The Summer Ahead

An exciting summer of cricket beckons for England with the visits of Sri Lanka and India to these shores. The Ashes triumph seems a long time ago, its memory tarnished by the one day series and World Cup performances that followed, but England are now a formidable proposition in test cricket and will be looking to build on their spectacular successes in the winter.

They have the benefit of a settled side and an established coaching team. With most of the side now back on county duty after a well earned rest we can start to turn our attention to Cardiff on 26 May. It seems likely that the selectors have only a handful of decisions to make: the top three are settled, Matt Prior will keep wicket and bat at number seven and Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann seem assured of their places, fitness permitting. The middle order presents one or two challenges but, that apart, the only decision seems to be the identity of the third seamer.

An obvious gap has been created in the middle order with the retirement of Paul Collingwood, but Kevin Pietersen’s hernia and Ian Bell’s development will also pose questions, if only about the order. Pietersen may well benefit from a move to number five, the position from which he made such a stellar start to his test career, with Bell’s new found maturity being given its head at number four.

The gap, then, exists at number six, and the selectors have a range of options. Last summer they went for Eoin Morgan but his performance in, admittedly, bowler friendly conditions was patchy and his decision to play in the IPL significantly restricts his opportunities to impress the selectors in the build up to the tests. Ravi Bopara, who turned down the IPL in order to concentrate on trying to get a test spot, started the season poorly but is starting to hit his stride and, of course, offers the bowling option that Collingwood also provided. Outside these two the selectors will also be looking seriously at James Hildreth, who has also endured a pretty mediocre start to the season but performed well as captain of the Lions in the winter and possibly James Taylor, another who enjoyed his winter in the Caribbean and who has started the season pretty well. What the selectors should definitely do is resist the temptation to include Varun Chopra. He has certainly been impressive in scoring two double hundreds but his career so far has been patchy and he will need to prove himself over a longer period if he is to be seriously considered for a test place. He is also an opening batsman: players such as Nick Knight and Ian Ward have suffered in the past from being picked out of position and it makes more sense in this instance to go for an established middle order batsman. If it were down to me I would go for Bopara, but the suspicion lurks that the selectors will want to have another look at Morgan.

The man in possession of the role of third seamer is Chris Tremlett and natural justice dictates that he should keep his place after his superb performances in Australia. He will be pushed hard by a whole host of quicks, though, for Tim Bresnan also bowled magnificently in Melbourne and Sydney, Steven Finn looks considerably better for having had a rest, Graeme Onions has returned from injury impressively for Durham, Chris Woakes is in fine form for Warwickshire and Jade Dernbach will have been encouraged by his call-up to England’s World Cup squad and will feel that he has a chance if he can put together a consistent run of form. It is an area of enviable depth for England at the moment and they will need it against the impressive batting line-ups that they will face this summer.