Hopefully both Shah and Bopara are ahead of Key for the test team. The new captain will be Kevin Pietersen by default, i'd have liked to have seen Colly carry on as one day skipper. If Strauss keeps his place it will mean 3 ex-England captains are below the new captain with a potential 4th if Vaughan comes back. Reminds me of the late 80's with Gooch, Gatting, Gower and Botham all in the team at the same time.

Strauss would have been the obvious choice to replace Vaughan in terms of his mental strength and tactical nous, but he's out of form and out of the one day team also. I'd drop Strauss to give KP more of a free reign in terms of his influence on the side.

My squad :-
Cook
Bell
Shah
Pietersen (c)
Collingwood
Bopara
Flintoff
Foster
Anderson
Harmison
Jones
Panesar

Quite a sensible squad IMO. Strauss is out of form, Vaughan is unavailable, Ambrose hasn't been test class and Sidearse isn't fit enough. Broad needs to be playing and indeed taking wickets in county cricket. The last thing we need to be doing now is panicking.

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Freddie Flintoff=God

I think the term "bad boys" comes from SA defiance of Britain over the years historically over the years. I will have to look it up fully.

I am disappointed Vaughan is not playing in next Test. England need him.

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"Checkout the big brain on Brett" Pulp Fiction

I'm sorry but I can't see why Pietersen is marked down as England captain. I can see Bell sort of, but the man for (at least the Test) captaincy is Strauss. He's captained England before and he's got the right sort of mentality. Pietersen is too hot headed.

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Frank Skinner: "You know when Glenn McGrath trod on that cricket ball? Don't you wish it would've been a landmine?"

Hardly out of form. He's been getting starts, but going out cheaply without looking out of form, if you know what I mean. Plus, he came off some very good form against New Zealand, so I'd keep him as the captain and trust that he can come back into some seriously good form.

Kevin Pietersen is the England player who looks least likely to have his spot in the team under threat.

Strauss...has recently had his spot threatened.
Bell........has recently had his spot threatened.

I think this is currently a no brainer, Kevin Pietersen is the logical selection as captain starting ASAP next text against South Africa.
Any other appointment would be as silly and as amatuerish as Patinson's 2nd Test selection.
Not making the appointment before the 4th Test is only wasting valuable time adjusting to a new captain, and England do not have the luxury of time in this case to afford wasting it.
Vaughan also needs to be totally cut, and not hanging around like he was when Flintoff captained England in Australia. And not retained as a batsman.

Then after this very public bloodbath, England needs to amputate the real villians that caused this tragedy, Miller, Moore and the amatuer official/board that appointed them to jobs they could not handle. Or jobs that did not pay enough to attract more suitable professional candidates.

I agree with this, at least as far as the Oval test is concerned - didn't know he had made himself unavailable until this morning, in fact. However, he sounded so emotional at the press conference yesterday that, to be honest, he might be doing himself and the team a favour by sitting this one out. I still think, as mentioned above, that this should be Vaughan's last international cricket for a while, but I would not count him out of the Ashes next year if his early season form justifies selection.

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Money won't buy you friends. But it gets you a better class of enemy.
Spike Milligan

I don't think we will see Vaughan play for England again unless we have a few injuries next summer in the ashes and need an experienced campaigner to step in for a game or two.

I would love it if he could go and regain his form and triumphantly return to the test side with an avalanche of runs but he is nearly 34 and time is running out so i think a couple of years at Yorkshire (maybe as new captain with Gough retiring) and then possibly joining the Sky band of former England captains in the commentary box will be what happens.

For cripes sake get him straight in there and send Lloyd, Hussien and Atherton over to commentate on the Vladivostok district competion with a low range transmitting walkie talkie and one way tickets.

Vaughan could never be a commentator. He is very inarticulate and although he was an excellent captain, he has nowhere near the verbal dexterity of Hussain or Atherton.

One only has to remember "the achievement that this team has achieved is a remarkable achievement."

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Mae hen wlad fy nhadau yn annwyl i mi