Sadly, what should have been one of the most interesting fixtures of the year to date looks like being a waste of time: see Cricinfo - Lions await India on placid pitch

These young bowlers should not have to bowl on such pitches, in particular Onions and Rashid, will be boring at best.

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Ern

Cricinfo says

England A (probable) 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Joe Denly, 3 Ravinder Bopara, 4 Owais Shah, 5 Jonathan Trott, 6 Tim Bresnan, 7 Tim Ambrose (wk), 8 Chris Tremlett, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 Graham Onions, 11 Adil Rashid.

I wouldn't thing that would be the batting order, more like
Strauss, Denly, Shah, Trott, Bopara, Ambrose, Rashid, Bresnan, Tremlett, Broad, Onions.

I'd like to see Bopara bat well up the order and Rashid no lower than six... simply to learn more about those two as batsmen: it would certainly be good to see how each responded to the challenge.. and certainly more interesting than finding out more about the likes of Trott and Ambrose.

Bopara's still there but Rashid batted at seven (as high as he should be in this company) and was out fourth ball to Powar. After a solid start the Lions are struggling at 189-6, much depends on Bopara now who is 22 not out.

Bresnan rescues us with a 50 from number 8.He is having a great season with the bat this season and is becoming a useful source for runs lower in the order,if he can improve his bowling a touch he is the type of player we need at 8 in the test side.Too early yet though.

Yep, as the extra bowler with Fred, Hog, Panesar and Harmy. Seems Jones is injury prone, Anderson more suited to 1 dayers and the rest wont play than 5-6 games on the trot at times.

BTW, he now has 116 N.O.

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If Hoggard, Flintoff, Harmison and Panesar are all warranting their place in the side then Bresnan should be superfluous (especially with Collingwood available as a 4th seamer). Bresnan should be focussing on being good enough to depose one of that trio of seamers, not on tagging along as a spare part!

Rashid remains the more interesting long term prospect: he batted ahead of Bresnan for a reason - he belongs ahead of Bresnan. He's just 19... so in Test terms he's maybe a no 7 rather than the no 5 or 6 he might one day become.... but he's quite clearly got the potential.

Its a possibility and it is his first go against test opposition, but how you can tell that after 4 runless balls I dont know !

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Nothing says "Obey Me" like a bloody head on a fence post!

These guys play week in, week out... and Bresnan's had a long enough run to confirm that he's definitely a bowler who bats. Rashid got his break as a batsman... and is doing at least as much as Flintoff ever did to show potential as a no 6-7 bat - he's not yet proven he can step up as a batsman who bowls... but it's not THAT difficult to teach batting... so on that front I'm unconcerned.

Whether he can also master the bowling is another matter entirely: that's a rather more challenging craft!