England win by 6 wickets.

Strauss unbeaten ton.

Cook out cheaply. Again.

More importantly, Swann had a good, lengthy spell and took wickets..... He is the key to whether we retain the Ashes or not, as he is the guy the Aussies genuinely fear.

Cook failed AGAIN and CAPTAIN FANTASTIC hit a ton.

Those stats also fail to note that 300 or so of those Cook runs came on the tour to Bangladesh, which Strauss wasn't even on.

What's that got to do with it? He's only played a handful of matches, FFS. His talent is there for all to see, and Cook is bang out of form.

Michael Vaughan's record was pretty mediocre after his first few Tests, IIRC.

I was going to post that fact but forgot too......i have never been impressed with Cook....think he is one of those that his face fits and he is V/C....and you was right about Vaughan and also Flintoff was in danger of being dropped before he did the bis in NZ i think.

Not taking another opener may bite us on the arriss....dont fancy moving Trott up the order...mind you...he may pi$$ them off with his technique like he did the Bottlers (S.A)

Is that a problem?? It's 11 v 11 and quite frankly I don't care if England hit 500 and 400 of them come from numbers 8, 9 and 10!!! It's a team game



Australia did it for years with the likes of Gilly coming in at 7, Warne at 8, Brett Lee at 9 etc etc. Jason Gillespie has a test match double hundred and even Pigeon Mcgrath hit a test match 50!!

And?

Aussies line up arent firing either and out lower order with the bat is a damn sight better than theres.

So if out top order get knocked over it isnt right for the bowlers to dig us out of a mess....its a 11 man game and if they all chip in with the bat then who cares where the runs come from.......

The tail can only wag so many times, I would back the Aussies top 6 to outscore ours over the course of the series. It's good to see KP and Strauss finding some form and Trott looks fairly good but Bell, Collingwood and Cook don't inspire at all.

We have a settled top 6 going in and the Aussies dont.....arent they on about moving Watson down the order,who has looked good at opener.

Who will there top 6 be?

Do we? Bell has just come in for Morgan and there are doubts over the form of Cook and Collingwood.

Probably no changes for the first test, Watson, Katich, Ponting, Clarke, Hussey, North.

Yes we do. Morgan only got a shout earlier in the summer because Ian Bell got injured. The rest of the batting line up will consist of Strauss, Cook, Trott, KP and Colly just like it was all summer. It's a pretty settled line up for me, even though a couple are struggling for form that is what it will be in the 1st test, I have no doubt



As for the tail wagging, Prior is a more than capable batsman, Broad has come into some bloody good form with the bat and Swann can hang around or hit some quick runs too when he needs too. Australia are really struggling in the spinning department and hence may ensure their groundsman do not produce spinning wickets to keep Swanny at bay. If that is the case I believe our pace attack have more to offer then theirs do.....