Have to agree with YB here. The running of the England team, and ECB matters generally has been shambolic since early 2007. We now seem to be reverting back to the 90's spinlessness.
Makes you appreciate what Fletcher achieved with the team for so many years now. Those in charge (and the press) seemed to think we could get rid of him and build on what he did but that looks dubious now.
I still think we will win this series, but the progress, or lack of, certain players is the most concerning element. Fletcher got the best out of players, now we have players not playing to their potential or developing.
For me, Id axe Collingwood ahead of Bell as I have never thought he had the class. He certainly has the fight and grit, and has carved a good career, but whenever we are 3 down I feel we are in to the allrounders. Obviously Bell is first neck on the line but I wouldnt cry if he was shifted down to 5 to relieve some pressure and Shah came in at 3.
I still think Anderson was unlucky to be dropped as he was seeming to develop quite well and Sidebottom has done notihng in 6 months out of the team to jusify inclusion.
I still think we will win this series, but at a time when the Aussies are down, we are not looking like a team with the neccessary heart, desire and application to win an ashes series...
Exactly what I said to someone when we subsided to 26-7. Remember back to the days before Nasser Hussain was handed the captaincy and Duncan Fletcher the coaches job and that's pretty much what you got - although even then I can remember more battling performances than today being inspired by the likes of Atherton, Stewart and Robin Smith.
I'm getting quite tired of people, either within the squad or in the media, saying that we weren't prepared for each series, whether that be the Stanford 'Super' Series, the Indian ODI tour (I can accept the Test leg having been disrupted) and now this tour.
No, we probably don't have enough warm-up matches, but that's because the players and the ECB don't want them - you can't have your cake and eat it. KP, Freddie, Collingwood, Shah and possibly Bopara will come into the home series with the Windies having just played a month's worth of Twenty20 cricket, so I don't suppose they'll be complaining of a lack of preparation then.
IMHO, the reason we've lost this first Test - putting aside excellent bowling from Benn and Taylor - is because we've completely taken our eye off of the Windies. They have been slowly improving for some time (though not to the extent that they should be bowling England out for 51), and instead of focussing on one series at a time, which is what our recent form suggests we should, we've been looking forward to the Ashes already, especially with Australia struggling.
Well, there's three Tests left to sort things out now. Nick Knight put it well in the immediate aftermath on SKY this evening - all of the England front-line batsmen average over 40 in Test cricket, but how many of them are performing (answer: Strauss in India, KP = 2)? There is only one other frontline batsman on the tour, with a Lions squad about to head to New Zealand, so big changes are unlikely. Shah deserves his opportunity - whether it comes at the expense of Bell or Collingwood in inconsequential. Whoever is left has to stand up and be counted.
English batsmen have gone into series with a complacent attitude of late, and only one of them truly deserves to hold it - KP. It's time for Cook to go and get a century, and he'll only make sure that his place is guaranteed beyond this winter if he goes on and gets a big one: all of his previous seven Test centuries haven't threatened 150, let alone 200.
I still actually think that Strauss is better-positioned to deal with this sort of situation than KP as captain, and at least KP can go out and concentrate on his batting now.
As for the bowlers, Swann outperformed Panesar in India, so deserves his chance should he get it - even if Panesar was unfortunate not to get Sarwan in a testing spell on Thursday evening, he wasn't as unlucky as Benn, who in another Test could've taken ten wickets instead of eight.
Sidebottom probably did enough, fitness prevailing to retain his place, but Anderson should come in for Harmison, who was off-key again. The Oval Test last summer and the ODIs that followed seem a long way away now, don't they?
However, it's the batsmen that really deserve the pasting - the bowlers stuck to their task manfully, and kept the Windies down to a respectable score. Hopefully the fightback starts in Antigua later this week...
