King of spin

When Giles was England's best spinner, I was right behind him, but, for Christ's sake, why was he playing in those first 2 tests? Still, no use dwelling. Monty is king. I don't suppose he'll ever be dropped again. What are the odds on his breaking Botham's record for most wickets by an English bowler? Don't you just love getting carried away? It sounds like he didn't bowl Australia out as much as they got themselves out, but there was always a chance he would do that because the Australians like to dominate a bowler and Monty, as he has shown against all the subcontinental teams (save Bangladesh, but I think we can assume that one) is indominatable. It does sound like he got Gilchrist out though. Gilchrist, I seem to remember reading in a cricinfo article many moons ago, has a bit of a weakness against left spin. Add that to his weakness against high class round the wicket pace bowling and it seems unlikely that he'll score many more during the rest of this series, especially because, yes, Harmison's back... hopefully. I didn't think he would be. Frankly, I thought he'd pretty much lost it for good, that his nerves were shot, but maybe he had a bit of luck getting Ponting early (he had to fail sometime) which gave him a bit of confidence and... well, look at those figures. Not just wickets but economical too.
So, has the momentum shifted? Thank god Warne put down Collingwood at first slip just before the end. That could be crucial. I hope it is. We need a decent lead, at least a hundred, I think, to put a bit of pressure on the home team and, especially, their aging batsmen. Where are the runs going to come from? At least the signs are that the English batsmen are going to attack. They don't seem to be very good at defending.

Sweet dreams

2-0 down. That last day was particularly painful, but, but, I don't know. Since Thorpe left the team, England, when batting in particular, have shown a distinct tendency to throw it all away. They almost did during the Ashes on several occasions. Then they did against Pakistan in Pakistand and again against Sri Lanka. There's nothing solid in the middle there. The calming influence has gone. Maybe if Collingwood can learn to rotate the strike...
I haven't been too happy with the team selection, or the build up to this series. My team for the first test, given the form and fitness of the players, would have been something like: Strauss, Cook, Bell, Collingwood, Pietersen, Flintoff, Read, Mahmood, Anderson, Hoggard, Panesar, with Strauss as captain. Even then, I would have been tempted to play an extra batsman, namely Shah (who plays spin well, and seemed to have a good test match temperament when he played against India) instead of Flintoff, who hadn't batted for a long time, and whose fitness to bowl had to be suspect. You can't just walk into a Test match series after a long injury without having played for a while and expect to be at the top of your game. We won well against Pakistan last summer with four bowlers and though I'm sure my team probably wouldn't have done much better than the one picked (especially given Anderson's bowling), it is depressing to see Harmison picked in the hope that all will suddenly click. Meanwhile, I can't believe that Collingwood would be much worse a bowler than Giles who takes few wickets and lacks penetration. As for Giles' batting, when did this myth develop that he is a decent batsman. He's not bad but he's not good. When he was England's best spinner, he had to play, but now he isn't. Not at all. And he'd been out for a long time injured. In fact, if the management wanted a spinner to keep things tight and score some lower order runs, they should have picked Dalrymple.
As for Flintoff's captaincy, the signs during the Sri Lanka series were that it wouldn't be great. Strauss, on the other hand, seemed to have the nous of Vaughan. It is a shame that he isn't leading the team now, especially if it leaves us with a non-bowling, out of form Flintoff at number 6.
Given that Flintoff kind of has to lead the team now, I would pick the same team as I would have done for the first Test, especially as Anderson has shown some form in the warm up game, and who knows, win the toss and maybe, just maybe, things will start going for England. Strauss and Cook could put on a lot for the first wicket, Flintoff could get lucky and score a few, Anderson could find some swing, and Panesar could bowl a lot of overs for not too many runs, pick up a couple of wickets and get the batsmen to swish at Hoggard and Anderson at the other end. Mahmood might even knock over Ponting. I can dream. At least it will all happen while I'm asleep.