England Tour to South Africa

So after a long summer of cricket that included the Ashes Test Series, the Hectic 7 match One Day Series between Australia and England and then the ICC Champions Trophy tournament England will be hopping on a plane and jetting off to South Africa for a long tour that will last from the 1st November to the 18th January.

The squads were announced back earlier this month and there were a few surprises in both squads with Liam Plunkett and Luke Wright being included in the Test Squad and also Sajid Mahmood and Alastair Cook being included again in the One Day format of the game, the full squads are below:

Test squad: Andrew Strauss (Middlesex - captain), Alastair Cook (Essex - vice captain), James Anderson (Lancashire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Paul Collingwood (Durham), Steven Davies (Surrey), Graham Onions (Durham), Kevin Pietersen (Hampshire), Liam Plunkett (Durham), Matt Prior (Sussex), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Ryan Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire), Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire), Jonathan Trott (Warwickshire), Luke Wright (Sussex).

One-day squad: Andrew Strauss (Middlesex - captain), James Anderson (Lancashire), Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Paul Collingwood (Durham), Alastair Cook (Essex), Joe Denly (Kent), Sajid Mahmood (Lancashire), Eoin Morgan (Middlesex), Graham Onions (Durham), Kevin Pietersen (Hampshire), Matt Prior (Sussex), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire), Jonathan Trott (Warwickshire), Luke Wright (Sussex).

So what i'm going to look at is my 2 sides that would play from these squads if they all remain fit and explain why I have chosen the 2 sides.

Test Team
1 - Andrew Strauss
2 - Alastair Cook
3 - Ian Bell
4 - Kevin Pietersen
5 - Jonathan Trott
6 - Matthew Prior
7 - Luke Wright
8 - Stuart Broad
9 - Graeme Swann
10 - Jimmy Anderson
11 - Graham Onions

The reason I have gone with the above team is because I think that Ian Bell although not always performed at his best is easily one of the technically best batsmen in the world and let us not forget the magical 199 he got last time he played the South Africans and for me Trott is a better pick than Paul collingwood who has barely scored any runs in the Ashes and can no longer do a good enough job at number 5. The only other place in dispute is the number 7 spot and I would go for Luke Wright as he is young, a good striker of the cricket ball and bowls at a brisk pace and can be a handy back up for the other 3 main seamers.

One Day Team
1 - Andrew Strauss
2 - Joe Denly
3 - Ian Bell
4 - Kevin Pietersen
5 - Paul Collingwood
6 - Eoin Morgan
7 - Matthew Prior
8 - Luke Wright
9 - Stuart Broad
10 - Graeme Swann
11 - Jimmy Anderson

I have gone for the above team as you have the longer batting order and if you were worried about the bowling you could exchange Luke Wright for Tim Bresnan however i think that in the One Day format then you should have enough bowlers especially if you were willing to use Kevin Pietersen as a part time spinner as he does turn the ball a lot.

I am sure that these above teams will not be the ones that walk out to the middle to start the series but in my opinion if the England management want to be seen to be making a go at competing in the One Day arena as well as the Test arena then they have to make changes from the past series that have gone and the above team could well do that.