Bloody hell.

Is that the weakest england cricket squad ever assembled?

Must be the ONLY sport in the world where you can fail constantly but keep getting picked.

The nucleus of the team is very good, so it's by a about the three million miles away from the worst squad we've taken to Australia but I'm puzzled by the inclusion of Ballance especially and Vince who's not had a great first class season. I imagine it's a hunch that might do well in Australian conditions.

Oh and on a related point Stokes is a prick (regardless of whatever provocation there probably was)

Stokes needs to stop believing the hype.

Why?

On the field he's been superb and consistent alll summer.

Once again, myself and Jonathan Agnew disagree with you. As does Graeme Swann and Michael Vaughan.

But hey what do we all know.

What they all said that this is worst England Cricket Squad ever assembled like you just did? Or are the making that up!?

8 of the 11 are established World class players with records to match so the nucleus of team is good which gives us a chance. I can't believe Ballance has been picked and I wouldn't have picked Vince. Those are the only two in the squad who've had previous opportunities. What am I saying that is so completely wrong that experts like Agnew and yourself aren't?

I don't know, Joe Hart still seems to be getting a gig with the England football team.

Mason Crane is a very unusual selection. Hopefully no ill fortune will befall Moeen whilst they're on tour.

The batting problem has been there for all to see for a while and it's not like they haven't given plenty of options a go. You could possibly argue that the selections made are the natural consequence of no-one in particular standing out. As PJ suggests, when there's no outstanding empirical evidence you might as well go with a hunch. I do agree it seems odd that they keep going back to Ballance but I suppose he does at least have some experience against the Aussies.

It might help if Root batted at 3 but as he's the best specialist batsman in the team I understand not forcing him to do this if he doesn't want to.

Yeah Root has to bat three for me.

Another point is that the Lions squad are also in Australia so realistically the pool of players to select from is bigger than that squad.

Have you forgotten about the left back career of Ritchie Humphreys?

I don't think though that it's really eight - it's six with a couple still to get properly fit/in form:
Cook
Root
Bairstow
Stokes
Ali
Anderson
Broad (although not had the best summer, not sure he's quite there yet)
Woakes (if properly fit, which he still needs to prove)

That leaves three places minimum, and four if you say that Woakes has still got a bit to do to be ready for the Ashes; even assuming that hes firing and on form you're looking at the seam bowling and thinking we're going in a bit light - all it will take is an injury or loss of form and the backup is untried at best. So we're looking a bit short in seamers, have a spinner in Ali who is better than sometimes credited but not genuinely top rank, backed up by a youngster who has a total of 16 first class wickets this summer, and a batting lineup which shows fragility and isn't settled, with backup from players who have failed to impress before getting a recall.

It's weak because we're effectively depending on the majority of the first choice XI remaining fit and in form. Put in a fit Wood or maybe even Plunkett (though he's not played a lot of longer form cricket recently), and the seam bowling might pass muster, but in terms of the spin and the batting, there's not a lot of options that either haven't played, or haven't impressed when they have - hence why the name of Ian Bell still gets bandied around by fans.... I mean, people are mentioning names of players like Nick Gubbins, who hasn't averaged 25 this season; Ballance is one of the best in terms of average outside the test team, but has longstanding technical flaws that you would expect the Aussies to exploit, just as we did with Shane Watson a couple of years back.

We could still win the Ashes - the Aussies have their weaknesses too - but we're going to need the likes of Stoneman and maybe Malan to make good on their potential, and hope that the seamers get or remain fit.

Have they also announced who's going out with the Lions? That really could end up as the Shadow Squad, be interested to see what seamers they pick....

Thank God we've been blessed with a succession of fantastic left backs since he moved on, otherwise we might be in real trouble.

He needs to stop punching things or people and breaking his hand though!!!

They said it was the weakest squad. Which it is, surely. Yes we have some world class players, but we also have some relative dross as well. And thats in the team.

If Cook and Root fail to shine, we will be right in the clarts. There is no back up whatsoever.

Now they may come good and I hope they do, but you cant be excited by the squad.

Paul Collingwood is part of the coaching staff... and this season has a better average than Vince.

I'm cautiously optimistic, however if anyone was to ask me to justify that sentiment, I'm not sure if I could.

No back up whatsoever if Root and Cook fail?

How about our middle order to lower order that is the best in the World?

Stokes, Bairstow, Ali, Woakes.

I'm a little underwhelmed but how can you say with any certainty that it's the worst ever squad? That seems an overreaction. All of those World class players mentioned are part of the squad and apart from Ballance and Vince (who are good players by the way) most of the rest are untried at the top level. Foakes deserves his place and looks a fine player whenever I've seen him, Overton has an impressive first class record considering he bowls half of his overs at Taunton, Crane has been picked purely because he did well in Australia last winter and I agree with them about Adil Rashid not being a Test bowler. I'm sure others have a case like the lad Porter from Essex but obviously the people who paid to watch these players who think taller quicker bowlers are the way to go.

I would've liked to see Ian Bell get a recall, one of the best technical batsmen we've had imo. I am also concerned about our long term bowling options as there seems to be too big a reliance on Jimmy Anderson who surely is on the verge of retirement after this tour.

I said last summer I'd bring Bell back but the reality is that he's not scored anywhere near enough runs for Warwickshire and is probably way past his best. I think if he'd have

I'm happy with Anderson, Broad and Woakes plus Stokes in the department to hold their own, we just need to keep them fit for 5 Tests. I can see Anderson playing for a couple more years yet, his form this summer suggests he's got plenty left in the tank.

Most experts think we lack pace for.the aussie pitches.

Maybe plunket should have gone?

Really not sure what Jack Leach has to do to get a call up - other than move to Middlesex or Surrey. He'll be with the Lions at least and I'd imagine he will be the front line spinner, which means he will play and be available if something happens to Moeen. Crane is a talented cricketer but it must be too soon...

I've got Warwickshire membership; Bell has been dross this year, in all forms of the game. It's also common knowledge that his attitude off the field is one of the reasons Warks went down. Once he was dropped from the T20 team, they started winning games. Compare Bell to Collingwood; arguably Colly has performed better in domestic cricket once his international career ended. The same can't be said of Bell. I'd have Colly in the squad before Bell. And that's not a joke.

garry ballance the cricketing carlton palmer.

1,500 test runs at 38 with 4 hundreds, I wish I was as terrible at cricket as him!

I wouldn't have selected him but I do think theirs been an overreaction here, and he is clearly a talented batsman. He's certainly not a number 3 at that level he doesn't even bat 3 at country level so maybe it would be fairer to judge him after a run at 5?

I've just watched the video of the Stokes punch up. Looks to me like some blokes picked a fight with a fella from Workington. Big mistake. Stokes will struggle to claim self-defence on that one!

All seems to start with one of them trying to glass one of Stokes mates?

At least Stokes doesnt resort to simply kicking people in the head when they are on the floor like one of them does. Not sure if he another cricketer or just a mate?

Stokes looks like a fucking moron on that footage.

What is it with grown blokes believing they are some sort of hard case just cos they like to threaten people and throw punches.

Anyone threatening anyone with violence is an idiot never mind throwing punches.

Its school boy stuff.

The footage looks awful but the other side of the story sounds very different that Stokes was standing up for a couple who were getting homophobic abuse and the lad who he ended up twatting, who was dishing it out, tried to bottle him.

The mistake from Stokes and Hales is putting themselves in that position in the first place, no way should they be still out at that time while on England duty curfew or no curfew.

A full scale witch hunt from our gutter press has now ensued, these same awful rags will be asking why our most talented sportsmen never reach their full potential or never win anything in various sports.

How about the only sport in the world where there are only 2 teams that anybody cares about.

Yeah Monty because nobody cares about India, a real cricketing backwater. There's not much passion for the game or rivalry in Pakistan either and they can generally take or leave cricket in Bangladesh. All small countries with tiny populations the game needs selling more to.