OK folks: time to vote on two players who I'd personally consider automatic selections for this year's WAT 'A' side: Ravi Bopara (basically a promising middle order batsman but capable of turning his arm over in the manner of Ian Bell) and Adil Rashid (a player who broke into the Yorkshire side as a specialist batsman, who held his own as a batsman throughout the season, but also a heavily used legspinner who has bagged a stack of wickets this season).

Both are seemingly destined for a Test run sooner rather than later: Bopara has played ODIs and is due to tour this winter (though is not expected to start unless injuries rule out first choice players); Rashid is was the Cricket Writers' Club 2007 Young Cricketer of the Year, won the Young Player of the Year at the Professional Cricketers' Association Awards 2007 and whilst in India for a month-long training camp based in Mumbai and Chennai is also on call in the event of any injury to Swann or Panesar.

I don't see that the two are contesting the same spot: one is a specialist batsman who has somehow entered the public consciousness as something more than that despite being a very occasional bowler (with a record that compares unfavourably with Bell let alone with Collingwood); the other is just about capable of holding down a place in the Yorkshire side as either a batsman OR a bowler - and offers that "something different" with the ball that all sides seek.

The presence of one or both of these players has implications for selecting other middle order batsmen (and may influence the choice of wicket-keeper given Ambrose's obvious potential as a No 6 bat and the tendency to see Foster as a No 7) - so I'm proposing we get this matter dealt with first.