Walsh, Ambrose, Croft and Roberts) - but they usually had a spinner as well, and they were notorious for their slow over rate.

uk086242

This isn't about a team, its about a squad for next winter. Leave Bell alone, anyone who the Aussies single out like that must have something. But anyway, we need 16 players to go, and we don't want them to be drinks carriers who we don't dare play (like Rashid last winter). So Morgan plays against Bangladesh but wouldn't be surprised to see Colly back for Pakistan.

Morgan has shown he can handle pressure, which can say more than averages do, eg look at Marcus North in the Ashes : 2 x centuries when under no pressure, 4 x failures when under pressure.

@ JA;

We still have the ocassional dibbles of Collingwood, not to mention Pietersens slight off spin. This is the debate caused by the loss of Freddie, i suppose its ironic for my argument that this England team has a very very long tail, with the batting of Swann, Bresnan and Broad more than enough to pick up the extra runs if a 5th bowler is played.
However (again using this England team as an example) if 5 bowlers were played, im sure we would find at least one of them standing at cow corner all day and bowling less than your average bear.

For those people that are picking an England bowling attack of Swann, Bresnan, Broad and Anderson I would ask: do you really think that this balance would get 20 wickets consistently against Australia?

I have my doubts.

Swann has been a revelation in test cricket but:
Anderson - although he's much improved is no Dale Steyn or Michell Johnson
Bresnan - I have been impressed with his improvement but, until the Bangladesh tour, looked like a fourth seamer
Broad - still too inconsistent and needs to get his batting average to look more like his bowling average and vice versa

We have to find a fifth seamer in my opinion. I've not seen enough of Finn, Sidebottom needs to get fit again and Onions need to recover from injury. Nobody else I've seen tried looks test class. If it was me I'd go: Bresnan, Broad, Swann, Anderson and Onions (or try Finn until Onions is fit).

On the batsman I would argue with those who constantly dismiss Bell. He's always had a decent average for England (similar to Strauss, Collingwood and Cook) and the question mark has been whether he can score runs under pressure. He's largely answered this over the last year and has arguably been England's best batsman and his place should not be under threat. With so many batsman suited to the middle order I still think he could do a job at three and has done better there than anyone else who's been tried.

I'd go: Cook, Strauss, Bell, Pietersen, Collingwood

The wicketkeeper's position is still Prior's to lose as he has the desired ability to bat well and keep ok. Kieswetter is not ready to keep at Test level.

So, although it might not be groundbreaking I still think England's best side is:

Cook
Strauss
Bell
Pietersen
Collingwood
Prior
Bresnan
Broad
Swann
Anderson
Onions

We have enough lower order batting to play five bowlers and Finn, Morgan and Kieswetter ar useful youngsters to have in reserve.

Does Morgan actually have a British passport? I heard not, but could be wrong. If not, is this the first case of someone representing a country without actually being a citizen of that country? There's been a lot of focus on the SA contingent, but all of them have British passports and live in the UK.

When Morgan retires and England play Ireland I guess he will support Ireland? I really think this needs to be sorted out, and Ireland should keep their best players.

13. At 12:23pm on 26 May 2010, uk086242 wrote:

Bell in the team!!! Who next? Rampers (Mark Ramprakash)? Come on, Bell and for that matter MR have had multiple chances in the England test team and they simply have not delivered often enough to justify re-selection.

-----

That's an unfair comparison. Yes, Bell hasn't quite lived up to his potential, but please compare their records. After a similar number of games, Ramps averages 27 with 2 centuries, Bell 42 with 10 centuries.

As I said, Bell hasn't quite lived up to his potential, but Ramprakash didn't turn up on the international scene at all.

Eoin Morgan and centurion Jonathan Trott had a decent partnership of over a hundred runs. The young and hugely talented Morgan is certainly capable of more than the 44 he got. Best wishes to him in his test career.



Dr. Cajetan Coelho

my ashes team
Strauss
Cook
Pietersen
Morgan
paul collingwood
Prior
Bresnan
Broad
Swann
Anderson
extra player i bell, Finn