1st XI of the future

Alastair Cook – Seems strange to select someone who already has 19 test centuries to his name but Alastair Cook is only 26 and almost certain to go on long into the future breaking records. Having worked his way into the ODI team he is now captain there and will surely take over from Andrew Strauss in the test format. Not pleasing on the eye but Cook is a force of nature, fighting an average technique to score bags of runs – showing cricket is a game played primarily in the head at the highest level. It says a lot about the lack of young quality openers on the international stage that I had to pick someone who has accomplished so much already in their career - that's not to say he won't achieve a lot more in his career, because he certainly will.

 

Kane Williamson – Classical in style and methodical in approach, Kane Williamson is surely the future of New Zealand batting. Already a regular in all formats of the game, Williamson made his debut for New Zealand at 20 after an impressive start to his first class career. Has already a season of county cricket under his belt at Gloucestershire and two ODI’s hundreds to go with his maiden test hundred made in India. He seems to be a professional and reasoned player who is cool under pressure and I wouldn’t be surprised if he is given the New Zealand captaincy relatively early in his career. Normally bats at 3 but due to the lack of young, quality openers currently in international cricket is forced into opening in this team.

 

Darren Bravo – Flamboyant and vivacious in his strokeplay Darren Bravo passes a striking resemblance to Brian Lara in his style at the crease; if he has half the career of Lara, he will be a very accomplished player.(His identical statistics to Lara after 12 matches is an amazing coincidence - 941 runs @ 47.05 with 2 hundreds). Already a regular in all formats of the game for West Indies, Bravo has already shown he can deal with foreign conditions in his spells in test cricket.  Brilliant hundreds in India and Bangladesh have shown an ability to play the spinning ball and he already looks a more accomplished batsman than all of the current West Indian batsmen bar Shiv Chanderpaul. Hopefully he continues to develop and becomes the mainstay of West Indian batting for the next 15 years, because if he does it will definitely be good to watch.

Virat Kohli – Another of the conveyor belt of immensely talented Indian batsmen, Virat Kohli looks like he has a lot to look forward to once the elder greats of Indian cricket pass on. Already a regular in ODI cricket with a World cup to his name, Kohli is not short of big match experience. Already averaging in the mid 40’s after 69 matches in ODI cricket batting in the middle order, Kohli looks accomplished and classy whenever he reaches the crease and plays with a freedom and aggression that mark him out as a player that whether he’s playing well or not will always be in the headlines. A few deficiencies in the longer game have been noted but Kohli is that talented that any problems should be ironed out and he will surely become another of India’s wealth of world class batsmen.

 

Umar Akmal – Possibly a controversial choice given the spot fixing rumours hanging over the head of both Umar Akmal and his brother Kamran but there is no doubt that Umar is the most talented of batsman. Umar at 19 made a brilliant century on debut in the unfamiliar conditions of New Zealand showcasing magnificent stroke play and mental aptitude. His career since has been up and down but there is no doubting his ability and if he gets everything right he could join Inzaman ul Haq and Javed Miandad as batting pantheons of the Pakistani game; he really is that talented.

 

Dinesh Chandimal – Diminutive in stature Dinesh Chandimal is not short on options for strokeplay and has already shown such on the international stage. Playing primarily as a batsman at present Chandimal is also an accomplished wicketkeeper who surely will take the gloves in the near future for Sri Lanka. Strongest against spin he loves scoring runs and has an exceptional first class record. He already has a tour of England under his belt where he scored an ODI century and looked accomplished and level headed. Replacing Kumar Sangakkara will be a thankless task but I’ve seen nothing to suggest that Chandimal won’t have a hugely successful international career.

Angelo Mathews – Already earmarked as a future captain of Sri Lanka, Angelo Mathews looks destined for a hugely successful career as a batting allrounder. Batting at present is his stronger suit and a test batting average of 44 after 19 tests is nothing to be sniffed at. He is very strong all around the ground and seems to be extremely adaptable as he is able to alter his batting style seamlessly between different formats and positions. In test cricket so far he has played a more mature, steady style whereas his one day game is more suited around aggressive hitting and good running between the wickets.  His bowling has taken a backwards step in the last year or so but I’ve seen enough to know that he will be a more than useful backup bowler who could surprise a few with his pace. 

 

Ravichandran Ashwin – Ostensibly there is no outstanding young spinner in the world game at current. Devendra Bishoo has looked promising and done well for West Indies but leg spinners are always suspect to loss of form and the West Indian setup seems to get through a large base of players. Ravi Ashwin has usurped Harbhajan Singh to take his place in the Indian test team after initially making his way into the ODI team. An offspinner with a high action and plenty of variation Ashwin seems well suited to the ODI game but on his test debut he shone taking 9 wickets and generally outfoxing some poor West Indian batting. Ashwin is also a more than capable lower order batsman which will give him a massive advantage over a lot of candidates fighting for his spot in the Indian team. Ashwin having made his way into a strong Indian Team in all 3 formats seems now set for a long career – although his bowling maybe lacking something if he wants to become a great of the game.

 

Tim Southee – Already an experienced competitor on the international stage, Tim Southee made his international debut at 19 and has been improving ever since. Not an out and out quick bowler, Southee bowls at a lively pace but is more an exponent of swing bowling and has shown an ability to swing the ball in both directions with no discernible change of action. His batting is also useful and he will no doubt provide quick runs down the order with his powerful hitting style. Seemingly equally accomplished in all 3 forms of the game, it is likely that Southee will be the leading figure in New Zealand crickets bowling for the next 10+ years.

 

Pat Cummins – Only 18 and already having made an accomplished test debut for Australia where he outshone the other Aussie bowlers, Pat Cummins has all the makings of a potential great. Standing at 6’3’’ and already capable of bowling at 150km/h + whilst swinging the ball away from the right hander he is one of the most exciting players to burst onto the international stage in recent time. Already capable of competing on the international stage against the very best; if he continues to develop and all importantly stays injury free, Australia could have another future star on their hands.

 

Steven Finn – With already 50 test wickets against his name (quickest for England) Finn is already a well known figure in international cricket. The beanpole fast bowler standing at 6’7’’ is capable of bowling 150km/h + and has showed impressive control in recent months. In and out of a strong England bowling unit in recent times it is unlikely to be long before his natural talents mean he is a regular in all formats of the game. It is only a shame that Mohammed Amir cannot be called upon to compliment Cummins and Finn in what would have been and out of this world front 3.

Just Missed Out: Usman Khawaja, Seekuge Prasnna, Mitchell Starc, Junaid Khan, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Mitchell Marsh, Ishant Sharma, Pragyan Ohja, Cheteshwar Pujara, Devendra Bishoo, Kemar Roach, Ben Stokes, James Taylor, Brendan Taylor, Martin Guptill, Matthew Wade/Tim Paine

England Winter Squads (ODI Squads)

ODI Squad for Pakistan and Sri Lanka

The one day squads for this winter are where it becomes considerably trickier given England’s inconsistent form in the shorter formats of the game and the trashing they took in India. With conditions likely to be similar in UAE and Sri Lanka the selectors possibly need to look at mixing up the squad and looking at other options.

Alastair Cook

Jonathan Trott

Kevin Pietersen

Eoin Morgan

Samit Patel

Stuart Broad

Graeme Swann

Steven Finn

And this is where the definites in my mind end. I’d expect all of these to be selected if they are fit. Tim Bresnan is probably the biggest name who I haven’t selected. Bresnan has been a regular in the ODI team for a while now and his combative batting at no.8 is very useful. But his bowling on the whole in ODI cricket has been poor.  He currently averages 37.51 which for an opening bowler by any accounts is terrible. He should be along with Stuart Broad the pivot around who the team is built. Both bowl reasonably quick and should contribute key runs from 7-9 at a quick rate. The problem is at present he doesn’t take any wickets – you need your opening bowlers to take wickets. I’d be much happier if he was a first or second change bowler. The fact is he’s been poor his whole ODI career, so I think he needs a break from the team to think about how he’s going to adopt and get better as an ODI player- because as I say he should eventually return to the team and become a key component of the team.

Jade Dernbach

Stuart Meaker

James Harris/ Chris Woakes

Jade Dernbach probably deserves another chance and his variation is definitely something England can do with in ODI cricket. Jimmy Anderson is a poor bowler in ODI cricket, especially in Asia where there isn’t much on offer for him early in the innings; he should be left at home to concentrate on test cricket. If Bresnan is left at home there may be a need for Anderson’s added experience. Stuart Meaker did OK in India and as a skiddy bowler should perform well in the subcontinent and due to the lack of other options should get another opportunity. There’s possibly one more spot for a bowler who can bat a bit. The two choices for me are either Chris Woakes or James Harris from Glamorgan. Harris has progressed as a batsman moving as high as 8 this season and averaged 28.78 and had more opportunities in the One Day game when previously Glamorgan had opted to rest him. Woakes is still the better batsmen though and I would say that they’re relatively similar in their bowling although Woakes is clearly a considerably better 4 day bowler than one day where he is expensive; it’s maybe time to give Harris the chance to impress.

Craig Kieswetter

Jonny Bairstow

 The wicketkeeping spot is still up for debate after Craig Kieswetter’s inconsistent batting and wicketkeeping in recent times. I still see loads of talent there with the bat and if he eventually gets it right I can see him being a key player in the England ODI setup. His hard hitting ability from the top of the order is something England lack and there is a need to persevere with him. One only has to remember the terrible time Matt Prior had in Sri Lanka behind the stumps to see that if there is enough talent there eventually the star quality should add – Kieswetter definitely to my mind has the talent with the bat. Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler are both options in the lower middle order if England wanted to go that way with their wicketkeepers but both are still worse keepers than Kieswetter.  Bairstow probably gets the nod as a batsman alone on the fact that he can do the wicketkeeping if there is an injury to Kieswetter.

 James Taylor

Moeen Ali/ Stuart Borthwick

I have dropped both Ian Bell and Ravi Bopara from the previous India tour. Bell may well make his way back into the ODI team, although it’s hard to see how there is space for him with Cook as captain and Trott in the top 3. Bell needs to bat in the top 3 in ODI cricket because he doesn’t have the game to come in during the middle overs and accelerate. England and Bell would be better served by resting him from the series – there’s no point taking him as a backup batsman when he is so vital to the test team. Bopara similarly to the tests is wearing my patience – a strike rate of 74 in the modern game is just not good enough.

With Bell and Bopara dropping out there is an additional spot for another batsmen and it should be time to have a look at James Taylor. He has proved adaptable in ODI cricket and with Eoin Morgan and Kevin Pietersen back in the team there should be less pressure on his shoulders if he gets a chance. 

Which leaves the final spinners spot. Danny Briggs may well have got a tour this winter were it not for the injuries that cut short his season. Keedy and Kerrigan are primarily four day bowlers who aren’t the best fielders or batsmen. Scott Borthwick is an excellent fielder and will pass as an ok batsman even if his batting is more suited to the four day game. The problem comes with his bowling which is still pretty raw. In all honesty I don’t he shouldn’t have gone to India as he is yet to do enough in the one day game to warrant selection and India must be the toughest place to go for a rookie spinner. But as he did go he may as well go to Pakistan and Sri Lanka also. I would like Moeen Ali to go as well. Moeen had a brilliant season in one day cricket striking 612 runs at an average of 51 and a strike rate of 122.64. Moeen also got through a fair amount of overs in domestic cricket last season – in fact bowling a similar amount as Borthwick in the County Championship(267-273) but significantly more in one day (81-44) and Twenty20 (36-11) although Borthwick picked up more wickets. Ali would be a decent alternative at the top of the order and could provide another option with the ball.

Cook(C)                                                                    

Ali                  

Trott

Pietersen

Morgan

Patel

Bairstow(WK)

Broad

Swann

Dernbach

Finn

---------

Kieswetter

J Taylor

Meaker

Harris

Borthwick

I'd like England to look at a team of similar compilation of the one above. It's probably tough on Kieswetter but I can't drop Cook from opening and Bairstow is more used to batting in the middle order in one day cricket. I feel the batting is really strong with Cook and Trott being solid but the rest can be exciting and add firepower to the base that Cook and Trott build. Morgan coming back in is really helpful as he is equally adept at rebuilding an innings or accelerating an innings towards the end; he also will take the pressure of Pietersen who struggled in India with the responsibility of being the chief accelerator. The bowling is varied with Finn and Dernbach to take the new ball and plenty of spin options for the middle overs. The makeup of the team means there may be a need for more use of spin in the powerplay overs which maybe a nice change given the pasting the seamers normally take in the batting powerplays.

England Winter Squads (Test Matches)

Test v Sri Lanka and Pakistan

Andrew Strauss

Alaistair Cook

Jonathon Trott

Ian Bell

Kevin Pietersen

Eoin Morgan

Matt Prior

Tim Bresnan

Stuart Broad

Graeme Swann

Jimmy Anderson

Steven Finn

Chris Tremlett

Gary Keedy (/ Monty Panesar/Simon Kerrigan)

Samit Patel (/Moeen Ali)

James Taylor

 

The first 13 names I think are academic. They made up the basis of the test team this year. Chris Tremlett performed brilliantly when available and so should be given nod, although they will want to make sure he is completely fit after he missed the end of the season. Steven Finn was around the squads all summer and it was obvious from his spells in India that he has improved and could bring vital pace and vitality to an attack which although strong may lack a bit of firepower on the flat subcontinental wickets.

The other 3 spots are anyone’s guess in reality. Given my staunch backing of Ravi Bopara in earlier columns you will be surprised to see I decided to go with James Taylor instead of Bopara. I want Bopara to succeed internationally and I feel if everything went right he would be a fine addition to the England test team with his ability to bowl decent seamers at around the 80mph – he could fulfil a similar role to Paul Collingwood by bowling 10 or so overs an innings when required. The problem is whenever I see him bat I can’t help but think ‘what are you doing’. For someone who is meant to be a good player of spin and has had his fair share of IPL experience, he seems to miss an extremely high percentage of forward defences against spinners. There just seems to be a total lack of faith in his own ability and he seems to go into a shell and become too defensive and then inevitably gets out. I’m not sure I can survive watching and listening to another tour with Bopara coming in at 6 at 400-4 and making 30 of 80 balls before missing a straight ball. England most likely will stick with him because that’s what they do and it’s worked well with others such as Ian Bell but I’m hoping otherwise, especially as Bopara is unlikely to make the final xi anyway so it’s better for a youngster to get some experience. James Taylor has had an impressive domestic career and excelled in the Lions games this season so probably deserves a first senior tour to develop his skills and get used to the setup.

That leaves two spots remaining with both spots being taken up by spinners in my case. Firstly there needs to be a quality backup spinner who could either bowl in unison with Swann or if disaster struck and Swann was injured could be the frontline spinner . Ideally a spinner who spins the ball the opposite way is ideal and the three in my mind are all SLA’s. Monty Panesar would be the easy choice given he was the reserve choice for the 2010/11 ashes tour and had a good first class season. The other two options come from Lancashire and are at opposite ends of their careers. Gary Keedy, 36, and Simon Kerrigan, 22, both had positive seasons with Lancashire. Keedy was the senior bowler and was consistent throughout the season taking 61 wickets at 23.63 (Panesar took 69 at 27.24) whereas Kerrigan was only called upon on 4 occasions but was spectacular when he did play taking 24 wickets at 18.2. All 3 are no.11 bats and vary from average (Kerrigan) to terrible (Panesar) fielders. I fear it is too early for Kerrigan and it would be too much of a risk to pick him as the main spinner if Swann were to get injured which leaves Keedy or Panesar. I’m still far from convinced that Panesar has improved his variations; he seems to be the kind of bowler nowadays who tries to bowl as accurately as possible and build pressure that way. That’s good in the first innings but once the second innings comes around and the pressure is on to bowl out the opposition he just doesn’t have the variation. I’d plump for Keedy – at 36 you may think it’s a backward step but there is precedent there with Shaun Udal who did so well in India in 2006 at 37 and I feel he has the ability to both contain in the first innings and attack in the second.

England presumably will want to look at different options and a spinning allrounder may be needed to bowl extra overs and fill the no.6 or 7 batting spot. There aren’t a huge amount of options on the county circuit but Samit Patel is at the head of the cue after his impressive batting performances in India. His bowling is distinctly average by international standards but he does turn the ball in the opposite direction to Swann. I’ve personally not been convinced by his batting in 4 day cricket as his footwork is questionable and seems to get out more often than he should to rash shots. Fortunately the subcontinent should favour his batting style although one wonders how he will stand up to the full rigours of a five day test in scorching Sri Lankan conditions. Scott Borthwick is still too raw and it would be a big gamble taking him as you almost certainly couldn’t play a player who doesn’t even bowl that much in county cricket and although is talented with the bat isn’t yet capable of batting above 8 in Test Cricket. Adil Rashid has gone backwards this season and has zero chance of making the tour. That leaves a bit of an outside pick in Moeen Ali.  Moeen bats in the top order for Worcestershire and had a solid season as well as taking over the captaincy. He is left handed which should be an added bonus for a primarily right handed middle order and is a more solid batting option that Patel. He is a silky batsman who loves to drive and is a delight to watch when in form. He bowls offspin and got through a decent amount of overs as a 5^th bowler at Worcester this season without spectacular results. Patel is likely to get the nod by the England selectors but Moeen should be considered and may well get a chance in the ODI team given his success at the top of the order for Worcestershire this season.

Amendment - 4th December

A few days before the test squad to play Pakistan is announced and on second consideration I'm going to have to go with Monty Panesar over Gary Keedy. I'm still not convinced that Panesar has shown any real improvement in any of the 3 aspects of his game. He is basically a solid containing bowler who is pretty much useless when you need to take wickets - this would be OK if he could bat a bit or even field decently but he is still awful at both. His spell in grade cricket in Australia at present has not been a success. The problem is though Keedy is now 37 and will be 38 by the time they play India next year. For this tour I think Keedy would offer more but for someone who probably isn't going to have a massive affect on the outcome on the series it's probably worth going for someone who is going to do better long term. I just hope that Simon Kerrigan continues to improve and by next year there'll be no need for Panesar or Keedy.

Also I have no second wicketkeeper so I guess James Taylor has to be omitted and either Jonny Bairstow (if they deem his wicketkeeping to be good enough) or Craig Kieswetter get a call up.

Cricket Migration - The English Game

For all the faults of county cricket and the mass amount of imports in the county game who become England qualified there are also a growing number of players on the international stage who have benefited from their times in county cricket. Jacques Rudolph renounced his international career and took up a contract with Yorkshire under the Kolpak rule. After 4 years of county cricket Rudolph returned to South Africa a vastly improved, potentially finished article and has prospered in domestic cricket over there and has now been selected into a strong South African team for their forthcoming two test series against Australia. Here is a player who has basically abused the system – renouncing his international ambitions to play in England as a Kolpak player (thus not being deemed an overseas player) then returning to South Africa when his circumstances have changed. I have no inclination to see Rudolph play international cricket for England, nor do I think county cricket suffers for this abuse (in fact I think it is a benefit in small numbers) but let’s not pretend that England are the sole transgressors in the import/export of players.

The ECB did not tempt Jonathan Trott or Kevin Pietersen over to the UK to play for England. Both came over on their own, decent players looking for better opportunities- both improved in county cricket so much so that they were deemed good enough for international selection. I have no grudge with people who are doing what’s best for their career or family – so let’s not criticise the ECB for selecting the best players that are available to them – whether they are South African born, Indian born or Scarborough born. The truth is Pietersen wasn’t even considered a frontline batsman and was always on the outskirts of domestic cricket back in his native South Africa. Jade Dernbach and Stuart Meaker may have been born in South Africa but both moved to the UK in their early teens and have learned nearly their entire cricket in the Surrey youth setup, the same could be said of Jason Roy, another South African born player who could represent England in the future.

Faf du Plessis is the most obvious of the guys who has abused the system to his advantage. He says of his choice ‘"When I signed for Lancashire, I wanted to sign for three years and then not play county cricket again, because by that time I backed myself to be in the South African set-up," and it is clear that he benefited from the choice as he says "In county cricket you play 18 four-day games a season, two one-day competitions and 18 twenty-over games, but in South Africa you play five or six of each. It's a lot of cricket but as a batter you really do learn a lot from county cricket."

Junaid Khan is another who seems to have benefited from the fruits of county cricket, this time as an overseas professional. This last month he has put in very consistent performances to help Pakistan to claim victory against Sri Lanka and claimed of his spell in county cricket with Lancashire ‘"That stint was very helpful. There I learnt how to seam, how to swing the ball, how to bowl a yorker." It seems a bit farfetched that county cricket taught him all those skills in half a season but there is no doubt a spell in county cricket tends to help develop and round an individual.

There seems no shortage of players talking up county cricket recently. Zaheer Khan is another who had a season as overseas pro at Worcestershire and widely acclaims this period in his career where he finally took responsibility and learned the requisite disciplines for international cricket. Zaheer after the summer series has been advocating some of Indians younger players to come and play county cricket – normally a request denied by the BCCI – which looks very foolhardy given the troubles many of the youngsters had over in England.

As I write this Praghan Ohja is another who has returned from a spell in county cricket and a spell out of the international setup to return to the fold and has been spectacularly successful in the current India/West Indies test. As he says “When you play there, you are given a lot of responsibility and they expect you to win games for them. That helps you grow as a cricketer”. Darren Bravo and Kane Williamson are another pair who have returned from what can be considered average spells as overseas pro’s this season that have slotted back into their international teams with success and will surely benefit in the long term from their experiences this season.

For every Meaker, Kieswetter or Trott there has been a Du Plessis, Rudolph and Riaz who have gone the opposite way. What is clear is that even with the apparent averageness of county cricket at present it is the finishing ground for many players on the verge of international success. As the county game is an 18 county affair and most of the England internationals don’t participate I think it’s good that high quality foreigners pad the squads of county teams. It does improve the standard and cricket in the UK has a lot of competition and with an 18 team setup over a convoluted schedule there is a need to make sure the standard doesn't fall much behind that of other countries domestic setups.  What is annoying is the average 30 year old South African who isn’t good enough to play domestic cricket in South Africa coming over here and taking a youngsters place in a team where he might be a small improvement in the short run but the Kolpak player isn’t a) improving the standard of county cricket massively and b) has no chance of ever playing cricket for England so in the long run is having a negative effect on the English game.

The fact is that now England is a culturally diverse country and there are people living here born all over the world. London has one of the most diverse populations of any city in the world. It is easier than ever to get up and move elsewhere to better your lives. It is only logical that more and more people who represent England at any sport are going to have parents born abroad or themselves been born abroad. These people shouldn’t be demonized but celebrated for their success both in life and in the sports arena and hopefully will be a guide to others. David Cameron may have claimed that “Multiculturalism has failed” but the UK has borne the fruits of immigration for many years and will continue to into the future regardless of the words of a prime minister preening to the working class white voter.

English Tests and Indian ODI's

Boom, yes England got thrashed in the ODI’s in India. Boom, England always struggle in ODI’s in India – it’s not a new thing, but why?

1)    We’re not good at ODI cricket in general. Our domestic game is setup primarily to aid development in 4 day cricket. Test cricket is the pinnacle of nearly every young English cricketer’s careers.

2)   English conditions don’t make good ODI players for India. In England the ball moves around and bounces more meaning a lot of the flair and talent is put aside by English players to be replaced by disciplined batting that works better in English conditions. The English game plan also tends to be wrong as they too often settle for what are par scores in India, and don’t push the accelerator in the middle overs of the innings. The bowlers also lack variations and don’t bowl with enough discipline.

3)   India are masters of their own conditions. The fans love ODI cricket, the domestic game is set up for it and the players seem to favour it over other forms of the game.

So it’s really no surprise India came out on top in the series although I have to admit I thought we would be a bit more competitive than we were. Pundits, fans, and journalists alike have been speculating whether this series is an indication of what would happen when the two teams meet in a test series next year. Personally I feel this ODI series holds little credence when comparing it to test cricket form.

England for some time has seemingly had no relationship between their test form and their ODI form. If there was any relationship to be made you could say that generally England’s test form is good whilst their ODI form is poor. You only have to look back to last winter or previous Indian tours to see the difference in results in tests in comparison to ODI’s. In Australia, England were dominant in their 3-1 test series victory but were thrashed 4-1 in the ODI’s. In India, 2006, we drew the tests 1-1 but lost the ODI's 5-1; in 2009 we lost the test series 1-0 and lost the one dayers 5-0. We may have beaten India 3-0 in the ODI’s in the summer but we were only the marginally better team and that was even with all the injuries and tiredness India were dealing with. There is a big disparity between our test and ODI form and skill levels – they really are two different forms of the games.

Test cricket is an entirely different game and I’m fairly confident that England would still win a test series in India. The current batsmen struggle attacking and rotating the strike against the spinners when they need to force the issue; when they need to play the bowling on its merits they have the patience and skill to play in the way test cricket dictates. India has no world class spinner, no one in the realm of Muttiah Muralitharan or even on a par with Anil Kumble. Their test batting is ageing and their fielding is terrible in test cricket.

There is no doubt that the Indian Test team is now elderly and although the players are of great quality there has to be some deterioration in skill and quality now Tendulkar(38), Dravid(38), Laxman(37) and others have seemingly passed their peaks. Their dwindling skill as batsmen can be argued over but there is no doubt that there are 5 or 6 in the current test team who are now poor fielders. A number of other test players Zaheer, Harbhajan and Sehwag are the wrong side of 30, injury prone and also average in the field. 

England on the other hand in the test format are approaching or at their peak. With an average age of 28 but plenty of experience there is the sense that most of the current team are at the peak of their careers so far. Cook, Trott, Bell, Pietersen, Prior, Broad, Bresnan, Tremlett, Anderson have all hit massive high points in the last 12 months. The majority also have good experience of playing in India in test cricket. 5 of the top 7 have good experience of test cricket in India, and even though the bowlers are less experienced all of them have had experience of either India or Asia. England are a team at peak physical fitness who seem intent on continuing to improve and learn from their mistakes - and put winning at test cricket above everything - I'm not sure I can say the same of India of these things.

I feel like India will benefit in the long term from the success in this ODI series of the youngsters who have completely revolutionised their fielding and proved their will be other good batsmen after the golden generation has gone. Personally I feel like they should bid farewell to a couple of the older citizens of the team and persist with the youngsters who have performed so ably in this series. There is no chance of it happening but one of Sachin Tendulkar or the frail Virenda Sehwag should really be dropped or retired from the ODI team. Tendulkar won’t make the next cricket world cup and should focus on test cricket while Sehwag although only 33 at present is increasingly injury prone and both players are really poor in the field.

Whether a team can be truly great without dominating in all formats is up for debate and I can say with some confidence that this England team will never be on the same plane as the great West Indian or Australian sides of the last 40 years but in test cricket for the foreseeable future I feel like England will be the dominant force- at least I hope so. Of ODI cricket I have my doubts and can't see them ever dominating.