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[hammersjr]

Can see woakes missing out as he's not quite good enough as a specialist bowler or batsman & Ali has taken the all rounder spot.

[Alvaro]

What about Bell or Ali though? Both of them can play shots and score at a decent rate much like Ballance..

Bell fleshes out a very callow middle order by batting four. I like the idea of him playing there. It's just a hunch.

[Sam]

Can see woakes missing out as he's not quite good enough as a specialist bowler or batsman & Ali has taken the all rounder spot.

Bowling average of 18 so far this season with 16 wickets from 100 overs (going for 293 runs, 28 of them were maidens).
Bowling average of 20 for the lions in the winter with 11 wickets from 83 overs.
Bowling average of 26 last season with 33 wickets from 288 overs.

They're better stats than the majority of English bowlers over the last couple of seasons/tours. When you consider the following as well (hasn't quite got in with the bat yet this season ) :

Batting average of 46.50 for the lions in the winter with 279 runs from 7 innings.
Batting average of 52.50 last season with 683 runs from 19 innings.

Again, better stats than the majority of English batsmen over the last couple of seasons/tours.

He should get in as the 4th seamer in my opinion.

[A-Swing-And-A-Miss]

It's very easy to look at someone's FC stats and use them as the basis of a case for them to play international cricket. But in reality it's not so black and white, some of the best Test players around have had fairly mediocre FC stats whilst some of the best performing players at FC level haven't been able to make the grade at international level.

Woakes has better batting and bowling figures at FC level than Ben Stokes but you'd have to be mad to honestly believe that Woakes is the better of the two. Woakes is yet another low 80s swing bowler that will almost certainly take bags of wickets in the CC but just doesn't quite have that something special to make him international quality.

[hammersjr]

Bowling average of 18 so far this season with 16 wickets from 100 overs (going for 293 runs, 28 of them were maidens).
Bowling average of 20 for the lions in the winter with 11 wickets from 83 overs.
Bowling average of 26 last season with 33 wickets from 288 overs.

They're better stats than the majority of English bowlers over the last couple of seasons/tours. When you consider the following as well (hasn't quite got in with the bat yet this season ) :

Batting average of 46.50 for the lions in the winter with 279 runs from 7 innings.
Batting average of 52.50 last season with 683 runs from 19 innings.

Again, better stats than the majority of English batsmen over the last couple of seasons/tours.

He should get in as the 4th seamer in my opinion.

Good point, he has got good stats but as a team without a recognised test spinner I would rather take a more experienced 4th seamer such as plunkett & with Jordan doing well in the odi's can't see how he can be left out. Who would you drop to get woakes in?

[Alvaro]

Woakes is a better consistent cricketer than Stokes, but Stokes is more capable of one off brilliance.

[csnew]

Better hope it's a green top without a front line spinner and warm conditions

[uknsaunders]

Woakes is 12th man, cricinfo confirmed Robson,Jordan, Ali receiving caps from Gatt.

[TangoWhiskey]

Sri Lanka won the toss and stuck England in. Come on Robson!

[tim2000s]

Here we go then. A rather different looking England side and I hope that it can match the rebirthed Rugby team...

1 Alastair Cook (capt),
2 Sam Robson,
3 Gary Ballance,
4 Ian Bell,
5 Joe Root,
6 Moeen Ali,
7 Matt Prior (wkt),
8 Chris Jordan,
9 Stuart Broad,
10 Liam Plunkett,
11 James Anderson

[19reading87]

Who's got a link then that us at work can watch it on??

[sgcricket]

crictime (dot) com
good decision by SL to bowl first. even if the pitch cracks, Eng have no one who can make use of that.

[Jason_Yuan]

Feel sorry for wakes, great player and really deserve his chance

[tim2000s]

Two down for 22. Eeee Gads...

[WalkingWicket37]

#MooresOut #SackCook #bringKPback