A lot has happened to English cricket since my last blog in November when I had some concerns about the planning and tour of Sri Lanka.
The brave move to axe Captain from his role and the squad was seen by many as inevitable as was the decision to appoint Eoin Morgan a player who has been schooled in limited overs cricket. The overdue action, by the selectors who finally removed their heads from the sand, wont due the ECB' image any favours and some may say they gave Cook all the opportunity to secure his seat on the plane that left our shores yesterday.
However I am now looking in every corner for positives as we get closer to the world cup and recall Paul Collingwood's recent comments about Morgan "He's a modern captain and a modern thinker who will bring some good ideas"
Collingwood understands the experiences of success born out of chaos as in 2010 World T20 competition and alongside Andy Flower they were acknowledged as ripping up the original plans and ended up winning the tournament. It is slightly ironic that if Ashley Giles had remained in charge the Collingwood would have been part of the coaching staff and instead he will be with Scotland squad when they play England in New Zealand in February.
We certainly new ideas and be able to score 330 - 350 in order to win games, we need to be unorthodox as we have not won anything bowling lines and length and batsmen being cautious. The choice of the top 4 batsmen from Hales, Bell, Ali, Taylor and Root needs to resolved quickly as I personally would like to see Morgan bat at 5 especially if we are chasing a game. The bowling attack must also find a formula for restricting runs during the last 10 overs, whether bowling first or last they often they fall apart having had a decent beginning. Certainly the value of Anderson and Broad has gone up just by missing the Sri Lanka trip and I am really looking forward to see how Morgan/Moores select the bowling attack that could include Jordan, Woakes and Tredwell.
I am a member of the jury that still has to be convinced about Finn but will leave that one to more experienced media pundits.
I am very fortunate to be able to watch England's first game v Australia at the MCG next month and looking forward to Joss Buttler being one of our starts of the tournament but then that's a Lancashire fan's view!!
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Thanks for reading.
Terry
