I'm wondering if they see Hameed as a bit of a slow coach grinder and they want someone with a bit more oomph to play with Cook

Maybe they're looking at Hameed as the replacement for Cook in a year or two when he retires and just getting him into the squad now for the experience and have a look at him close up

Greg James as host with Michael Vaughan, Graeme Swann and KP

Alison Mitchell and Ricky Ponting in Oz

Well I seriously hope they aren't picking people "for the future", that way madness lies Anyway Cook is a fit bloke no reason he shouldn't play on for another 5 years.

People over-complicating this because of the hype around Hameed, in the end Duckett has just made a better case to play, he's more experienced, scored more runs in county cricket last year. Did well on the one-dayers and the warm-ups too.

Every squad has about 3 openers in case of injury, so Hameed was there for that, and if Cook couldn't make it because of his child.

They have KP, Ponting, Vaughan, Swann doing punditry with the comms being channel 9 feed.
KP, Ponting will be based in Australia, Vaughan and swann in london although we not sure yet if Vaughan or Swann will be working from India.
Vaughan got clashes with TMS and BT requirements.
I be very surprised if Vaughan misses India and surely Swann will do india series as well.
Although if I was BT would have Vaughan or Swann covering the series from india that way they get England updates and reaction just like how Ten used Botham as a pundit for the Ashes when 9 had the ashes rights.

You're probably right that he's there as back up........but the way our top 5 are regularly out before we get much past 100 it might be an idea to have a slow coach grinder coming in at 4 or 5.......we've got plenty of biffers lower down

Hey, if it was me, I'd put him in as opener and drop Ballance and play Duckett down the order, but England clearly want Gary to work out.

In the end I just hope Cook and Root can get serious runs, then maybe the rest won't be under so much pressure, lot easier coming in at 200-3 than 27-3 obviously.

Quite a few journalists (ESPN, Fulltoss, The Sun to name a few) are stating that Ansari is in for Batty and Finn for Broad so Ballance gets another chance. They can't rate Ansari's batting as much as they claim. Or Batty's bowling.

So in effect one wayward leggy and two (wayward) part-timer spinners. As much as i was against Batty going on tour i'd still put some of his last Test down to nerves and back him to find his usual control to give us at least one spinner who can land a few balls an over on a length.

I can do complicated

and Morgans decision not to go should have cost him his place in the One day side
We had two players who refused to tour. Neither should be playing this winter


Why not stop hurling the insults and acept that my point is valid even if you don't agree with it

Cook and the management have been talking about rotation. This seems to apply to bowlers. They seem to like to stick with batsmen more. They will have a dilemma if Ballance continues to fail, but obviously there are a number of things they can try in that eventuality.

Seems like the 2nd test will be ballance last chance anyway.

Hi Sulla , I tend to agree that Hales and Morgan had to pay the price for not going to Bangla. Pity that our security surveillance didnt give them a convincing indication of what it would be like to tour there.

However the cricket reality for me is that Hales was gradually drifting away from the England positon as opener. He cant keep the drive at the wide ball in his trousers and pays the price too often.
Sadly for the England fans there isnt a new off the conveyor belt opener to take Hales's place so its hard work for the lucky man who goes out with cook in the India tests.

As for Morgan it wouldnt bother me if I didnt see him ever again in the England line up. However with our selectors its quite likely he will be there in India.

I think the ODI squad for India when named might settle this. If Hales and Morgan both picked then not going to Bangladesh was irrelevant. Because like many other i'm quite sure Hales wasn't going to be selected for Bangladesh test squad. It's unlikely this form was of someone Eng were going to be selecting for test cricket again, surely the Pak series was probably Hales last anyway:
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/eng...g;view=innings

I did read Hameed had to be warned about his future behaviour a couple of times before the 1st test - maybe they are just making sure he fits in well within the squad before giving him a go?

According to my Bangladeshi friend, we may struggle to get any play tomorrow(heavy rain today and tomorrow)

I hope he is wrong.

Sad to see in Hales case as when he did get in at a test he was great entertainment. A bit like one of the aussies in full flow. I will miss him at test level but you can never say never in this game. Ask Ballance.

Anyway unless the selectors have lost it Hales will be in our one day side and I hope causing problems for the indian bowlers.

Was he? He was a pretty stodgy Test Player i thought, 86 off 214 was his first innings of note. Couple of slightly more fluid 50s after, but his strike-rate even in that Lankan series was lower than Cooks. The only Oz player I'd compare him too is Chris Rogers, and even that is being a bit unfair on Rogers.

You are perhaps conflating his one-day performances with Tests, and yes he should be in our limited-overs reckoning, not so sure about Morgan though.

A cyclone going to hit Visakhapatnam the place for the 3rd india vs england test and they expecting the fringes to hit Dhaka and funny enough the decider for the NZ series is played in Visakhapatnam and think that the 2nd time india played in Visakhapatnam that been hit by a storm on the same day, they actually cancelled the game the day before the game lol.
interesting since reports from bangladesh suggest it will be overcast with light and moderate showers.
Suspect it will be the light and moderate shower since they missing the storm and only getting the fringes of the storm.

Wouldn't surprise me if Dhaka doesn't even see rain since they been reducing the rain forecast every hour since the storm weakens while it approaches Bangladesh.

Edit thought the odi was tomorrow, shows how much I have been following the ODI series.
lucky for them they got 2 and half days to recover from the storm then.

Against Bangladesh or India?

Bangladesh win the toss and elect to bat

As expected ,Ansari and Finn in for Batty and Broad
Hom in for Shafiul

Interesting to see how England cope with batting last

Spreads calling Bangla runs at 300 - 320

No idea whether that is accurate on this unknown track ?

Good start with a wide long hop from Woakes smashed straight to Duckett at point

Kayes gone for 1

After the early breakthrough, Bangla dominated the first hour

67/1 off 14 overs at drinks

Dharmasena continuing where he left off

Successful review for for Tamin

Bangladesh.

Bangladesh dominating with Tamin past 100* already

Bit like a one day approach with 167/1 in 40 overs