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Alec Stewart = LEGEND

Whilst I think most of the (very minimal) article is intriguing and does prompt thinking about the continued selection of Messers Bell and Collingwood; there is actually very little about the (actual) decision to field first rather than bat.

Why would you have batted first? What did you not see in the pitch that maybe Vettori did? That's what would have made the blog a lot more interesting.


P.S. I hope you are being paid by the word Alec!

Collingwood and Bell out, Prior and Bopara in. Prior might not be able to keep but hes scoring enough runs not to worry!!

WG is always quoted as saying "If you win the toss bat first, unless the conditions are great for bowling, in which case think about it and then bat first.."

As for Bell and Colly, one has to go or SA.

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Since Mr.Stewart has done his blogs i notice that many a snob,( armchair cricketers more than likely), have been having a go at an England great.
Shame on them.

It is a conundrum. I don't think there is a great deal of argument, that up until very recently (and possibly still) PC is Englands best technical cricketer. Obviously he is suffering from some kind of form/confidence dip, which begs the question. Does he get back to County for a few months and try and regain it? Or al la Strauss, do they continue to keep putting him in, in the hope of just coming through it suddenly, thus risking a further slip? And if they do rest him, who shoul dreplace him?

As for IB, I think it is a little more clear cut. He, to me, has looked way short for quite a while now, and although it is something to celebrate that we seem to have found a team we are happy to stick with, the middle order is not strong enough to deal with the pressures of a) Chasing down bigger targets that will almost certainly be set by the South Africans, and b) Setting the big targets required against an attack that (and no offence to NZ) is the strongest they will have faced for quite a while.

Bollingwood out.

I'd say look at england last year v India at the Bridge - they were bowled out quicky and India piled on the runs

NZ may have been wishing to do the same

If KP hits 100, it'll be his best England innings to date as he is not in great form and his team was on the rocks.

Now he is guiding them to safer waters with his brave apprentice, Ambrose

(i just like to over dramtise the situation)

Could Colly be any more out of form? He looks like he's never held a bat in his life, and we all know he's so much better than that. The Test arena is not the place to get back into form so for his, and England's sake, he needs to go back to the County circuit and get some form back. The way he is now can't be doing his confidence any good, and that must be affecting the team. Ditto Bell.

Just imagine if you were to have a team comprising NZ's top order(Taylor excepted) and England's middle order...oy, it'd be all over by lunchtime!

The only other time recently, when England have kept a consistant team for a long period of time is the 05 Ashes. Had Jones not been injured then that would've been a 5 tests in a row team. The thing that made that side so good was a solid start, a consistant score from the middle then some devastating swing bowling. The problem for England at the moment is the middle order. Strauss and Cook normally stay in for a while (today excepted) and the bowling is acceptable but only KP has been doing the scoring in the middle, todays wicket was beautiful and the top order should have cashed in but once again it is left to KP to put on runs.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

And now I see someone has referred noonscreams comment. Shame on them.

The situation with England is interesting: first Strauss was doing badly and on the verge of being kicked out, then he starts playing well. Then it was Vaughn, next it looks like the middle order have been doing badly and today at least some of them have come good. Presumably it is Collingwoods turn next to suddenly break through with a couple of decent knocks just when the selectors are probably looking to replace him.

A few people have complained about the content (lack of) in Alec Stewarts blog. This is 1 man who does not have to say much,,,,,, its Alec Stewart!!!!!!!!! when you think about the great WC batters his name is always on the forground of your mind. For me when Alec speaks i listen.

Both have got to go agree Prior and Bopara in. Prior just as a batter. SA going to be a lot tougher than NZ. Going to find out a lot more about Ambrose against SA as he has had a easy start to his career so far against NZ. Going to be caught gulley all the time i would suggest.

unless bell and collingwood preform well in the second innigs, they should both be dropped from the test team with bopara and shah coming in their places. prior could come in as a batsman as well perhaps. even robert key would not be a bad option as he has been playing well recently as well.

of course, when freddie returns, he replaces one of them and i think bopara looks the best candidate to be the other as well as he looks in such good nick at the moment

Hello Alec. Although it might be looking ahead a bit too far, I would have flintoff at 7, ambrose at 6 and bopara at 5. I would drop both Collingwood and Bell. Collingwood because of his current form and Bell because of the fact that when the going gets tough, he gets out. I dont remember Ian Bell ever saving an innings, like Every other batsman in the current line up has done, and so I came to the conclusion that although he is technically suited to test cricket, his mental toughness is not up to the challange.

P.s I shouted over to you at the oval last year and you didnt wave back! Shame on you! :D

Im sure they will both turn it around, bell's form is more frustrating than collingwood's in the sense that he was making county runs before the test series colly wasnt.

I believe that Stewart is Ian Bell's agent so I'm surprised he hasn't put up more of a defence for his client.

Superstrauss is right that Bell was in good form before the series began and seems to have suddenly gone to pieces, very strange given that his last innings in NZ was a hundred. Colly has been out of form for a while, though, so it's annoying to see them continually linked together as if they are equal failures.

The golden rule when dropping a player is that you must have someone better to come in.

Who is currently better than Bell or Collingwood to improve the side? Both have test averages in the 40's.

As Botham used to say, form is temporary, class is permanent.

Alec could say a little more about that....

So why did he opt to field? Has he said anything? Why would Alex have batted? Alex always explained his reasons when captainlung England ...
I think Colly has to go (and concentrate on getting his form back); I'd keep Bell in for another test

Firstly Alec is my hero and a legend, so posts like nesters are just stupid.

Secondly I would pick Bopara, but I would also pick Butcher. Reason being is Butcher is averaging in the late 50's and would give a steady presence to that of the inexperienced Bopara. He can also paly pace, which Collingwood can't. Yes he is old, but we need a batsman for South Africa and Australia, which is a year in all, so I say BRING BAT BUTCHER.

What do you think Alec?

nnnnnnnnggggg....soo.......damn.....boring...

Alec had five minutes free
"So, time for a blog"
He thought, but it just took three!

paul collingwood looks like i do with a bat after a long winter, not very good to look at and rarely scores runs, i jst hope for englands sake his fortunes change very quickly.

Alec, I would be interested in reading which of Bell or Collingwood would you drop/rest? Why not both? Who would you bring in?

If I was a selector I would drop both (barring the unlikely event of a match winning innings from either) and bring in Bopara and Shah or Key. I would also replace Ambrose with Prior.

Cook
Strauss
Vaughan
Pietersen
Shah/Key
Bopara
Prior
Broad
Sidebottom
Panesar
Anderson

Replace Anderson with Flintoff batting at 8 when/if he regains fitness. Bring in extra bolwer to replace Shah/Key when conditions dictate.

Only those as hopeless as Fletcher and Graveney would have dropped Key and replaced him with Bell in the first place. Long overdue for that decision to be reversed.

As long as England are winning they can afford to keep playing Bell and Collingwood and why not . Far to often in the past they would drop players bring in someone else from the county scene who would then fail miserably at Test level then recall the players they dropped in the first place . Having said that Collingwood is well out of touch and luck - had to laugh at the fact he declined to play for Durham so he could work on his batting - that worked .
Maybe a couple of beers to relax would do the trick?