Who should England pick for their World Cup XV?

 
With England set to name their World Cup squad by Wednesday, we should probably be writing a long and serious piece on who should and shouldn’t be in the squad.

But like our current disenchantment with football - which has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the fact we support Liverpool (honest) - we are also none too bothered with any form of cricket that isn’t Test cricket.

It could just be a hangover from the Ashes, but with the unappealing prospect of a seven match ODI series between England and Australia, we don’t give two hoots about the World Cup at the moment.

And wasn’t one day cricket invented to provide a quick burst of enjoyment for paying public and couch potatoes alike? Seven match series’ are neither quick nor enjoyable – they are as painful to watch in full as The Phantom Menace. And don’t get us started on the length of the World Cup. Put it this way, our two year old will have graduated by the time it has finished.

So, we are going to name the XV we would pick if the Reverse Sweep was in the shoes of Geoff Miller, but we are not going to dwell too much on the reasons why we would choose these fifteen names.

Slow wickets, spin-friendly conditions, the heat and the risk of injury or delhi belly means that England should pick two wicket-keepers and three spinners in their XV, whilst ensuring that there is enough batting and seam bowling cover.

As such, we would go with the following:

Batsmen:

Strauss, Pietersen, Bell, Collingwood and Morgan

Wicket-keepers:

Davies and Prior

Spinners:

Swann, Yardy and Patel

Seamers:

Anderson, Broad, Bresnan, Shahzad and Tremlett

So that means no Trott, Wright, Woakes, Tredwell, Kieswetter or Bopara. In our view, Trott is too one-paced for one day cricket and Prior and Patel can fill in as the spare batsman if required. Wright is pretty hopeless with bat and ball and it is probably a bit too early for Woakes, who lacks pace in any case.

In terms of the third spinner, Patel is a much better bet than Tredwell as would be Rashid. Finally, although we believe Kieswetter was dispensed with too early and are not convinced by Davies at the top of the order, it is probably too late to go back now and the much improved Prior deserves another chance.

We desperately wanted to fit Bopara in as we think his multi-facted batting, excellent fielding and useful medium pace could prove a boon on the sub-continent. But including Ravi for one of the batsmen we've picked is unthinkable, so the only way to get him in would be to compromise on the second keeper or third spinner, or take only four instead of five quicks. And that's a risk we're not prepared to take.

Can England win? Probably not. The conditions are against them and they lack an opener who can hit over the top (a la Marcus Trescothick), a quality second spinner to support Swann and pedigree in recent World Cups.

But they could well be good dark horses to back – just as there were in the World T20 last year. And we all know what happened there.

Where next?

Shane Watson: Finally the bride and not a bridesmaid 

How England won the Ashes: Part 1 - Preparation

How England won the Ashes: Part 2 - Inspired selections

Check out all our Reverse Sweep heroes and zeroes including amongst others Andy Flower, James Anderson, Graeme Swann, Marcus Trescothick and Douglas Jardine

Follow us on Twitter @thereversesweep

Comments

[simon]

I like it! Trott and Bopara are a little unlucky, and I think I would probably go for Woakes over Tremlett, but other that, I think this is spot on.

Of course, the XV they take will be a bit different from this. They won't take Patel, and I'll be a little surprised if they take Prior, to be honest (though, like you, I would). There's also the outside chance (whisper it) that they might not take Colly...