In Sri-Lanka

He's a very good young spinner Ginger, not a huge turner but turns it just enough and is improving with his batting. Shane Warne has done a lot of work with him i think which has helped him a bit.

Cheers Dolly

I still think they will go 6-4 but I'm sure the fifth bowler option will or has been discussed by Strauss and co.

Borthwick and maybe even Briggs are ahead of Rashid in the pecking order.
and i agree with rich that if you are going to play 5 bowlers then your 5th bowler should be a wkt taker.pointless picking a lesser batsman just coz he can bowl a bit.
i would go with monty atm with Borthwick as back up
According to Boycs and Vaughan Rashid and another Yorkshire Shahzad have regressed a lot this season.
my squad
strauss(c)
cook
trott
kp
bell
taylor
morgan
prior
bairstow/kieswetter
swanny
monty
borthwick
jimmy
broady
brezzie lad
tremmers
finny

What about Woakes? Didn't he take a 7-fer and top score with 60 odd in his last First Class game?

Amir

is woakes better than any of our current seamers?
dont think so.

agree with hoggy.take borthwick to UAE and then see how it goes.
i think he is the long term replacement for swanny in another 4 yrs.

Also, now that Waqar Younis has gone...I hope by the time England tour Afridi is back for the ODI's and back in the Pakistani team.

Woakes is a really good young cricketer. however he does have 2 problems, both of which can be sorted. One he does struggle for pace which of course not everything but in this day and age of flat pitches he could struggle at times. Two he is very similar to what we have already, in that he's a bowler who likes swinging conditions and can bat, very much like bowlers we already have. he will get his chance but he has to get past, Broad, Anderson, Bresnan, Tremlett and Finn and i feel Onions as well, that won;t be easy.

Against Pakistan, worst case, England have to play four bowlers + another spinner who can keep the runs down and bowl long periods or go for the attacking option and play a wicket taking spinner like Monty. This is due to how flat I have heard the wickets are from the media in Abu Dhabi & Dubai and they don't show any lack of deterioration over the five days.

In Sri Lanka I can see England sticking to the 6-4 formation with more overs being bowled from Trott & Pietersen due to the flatter wickets and heat.

4 main bolwers. You can always get 10/15 overs out of the likes of KP and Trott.

Interesting one this. Get James Taylor in that team is my thought, even thougj he is a bstsman.