Friday, January 07, 2011

OK, we can celebrate now

Blimey, we won the Ashes. Never in doubt, of course, not even after the Perth defeat. Rather swamped with tasks for the paper on this whole Ashes-winning malarkey, but will jot some thoughts down later.

Just leave you with this quote from Duncan Fletcher, the former England coach: "In the next few years, England will need to beat better sides than Australia."

Possibly the most damning verdict on the strength of Australia. And he is right: there are bigger fish to fry and while this win is jolly nice, it is not quite the same as the win in 2005, when England had to beat some of the all-time greats of the game.

Australia are so weak at the moment that an England second XI, certainly our second-string bowlers, could have the better of them. An England Reserves of Carberry, Adams (or Lyth or, even better, Trescothick), Bopara, Hildreth, Morgan, Davies, Rashid, Broad, Finn, Onions, Panesar/Shahzad would be pretty impressive.

India, the world's No 1 side, come to England this summer. Beat them, Sri Lanka and South Africa and then we can start swanking about as if we rule the roost.

5 comments:

vipul barad said...

Yes, But Ashes win doesn't mean Eng is Unbeatable, Their Biggest test will be against INDIA in Eng this summer. If Eng won against INDIANs then Eng fans can claims that their team is No.1 in tests. But in my view... Now days beating INDIA is not a easy task... especially when Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is playing well.

vipul barad said...

Oops... i forget to wish u and ur family... HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011.

Paddy said...

Happy new year to you Vipul. Completely agree, England must beat India and South Africa to be the No 1 side. The series against India this summer will be fabulous to watch

vipul barad said...

Thanks Paddy. Yes, Eng need to win against Ind - RSA. Paddy... i think you need to write on world affairs too, Atleast You have ability to do that. I hope you will try that soon.

Paddy said...

Very kind of you to say that Vipul. I shall try to write more often. The day job just taking up so much time at the moment, but I really appreciate your support