[arbondigo]

Originally Posted by Viceroy

Very true
Just in my opinion though I think he should be put in from the beggining because all that will happen if he is dropped is that he will lose confidence. I am not convinced that thorpe will be the same force after all his injury problems and I think a player like pietersen will have much more drive.

I think him going to coach down under after the series is incentive enough to win.

Originally Posted by Viceroy

I know Pietersen hasn't proved himself at test level all I meant was that he has shown he has the temperament to handle tough situations, and that is half the battle in test matches when you have long runs of the best bowlers constantly testing your technique for weakness

But in ODIs the bowlers are limited in the amount of short stuff they can bowl, this isn't really the case in Tests unless they go above shoulder/head height and a good bouncer should only come up to your neck. He won't have faced this kind of bowling in the ODIs, county championship he might've done but there's a huge leap between county and international level. I didn't see too much of the recent one dayers but i would hazard a bet that quite a few of his runs went to where the slips are in the Tests?

Originally Posted by Viceroy

I agree that bell will be in the spot light too, I can't really understand the reasoning in not playing him in the ODI's when they pick a player like Solanki, who did very well, but for me bell could have done with getting used too facing these top bowlers

I agree, he's also a very good fielder. Just out of interest, do you play yourself?