2017/18 England Predictions

Following on from my last post I initially came up with the following teams a few weeks ago.

Test

 
Cook (C) (Essex)
Chopra (Warwickshire)
Root (Yorkshire)
Ballance (Yorkshire)
Thakor (Leicestershire)
Stokes (Durham)
A Davies(WK) (Lancashire)
Finn (Middlesex)
J Overton (Somerset)
Topley (Essex)
Kerrigan (Lancashire)
 

ODI

 
Cook (Essex)
Kieswetter (Somerset)
Stokes (Durham)
Bairstow (Yorkshire)
Morgan (Middlesex)
Ansari (C) (Surrey)
Buttler(wk) (Somerset)
Gregory (Somerset)
Broad (Nottinghamshire)
Willey (Northants)
Finn (Middlesex)
 

T20

 
Stirling (Middlesex)
Kieswetter (Somerset)
Stokes (Durham)
Bairstow (Yorkshire)
Morgan (Middlesex)
Buttler (WK) (Somerset)
Ansari(C) (Surrey)
J Taylor (Gloucestershire)
Gregory (Somerset)
Finn (Middlesex)
Dernbach (Surrey)

 Test Team

After some consideration and advice although I agree with the change in numbers of the teams I think the composition of the team is a bit too youth orientated. The Test team I suggest would have an average age of 26.6 years which would be very low. A more realistic team might have Taylor and Bairstow(both 28) in for Thakor and Davies and maybe Broad(31) instead of Overton or Trott in for Chopra with Root opening.

Cook (33), Root(27), Trott(36) Ballance(28), Taylor(28), Stokes(26), Bairstow(28), Broad(31), Finn(28), Kerrigan(28), Topley(23) Avg age 28.73

Or

Cook(33), Chopra(30), Trott(36), Root(27), Thakor(24), Bairstow(28), Stokes(26), Broad(31), Roland-Jones(30), Topley(23), Kerrigan(28) Avg age 28.73

Other players I considered that weren’t included in the teams above – Foakes, Finn, J Taylor, J Overton, C Overton, Anderson, A Davies, J Harris, Z Ansari, Meaker, Wells, Woakes, C Kieswetter, Willey, Dunn. Sorry everybody else and I’m sure there will be one or two who aren’t named here around the squad and one or two names I’ve just forgotten. Who would have predicted 5 years ago that Nick Compton or Jonathan Trott would be here today?

ODI team

I made the team listed at the start of this post before the India ODI series and its funny how your opinion changes from one series to another. 

Cook, Hales, Root, Stokes, Morgan, Buttler, Ansari, S Wood, Broad, Finn, Topley

Other names considered but not included in either ODI team listed here: Kieswetter, Briggs, C Wood, Thakor, Roland-Jones, Shahzad, Dernbach, Ballance, Dockrell, Whiteley, J Taylor, Billings, Stirling, Willey, S Davies, Roy, Chopra, Rafiq, Bresnan, C Overton, J Overton, Vince, Dawson

T20 team

Hales, Stirling, Stokes, Bairstow, Morgan, Buttler, Ansari, Gregory, C Wood, Finn, Briggs

Other names considered: Kieswetter, Dockrell, Topley, J Taylor, Willey, Broad, S Wood, Dernbach, Roy, Ashraf, Rafiq, Ballance, Bresnan, Vince, M Ali, Cobb, J Overton