The Hindu : Sport : England drops Strauss

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Saturday, Oct 20, 2007
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Sport

England drops Strauss

Ted Corbett

LONDON: Extraordinarily, England has chosen two wicketkeepers for its three-Test tour of Sri Lanka which runs for 24 days in December, even though it is taking only 15 players. It has also dropped Andrew Strauss, a captain in 2006, unlucky not to lead England in the Ashes defence last winter and, in my opinion, wrongly denigrated for averaging only 27 in recent games and not scoring a Test hundred this year.

There are two ways of looking at the selectors’ decision to take two keepers even though it would be easy for one to make the 10-hour flight from Heathrow in the event of injury. It partly reflects their muddled thinking about the position ever since the former coach Duncan Fletcher decided Chris Read was not the best man for the job. Mark Ramprakash, widely tipped to return at 38, is rightly ignored.

It is interesting to see that both Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann are chosen. Panesar’s classical left-arm slow and Swann’s beautifully flighted off breaks could be a potent mixture, even if their main rival is one Muttiah Muralitharan and his underrated accomplice Sanath Jayasuriya.

The squad: Michael Vaughan (captain), Alastair Cook, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Paul Collingwood, Owais Shah, Ravi Bopara, Phil Mustard, Matthew Prior, Matthew Hoggard, Monty Panesar, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ryan Sidebottom.

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