Originally Posted by high_on_linseed

6 months ago, I would have said Bell, but it seems like Key is a different man now. He seems to plucking runs off at will (14 boundaries in his 78N/O!), and reportedly his techique is much tighter now. He's more experienced and further down the line than Bell, so I think there is a very solid case for his inclusion in the squad against SA, or even sometime this summer if injuries arise. I'm afraid Collingwood is not looking so hot a proposition now at least at test level now.

I'd also like to mention Usman Afzaal. He's always been his own biggest fan and had said so to the media, but that alone tells you something - like Hussain I think he has the confidence and willpower to succeed at the highest level. To say to the mass media, "I'm gonna go out and get the runs to get my England place back, just watch me", then to go about doing it is not bravado but just brave brave in my book (what if he had fallen flat on his ****). Wild speculation, he could even be FEC material.

Also, although I'm not into selecting players on racial grounds, if Afzaal did work his way back into the England set up on merit, it would be a tremendous shot-in-the-arm to the image of England amongst the large number of Pakistani-originated cricket fans out there. I have a dream of a future England side containing Afzaal and Mahmood, and a sizeable portion of the English Pakistani community actually supporting England not Pakistan. Am I being naive here?

I agree about Newman, he's one of the few I've actually seen play a number of times and he's destined for great things, if he can just learn to concentrate longer than half-way through the afternoon session!

Lastly, the best is yet to come, with Pieterson and Middlesex's Ed Joyce England qualified in the not-too-distant future.

I suppose now is not the right time for a "Bring Back John Crawley" campaign ( ;