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England announce unchanged squad

By Will 3 years ago, at the end of July Leave a comment on this post

UPDATE: August 1, Paul Collingwood has been called up.

Thank God. As Atherton says this morning, England must keep the faith, and by naming an unchanged squad they’re demonstrating that they’re not panicking (Mr Mannering). There really wasn’t much point in naming Collingwood (he would have been the only possible inclusion) over Giles, yet.

I refuse to be downbeat. A company phoned me (6 times) last week, and I eventually rang them back to tell them where to go, after they refused to leave a voicemail. The girl who answered was very chatty, and after establishing what the company wanted from me, our thoughts turned to cricket (as they do). She too was a fan, and her words are still echoing in my ears: “It’s one nil, not 3 nil. We can still win the Ashes”

As Atherton, again, says today:

Like Bull, I’m instinctively inclined to have more faith in this England team. Their achievements and recent record demand that - at least for a little while longer.

Cricinfo has some quotes and words.

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4 Responses to “England announce unchanged squad”

  • Russ Degnan wrote:
    July 31st, 2005 at 1.58 pm

    I Don’t buy this “keeping the faith with a proven squad”. The bowling attack, sure, but they performed well enough at Lord’s. The batting though…

    This isn’t the Australian team with roughly the same players for four or more years. Look at the batsmen who went to South Africa, they won but they didn’t exactly set the world on fire either. Of the three players with proven records against Australia, two have been dropped (Butcher and Thorpe), and one is in a form slump (Vaughan). Trescothick, Strauss and Flintoff have proven test records, but Pietersen and Bell have proven nothing, both having missed the South Africa tour, and Jones has only proven that he is an average bat and poor keeper.

    Atherton is wrong. The selectors aren’t keeping the faith with a proven batting lineup, they are keeping the faith with the idea that this is the best team they can put on the park. Which may be true of course, but I don’t think it is. I think they are a batsman short.

  • Gaurav wrote:
    July 31st, 2005 at 5.47 pm

    I agree. In fact this is NOT the team that has helped them get to #2 in the World. That team had the veteran-triplet of Thorpe, Butcher and Hussain who are for various reasons unavailable - but if England are thinking that the youngsters can just walk in and fill in the void left by these they are wrong. Read this for more of my views - http://gamesupreme.blogspot.com/2005/07/if-it-broke-fix-it.html

  • The Ashes wrote:
    August 1st, 2005 at 9.43 pm

    England go with more of the same

    England selectors have preferred stability over form, and picked the same squad as they went with for the 1st Test. I think that’s a smart move, even though there has been a strong push for Paul Collingwood to be included.

  • Will wrote:
    August 1st, 2005 at 9.57 pm

    Paul Collingwood has now called up

    http://www.cricket.mailliw.com/archives/2005/08/01/collingwood-called-up-for-second-test/

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