I think Monty will go. I don't feel Rashid will, even more so as i think he's having a pretty average season with both bat and ball.
I think the outside shout would be Scott Borthwick who seems to be rated highly by the management and can of course bat as well. He could be the dark horse if England change from 4 bowlers to get another spinner in, which i think we will have to. To my mind no point Patel as a 5th bowler, just not good enough with the ball.

if we gonna play a 5th bowler then its got to be a proper bowler imo as playing a patel or a stokes or a rashid would weaken the side imo

none of them are good enough with the ball to really be effective as a 5th bowler and what we would lose from our batting wouldn't compensate for that small gain

i'm not a fan of 5 bowlers at the best of times and we still need to look at the overall pluses and minuses from changing the balance of the side

every time i see a "5 bowler" thread we always talk about the potential positives from having the extra bowler and seem to just forget the negatives of having one less batsman

we've seen in the series just finished how important scoreboard pressure can be at times

if we gonna do it however then just make sure we pick the best 5th bowler to complement the side, moce prior to 6 and rely on bresnan, broad and swann at 7/8/9

thats another aspect as well if we go with a 5th bowler then we need to keep bresnan in as having for example tremlett, anderson and monty in same team is too much of a tail imo

Comments on TMS the other day suggested that Rashid was not progressing as hoped this season, and that Monty or Borthwick were the likely contenders. I think Monty has 60 wickets this season, so he's playing well. For Patel to go, he needs to display a massive improvement on his last stint with England.

How is Panesar doing at the moment - didnt he do really well v SL when they played over here a few years ago - I was at edgbaston and was surrounded by Panesar masks - or is that a beer memory?

Will we need to play 5 bowlers in UAE against Pakistan as well, do you think?

Will we need to play 5 bowlers in UAE against Pakistan as well, do you think?

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Maybe?
Their batting is but not great.
What are the pitches like?

Pitches are flat as the provebial, if the matches against SA there last winter are anything to go by.

Sorry our batting is not great...I agree.

But, have a look back to the last two Tests played in the UAE by Pakistan v RSA... Both draws, Pakistan posted good totals and nearly chased down a total of 420+...

You'll defo need 5 bowlers for UAE... I say 3 Seamers and two spinners.

If the pitches are that flat then do we need Morgan when we have Bresnan, Broad and Swann coming in behind arguably the best top five in the world?

Though, bowling will be the key more than batting in those conditons.

Honestly, you don't need Morgan...

Anderson
Broad
Tremlett
Bresnan(Replacing Morgan)
Swann

Depends how England want to go...

How about taking Scott Borthwick to the UAE?
Seems to be favoured by the selectors and can hold a bat.

I have just Wiki'd Borthwick as I know nothing about him.

A decent leggie sounds interesting.

Would be good experience for him to play against Pakistan.
I don't reckon the selectors will take that chance though, unfortuanately. Reckon Monty'll play against Pakistan and Sri lanka and England will simply go in with 5 batsmen, Prior at 6 and Brenan at 7.

Pakistan to win the series of course...we're now a better batting side than a lot think...

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.