England's selection dilemmas
With the England selectors set to pick the Test squad for the series against Sri Lanka, one of the biggest debates is over who will be picked for the No
Akhila Ranganna
25-Feb-2013
With the England selectors set to pick the Test squad for the series against Sri Lanka, one of the biggest debates is over who will be picked for the No. 6 slot - Ravi Bopara or Eoin Morgan? Vic Marks in the Observer writes that if England were certain Bopara would play in the first Test against Sri Lanka, they should not have picked him for the Lions.
By picking Bopara for the Lions the selectors were inviting the intervention of Sod's Law. Bopara fails in the first innings and Eoin Morgan, scuttling back from India, cracks 193. How can they ignore such evidence without looking silly and without demeaning the status of these Lions fixtures? They can't.
Peter Haytor in the Daily Mail writes that unless the England selectors intended all along to pull off the dummy of the decade by dropping Kevin Pietersen, they should ignore calls to punish Morgan for his IPL involvement and pick him ahead of Bopara.
But those who would have had him punished for lack of loyalty to the badge are ignoring the fact that, if England thought his IPL involvement was against their interests, they had the option of stopping him. But they gave him the no-objection certificate all international players must obtain from their boards to take part in the IPL.
Apart from the Morgan-Bopara tussle, the other batting place which is under most scrutiny is that of Kevin Pietersen says Stephen Brenkley in the Independent. He goes on to write that at present it is by no means certain that Pietersen will still be No 4 in England's Test side at the end of this summer.
The fact is that Pietersen is not the batsman he used to be and, apart from his sublime 227 in the second Test against Australia last winter, there was precious little else from the days of yore.
Since he lost the captaincy, Pietersen has regularly been prone to injury. He is not exactly on borrowed time but while England still consider that he is capable of returning to his full glory, he is not the cock of the walk.
Without Muttiah Muralitharan and Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews and Chaminda Vaas, the tourists are going to offer some occasionally brilliant batting, but little more than steady bowling in the three-Test series that starts at Cardiff on Thursday, writes Scyld Berry in the Sunday Telegraph. For England, this series will be a stepping stone ahead of sterner Tests ahead in quest to be 'the best.
So, whereas past England teams could be expected to coast through an early-season Test series against an Asian country to win 1-0, this England side will be intent on winning every one of their seven Tests this season — both to knock India off the top of the Test rankings and to become England’s all-time best side.
Akhila Ranganna is assistant editor (Audio) at ESPNcricinfo