England Lions

[JasonP]

That Lions team is very odd. Loads of better players not selected.

L. Dawson
Archer
T. Curran
S. Robson
Browne
Burns
Northeast
S. Patel
O. Stone
S. Curran
B. Coad

Why are they taking 3 spinners ?

Are Helm, Garton and Coughlin really better than some of those bowlers above ?

Archer doesn't qualify for England for a while yet.  According to this not until 2022/23
http://www.thecricketer.com/interview-archer-on-target.aspx

[essexfan548]

Lions won today with Dan captaining:

https://www.ecb.co.uk/news/531678/england-lions-win-in-perth

[essexfan548]

Congratulations to Jamie who has been selected for WIndies tour and Dan who has been selected for the red ball.

Lions squads for the tour of West Indies:

Whole tour: K Jennings (Lancashire, capt), J Clarke (Worcestershire), L Livingstone (Lancashire), S Curran (Surrey), J Porter (Essex), P Coughlin (Nottinghamshire), S Mahmood (Lancashire), N Gubbins (Middlesex), A Davies (Lancashire, wk).

Red-ball only: H Hameed (Lancashire), D Lawrence (Essex), B Foakes (Surrey, wk), T Roland-Jones (Middlesex), J Leach (Somerset), M Crane (Hampshire), J Tongue (Worcestershire).

White-ball only: S Northeast (Kent), L Dawson (Hampshire), D Bess (Somerset), T Helm (Middlesex), G Garton (Sussex), M Parkinson (Lancashire).

Any thoughts on the teams?

[Andy]

So basically this is the Lanky young players with a smattering of guests from other big name counties - except Yorkshire 

[nat]

Some good players in this/these squads. Like to have seen Gleeson and Sanderson from Northants.

[JasonP]

Bess has only ever played 1 T20 and no 50 over matches for Somerset but has taken wickets in 4 day games.  Not sure how he makes the white ball squad but not the red ball one.

[Andy]

Bess has only ever played 1 T20 and no 50 over matches for Somerset but has taken wickets in 4 day games.  Not sure how he makes the white ball squad but not the red ball one.

Either incompetence, a desperate need to fit him in somewhere or the selectors have seen something in him the club didn't.  Shows that there's a need to really trawl through a new generation quickly in order to rebuild the international teams.

[nat]

Bess has only ever played 1 T20 and no 50 over matches for Somerset but has taken wickets in 4 day games.  Not sure how he makes the white ball squad but not the red ball one.

Either incompetence, a desperate need to fit him in somewhere or the selectors have seen something in him the club didn't.  ...

Or (as I believe) there are so few English spinners in the CC that he is the best of a small mediocre bunch.

[honkytonk]

Bess did play in the England vs Perth BBL warm up games last week.  I like the look of the squad(s)

[Andy]

Bess did play in the England vs Perth BBL warm up games last week.  I like the look of the squad(s)

Yep. But has very much highlighted the 'drift' in the selectoral decisions over recent years, now we find ourselves not only still trying to find someone to open with Chef/bat at 3/a proper spinner/with pace but we'll have to replace Chef and a couple of the 'undroppables'..

[nat]

Bess did play in the England vs Perth BBL warm up games last week.  I like the look of the squad(s)

Yep. But has very much highlighted the 'drift' in the selectoral decisions over recent years, now we find ourselves not only still trying to find someone to open with Chef/bat at 3/a proper spinner/with pace but we'll have to replace Chef and a couple of the 'undroppables'..

In other words...replace most of the team. Another indictment of the ECB regime who have taken their eye off the 'Test cricket' ball to chase the filthy lucre.

[Andy]

Yep. But has very much highlighted the 'drift' in the selectoral decisions over recent years, now we find ourselves not only still trying to find someone to open with Chef/bat at 3/a proper spinner/with pace but we'll have to replace Chef and a couple of the 'undroppables'..

In other words...replace most of the team. Another indictment of the ECB regime who have taken their eye off the 'Test cricket' ball to chase the filthy lucre.

Not sure that they had a plan, let alone this one. Appointing Strauss was a major mistake - too close to the political-infighting in the dressing room. He should go and coach at county level, at least he might learn more about the young players.

[nat]

Yep. But has very much highlighted the 'drift' in the selectoral decisions over recent years, now we find ourselves not only still trying to find someone to open with Chef/bat at 3/a proper spinner/with pace but we'll have to replace Chef and a couple of the 'undroppables'..

In other words...replace most of the team. Another indictment of the ECB regime who have taken their eye off the 'Test cricket' ball to chase the filthy lucre.

Not sure that they had a plan, let alone this one. Appointing Strauss was a major mistake - too close to the political-infighting in the dressing room. He should go and coach at county level, at least he might learn more about the young players.

Strauss wouldn't be seen dead at a county game ...unless it was at Lords where he can hob nob with the knobs.

[Heisenberg]

To be fair it seems like the selectors are picking players with raw talent and not so much based on stats/performances.

E.g, I have watched Nick Gubbins bat a few times and he looks like a great player, but he only averaged 24 for Middlesex. Yet he still was picked for the lions trip to Australia and now the West Indies.

Amar Virdi, Paul Coughlin, George Garton, Tom Helm and Saqib Mahmood are all examples of this.

 

[IlfordEagle]

I' ve been impressed with what I've seen of Virdi, Gubbins, Helm & to a lesser extent Garton, pity that Jofra Archer isn't eligible until 2022 as he has certainly got a fine future.