A few weeks ago, the consensus on this board was that Tresco was due for the chop - there were precious few of us who said he should be opening. I personally warned against knee-jerks. Consensus seemed to be that Butcher should open, but many conceeded that he was ENG's best 3 for years and this was also a valuable role. Then there was the Hussain retirement debate. Now Strauss is in the mix, and people are saying we should drop Butcher! Good God! This is ridiculous! In 3 weeks we have dropped 3 test quality batsmen, and all for the same reason! I am personally very glad that those who recommend selection on the basis of form are not in DG's job.

A few points on why you don't select on the basis of form:-

For a good player (and all those in the debate are good, but this is not always the case....) poor form is of finite and unknown length. They can play matchwinning innings in the first innings at the end of that spell, and that could happen in the next innings. YOU DO NOT DROP CLASS PLAYERS DUE TO LACK OF FORM UNLESS THE REPLACEMENT IS AN EQUALLY ABLE PLAYER!!!!!

Selecting on form is how wasters like Hick and Ramprakash kept on getting back into the ENG team - its the "weight of runs" idea which, thank God, has finally fallen out of favour with our selectors. Once again, you don't pick on form unless the players in the mix are as near to each other IN ABILITY as makes damn all difference. This ability is in the eyes of ths selectors, but never th less you must select on ability first form has to come a long way after that.

A team must be selected with many things in mind:- 1st, the match in hand. 2nd, the rest of the series. 3rd next year. 4th the year after that. Form comes 5th. Players cannot become experienced unless they play, and a tam cannot win without expereinced players. If you have two players who are of similar ability, you MUST select the player that will be available in 2-3 years time. You don't pick on form unless there is no other criteria on which to make a selection.

As shown by Strauss and Hussain yesterday, it is important for a team to know each other and to have played with each other. Consistency in slection is good for team spirit, it is good for individual confidence, it is important for smooth working and it therefore has benefit for results. If you select on form, all this suffers and all the benefit you gain from the "in-form player" can easily be lost and outweiged by the impact on the team as a whole.

It is not a simple case of picking the players witht he highest average/the highest recent average/scored the most runs in the last match. Every player in a team is doing a specialist role:- Trescothick and Vaughan look to dominate the bowling. Hussain is a sheet-anchor. Butcher can do either, to some extent (which is why he is a good 3). Thorpe and Strauss accumulate without needing to dominate. Thorpe (and therefore I'd guess Strauss) is also magnificent at batting with the tail. You can't simply switch player A for player B and expect it not to impact in other areas. Theres more to selection than averages, and theres much more to it than form! IF Strauss cannot be dropped, then the discussion of who IS dorpped certainly shouldn't be on the basis of who is in the worst form! It should be on the basis of which player will least impact the teams flexibility/toughness by not playing.

Come on lads! Lets see a bit more analysis in these debates than just whose scored the least runs in the last 2 weeks!