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[Manormanic]

your top four are all basically blockers who will allow the bowling team to attack and gain confidence. Hales is a big call (which is why I went for Carberry!)

Are they really?  Robson, when I have seen him bat, has seemed to be capable of playing his shots in a sensible, measured fashion and has scored at a decent pace.  As for Bell and Root, they have both shown the ability at times to play more aggressively than they showed in the most recent Ashes series - indeed, Bell dictated the pace beautifully when Australia were here last year.  So, rather than picking someone utterly random - and that is what the guys you've referenced are - why not go with the guys you think are technically the best and work with them ion their batting mindset?  Bear in mind here that your supposedly more aggressive player, Carberry, scored at the same rate as all of my alleged blockers Down Under, but without the ability to go on to play a significant innings...

My view - just like Duncan fletcher likes 90+mph bowlers, is that you need a stroke player/hitter in the top 3 - On the flat international pitches guys who struggle on a trent bridge green top in April wont struggle so much. 

Stroke player is good, hitter less important - I mean, yeah, KP is/was great but he was not there because he was a hitter but because he was a great batsman.  Now if you were arguing that the selectors should look at the up and coming players and look for someone succeeding in the first division of the Championship who could play that type of game I would give it more house room - but there are not many obvious candidates really.  Ballance, perhaps, though as I have said elsewhere he may be a year away yet.  Bairstow? Tried and, albeit with some poor management, needs to regroup.  So who is there, short of keeping the same side but batting Morgan or Prior at four?

Nice to see some Yorkshire bias in their too

No bias.  I believe Rashid is good enough, yes.  Plunkett - I have obviously seen more Yorkshire than anyone else but he has seemed to me to have the sharpest wheels of any serious candidate.

[procricket]

 Hell I forgot about Bell good shout.

Root technical deficiency are all there to see but even the daftest of people can see there a quality test cricketer in there.

Your right there left field some of the thoughts I suspect a rather couple of game bowling attacks will either confirm or finish a few batting spots this summer

[SOULMAN1012]

This is where I would go personally. Rashis is in as lower order batter and bowl a bit on days 4/5. If those 3 can't bowl out a side in our own conditions then we are in trouble.

Trott comes in for Taylor and bell drops to 4 if he is well enough to do so.

Cook
Carberry
Bell
Taylor
Morgan
Stokes
Prior
Rashid
Broad
Anderson
Onions

[Lwthomas]

I think it was just one bad series and we have gone a bit over the top to be honest. Maybe the KP thing is a good move one bad apple an all that! Carberry will be made a scapegoat of the 5 nill defeat purely becasue of his age. If it was on performance then none of the batters from the series would be playing. I reckon if he was given some time to settle in he could be similar to rodgers and score a fair amount of runs at test level over the next two or three years.

Another talking point Root is has he done enough to warrant a place in the test side. Id like to see him gone back down to 6 like in India let him learn the game a little bit like Ian Bell has done.

I reckon Robson will have to be picked for the first test of summer. 4 lions hundreds over the winter you cant knock the door down anymore really.

Balance looked good in the last test of the aussie tourlooks like a terst match player and scored runs in the championship this past summer

My team would be

Cook
Robson
Carberry
Balance
Bell
Root
Stokes
Prior
Finn
Anderson
Monty

[Lwthomas]

or maybe james taylor for balance actually

[Alvaro]

Isn't Plunkett's action the equivalent of porcelain?

[Twelfth Man]

Robson needs to be given a go no matter what, Steve Finn should have been playing 5 tests ago as well.

If we look to the future, Buttler seems to be the man for the gloves, but for now they must stay with Prior and allow Buttler to have a good season at alancs and in the one day formats.

[Manormanic]

Isn't Plunkett's action the equivalent of porcelain?

He managed to make it through the whole of last season without an issue and bowled some of the quickest spells I saw.  Watching him having Chris Rogers jumping around like he had ants in his pants at Lords was superb!

[jamielsn15]

Its the classic 'do we second guess the selectors', who we are less likely to agree with, or do we go for the Championship Manager-scenario of picking in a 'throw the baby out with the bathwater/pick a team of kids and to hell with history/the likelihood of freezing on the big stage'?  Or somewhere in between?

I think the selectors are interested in Ali, Buttler, Robson, but you have to have some experience in there, be it Test or FC.  They may go with Carberry or even (if the backroom team goes) Compton to partner Cook.  You won't win anything solely with kids.  Man Utd, when they won the title in 95/6 with the Class of 92, had a spine of Schmeichel, Bruce, Pallister, Keane, Cantona and Cole - not all kids... Bangladesh have had to, and West Indies trying, to do this with an inexperienced side.  Both are very inconsistent.

I do agree that you need a player with the ability to take the game away from a team early on.  Carberry has the ability to do that.  No one had a good series in Australia, but he played as well as players with 90, 100 Test caps.  Give him the licence to play his natural game, which is more expansive than he was in Australia.

Quite why you wouldn't play Onions early season in England is beyond me.  I think a spinner is largely irrelevant as it will be the seam and swing that will skittle Sri Lankans.  There will need to be a change mid/late summer with the Indians and I wonder if Monty with a proven track record against India may be the man they go to.  My squad for the summer would be;

Cook (c)
Carberry/Robson (definitely keep an eye on Robson and give him the instruction that he's the next man in if he plays well and Carberry doesn't push on.  I think Carberry deserves a crack in conditions he's used to before we cast him aside.  If he does kick on, you have a player who knows his game and could serve England for another 3 years.  Robson is making a good case though...)
Root
Bell (@4 to provide stability and experience)
Taylor/Morgan (if Morgan has a good start to the FC season, he should be considered, not necessarily for Taylor who deserves a decent go)
Stokes (needs to play at 6.  England seem to want to go with the all-rounder, so play Stokes where you maximise his role)
Prior (under pressure from Buttler, who I think needs a decent FC season before stepping up)
Broad
Onions/Finn (I'd love Finn to play from the off, but he needs to get firing again - I think that may take some time, but if he's good for India in mid summer, play him.  He's our top pace bowler who has the ability for a Johnson-esque style comeback, if he gets right)
Anderson
Borthwick/Panesar/Rashid - I genuinely have no clue!  Probably Panesar against the Indians for me.  Again, experience the overriding factor.

Looking forward to the 2015 Ashes, the only players from that group I see being replaced are Anderson, Prior and Panesar (assuming Carberry makes way for Robson as is the most likely scenario).  That gives you 8 players with a minimum two years Test experience and you hopefully have Trott coming in at some point as well.