England managed to finish off a very poor West Indies side by an innings yesterday, despite losing over a day to bad weather. At least the crowds were a little improved over the weekend, as England bowled the Windies out twice on a track that had seemed flat from the first ball.
Now we can move on to the main event; the visit of the Aussies.
For now I am going to ignore the fact that the first test is not being played at Lords, which is scandalous. I will return to this at a more appropriate time.
Ricky Ponting has been getting a few digs in early. He has promised to put extra pressure on Andrew Strauss, as the Australians always target the opposition Captain. He has also stated that both Michael Vaughan and Steve Harmison will be back in the England side.
I can't see Harmy getting back in, but it will be interesting to see how Vaughan gets on with Yorkshire over the next few weeks. Personally, I think he has left it too late. Ravi Bopara seems to have taken a firm grip on the number 3 slot after his two centuries, which leaves Vaughan with no place to go.
The main question mark will be over which bowler loses their slot if and when Andrew Flintoff returns. My feeling is that we could end up with just Stuart Broad and James Anderson, with two spinners, if the weather is as expected. If not then Graham Onions has done himself no harm. I'm not convinced that he will be a big enough threat against the Aussie top six, but I will be quite happy to be proven wrong.
Anderson has really come of age in the past year. He now has great control over his bowling, being able to vary his style to suit the conditions. Having worked hard on his batting he can now be trusted with the night watchman slot. He's probably the second name on the team sheet at present.
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