Thursday 23 August 2012

Defending The Crown

England have named their squad for the World T20 tournament, to be played in Sri Lanka in September, a competition they enter as holders after winning the last tournament in the West Indies in 2010.  There are a few notable changes from that 2010 team, as the captain, the leading bowler, and of course the Man of the Tournament are no longer part of the England setup for one reason or another.  It will be tough for England to defend their title, but they are still the number one ranked side in T20, and will rightly enter the tournament with a high level of confidence.

The lineup for Englands last T20 game v the Windies was Kieswetter, Hales, Bopara, Morgan, Buttler, Bairstow, Patel, Swann, Broad (c), Dernbach, Finn.

All of the above 11 have been named, and are joined by Bresnan, Wright, Briggs and Lumb.  Bresnan Wright and Lumb were key members of the 2010 squad.  Lumb may have to back up Kieswetter and Hales, who smashed an England T20 record score of 99 v the West Indies in the last match.  Briggs is something of a T20 specialist, with a career economy rate below 7 an over and a wicket every 16 balls.  He is a specialist slow bowler, and not much of a spinner (much like Samit Patel, another slow left arm option).  Luke Wright has been in and around the England setup since 2007, and has been hampered by having never found a specialist role (jack of all, master of....).

The key men for England are :
Eoin Morgan, one of the most destructive limited overs batsmen in the world
Graeme Swann, a wily campaigner who found Sri Lankan pitches to his liking in the recent test series (and his comeback International tour back in 2007)
Steve Finn, the fastest bowler in the squad with a proven track record of extracting life from even the flattest subcontinental wickets in the last year, and
Stuart Broad, entering an international tournament as captain for the first time, he must keep his temper and set an example for his mostly young squad (only two over 30s!)

Can England win? Yes, of course they can.  They are a well drilled, well set squad.  Will they win? I'm an England cricket fan, I'm not counting my chickens.

No comments:

Post a Comment