Bowlers and batsmen

The choice of spinners is equally rubbish. Monty Panesar and Graeme Swann - neither have performed particularly well all summer but have been chosen because the selectors chose to play safe. They could have picked the kid Adil Rashid who finished the season with 62 wickets at 30 compared to Swann with 30 at 26. Why not take a risk and pick a kid who has the potential to become a very good spinner.

The quicks chosen - Harmison, Anderson, Flintoff, Sidebottom and Broad are the obvious choices. They've performed well enough over the past few months and I have no problems with any of them making the squad.

The main positive about this squad is the inclusion of Owais Shah. He's played well in the Tests he has been selected for and managed to score runs while being shuffled up and down the order in one-day games. He is a better batsman that Ravi Bopara and has been harshly treated by the England management in previous seasons. Here's hoping he plays and does well.

Hints for Stanford series?

England fans got an early look at the possible tactics of our Twenty-20 batsmen in the Stanford trophy later this year, as the one-day game against South Africa was shortened due to rain and became a 20 over run chase.

While the openers appeared to get a little carried away with the idea of scoring boundaries and managed to get themselves out, Owais Shah, Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff showed that the middle order have the ability to improvise, take advantage of poor deliveries and manage a run chase. Flintoff in particular looks in fantastic form and played with maturity. Since coming back from injury he has played himself in and then looked to start swinging instead of swinging every ball and hoping it worked. His confidence with the ball appears to be helping him with the bat.

Bring on the West Indians and Middlesex!