Despite England’s Ashes victory this summer the international selectors have seen it fit to drop three members of that triumphant squad for the upcoming tour to South Africa.
Steve Harmison, Monty Panesar and Ravi Bopara make way for a new breed of England players such as Luke Wright, Liam Plunkett and Adil Rashid.
All three have experience in the shorter format of the game with England and have now been given their chance in the test side alongside the winning team from the final Ashes test at the Oval.
Joining the trio is Surrey’s Steven Davies, who is one of the most talked about players on the county circuit after impressing at Worcestershire last season.
It’s been made clear that he’ll be purely acting as a understudy to Matt Prior in the test side but soon enough the 23-year old will be challenging properly with the Sussex keeper.
Given that he’ll be spending more time carrying drinks that donning the gloves during the test series it’s a surprise that he’s not been included in the one-day squad after he replaced Prior in the Champions Trophy semi-final earlier this month.
In truth Davies’ omission is the only surprise in the one-day squad with Joe Denly again given a chance to impress.
Owais Shah may be in some peoples eyes be unlucky not to have been included, but his exclusion shows how the selectors are looking for consistent performances rather than sporadic scores.
An average of 30.56 just doesn’t stack up with those of other international number three’s and it might finally be time to stick fully fit Kevin Pietersen in the position to spearhead England’s batting line-up in both forms of the game.
Sajid Mahmood, whose one-day record has come under scrutiny before, is also included.
With Mahmood’s List A performances having yielded just seven wickets for his county Lancashire, Plunkett, whose test match career has been re-ignited by this latest re-call might feel unlucky not to have made both squads.
The Durham bowler took 49 wickets and scored 400 runs as his side retained the County Championship last season and he takes his place in the squad along with team-mate Graeme Onions who will vie with Plunkett for the final bowling spot.
His ability with the bat is sure to sit well with the selectors who will be keen to fill the void left by Andrew Flintoff with both bat and ball.
Plunkett’s inclusion does seem to have been eclipsed by the absence of Harmison, whose test match career may well be over after this latest snub.
It’s been well documented how Harmison has struggled away from home for England, but in truth the fast-bowler has never been the same player since his return from his first international exile and whether it be at home or on the road he’s struggled to hit top form in recent years.
His contribution in this year’s Ashes was passive at best and his attempts at trying to re-create his best form have been valiant but a failure all the same.
His petulant attitude towards being possibly given drinks duties may well have ended any chance of a second re-call to the squad, and it’s possible that we’ve seen the last of the strike bowler- a player the Australian’s will be delighted to see the back of.
Another man whose best form for the test squad seems like a distant memory is that of Ravi Bopara, who will find it tough to fight back into the team with Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell and Pietersen already battling it out for two batting spots.
Wright will certainly add an extra dimension to the batting order as well, but his call up comes in the midst of some poor form in the 50-over game for the youngster.
He might have made 48 in his last outing for the side, but that is just one of seven scores over 20 in his one-day career-hardly the form of a potential international star and definitely not of one who deserves a test-match call up.
Wright and the rest of the new breed may have to wait their turn on this forthcoming tour, but with youth on their side they represent the future of English cricket, and for the most part it looks pretty bright.
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