To be honest the spin bowling cupboard is so bare that there really is little point taking three spinners to Sri Lanka and certainly no point in playing two spinners in the tests purely for the sake of it. Our last two three tours of the subcontinent has resulted in the selection of a couple of second rate off spinners (Batty and Udal) who could do an effective job with the bat down at 8 supporting the one international class sla and unsurprisingly they got caned by batsmen who are great players of spin. We'd be far better advised to go with the all pace attack (looking for reverse swing) and give Monty a heavy workload (which is something he seems to thrive upon) with a few overs of KP and Vaughan thrown in for variety.

Gary Keedy gets brought along as his like for like replacement (like Monty he can't bat, can't field but is a pretty decent left arm spinner) in the event of injury or illness. The pasting that Adil Rashid recieved at the hands of Tendulkar in the Lions game should make it clear that he is not remotely ready for the big time and he will benifit far more from an A tour.