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The supersub idea is daft although thankfully the results in the three games weren't affected because the best side side won anyway on each occasion.

Maybe they should use the baseball (AL) DH method or simply just name a squad of 12 at the toss and have to say there and then which one won't bat.

The thing that concerns me and has for the entire one day series is Englands top orders frailty with the bat. With the exception of the 9 wicket win then I think they have failed every time against Australia (not Bangladesh) and that may well continue if they carry on showing clearly that they are frightened of McGrath.

I've said all along that I thought the Aussies would win The Ashes and I've not changed my mind. I do though think it won't be as one sided as before and I stand by my belief that England will win the next series in Australia as this team progresses and Australia come back to the rest with an ageing side.

nah, not too worried yet,
every team batting second in this mini series has won by a thrashing, the other series was drawn
England are ranked around five or six in one dayers, the Aussies top, we matched them pretty well.
when the tests come we are ranked second and it's a very different game (how much cricket will Langer have had!)
if we can survive Lords it will be very close.
on another note I think we'll need Thorpe at Lords for that bit of solid defence

i agree, we have to survive Lords to have a realistic chance of taking the Ashes to the 5th test. i think a fit Thorpe is a must for Lords

I agree about Thrope as well. I think once they picked him for the Bangladesh Tests earlier in the summer then that should have nailed their colours firmly to the mast as there was no point picking him there if he aint going to play against the convicts.

Might as well have given a young bloke a go otherwise.

That said you know what our selectors have been like over the years although thankfully this current lot seem to have more than one brain cell between them which the others didn't appear to have.

Talking of selector cock ups I remember that classic some 15 years ago when David Gower had proclaimed that he was never going to tour again. The selectors and Graham Gooch (then captain) spent days trying to get him to change his mind which he eventually did.

The next day when they picked the side they didn't pick him.

Why go to the trouble in the first place?

Bloody amazing!

Don't worry about Langer,he's used to being sidelined for the one day lead-ups,part of his regular preparation.I'd suspect behind the scenes he's copping a pounding from Lee & Mcgrath to make him ready

If I were a POM batter I'd be more worried about facing Warne bowling in tandem with Mc Grath

Goodnight England if those 2 are allowed to dictate IMHO

If Australia has a weakness its in its fielding
The bowlers are creating the chances but the fielders are looking everybit the Aussie equivalent of Dads Army

cheers
B....OZ

We'll see how Langer gets on although (not surprisingly) he has the same technical flaw as Andy Strauss in that he has a weakness to the full pitched ball particularly if it comes back into his pads a bit. Some might say most left handers have this but I think it's more noticeable with these two.

I say "not surprisingly" as they both played for Middlesex together and it's no secret that Langer has been a big influence on Strauss. Nearly a clone of him.

As for Warne then there's two schools of thought. Firstly that as he's been in county cricket for a while then english batsmen have seen more of him and aren't as troubled by him as before and his bowling stats in county cricket would back that up.

However most of these Tests will be played on flat batting pitches and will definitely turn later in the games and if Australia bat first then Warne will be a major factor as the game goes along.

They will be flat pitches for sure as the ECB want to protect revenues (there's the money word again) as they want gate recepts going into the 4th and 5th days and don't want a repeat of the Windies tour 5 years ago with 2 and 3 day Test matches where they had to refund lots and lots of money.

5 day Tests also keep the TV companies happy.

Warne doesn't rip it as much as he did, he's getting on a bit and will cop some terrific sledging over his private life (what goes around...)
Both he and McGrath have had major surgery in recent times and are well into their 30's, it could be the time that this begins to show.
personally I think this has come 12 months too early but we can hope

Which is why I believe that we will turn them over on there own patch in 18 months time and unfortunately not this series.