I suspect we're more likely to see the likes of Bopara elevated than Joyce and Compton. Whilst Bell and Cook are around the rest of the batting line up needs to be able to take a game away from the opposition by scoring their runs swiftly. I suspect we may see more of Jon Trott, too, and would hope that young Samit Patel at Notts is on the Academy list for the winter. Joe Denly will almost certainly get a place at Loughborough, too.

A guess at the Lions touring party as

Denly, Shah (c), Trott, Godleman, Patel, Ambrose, Rashid, Bresnan, Shreck, Onions, Gidman, Jefferson, TSmith and maybe Simon Jones to get some more cricket as half the season has gone and he has hardly played.

Strauss may be poor against spin but he was the only bat to hit 2 tons in the 2005 Ashes series and he faced a heck of a lot of deliveries against a certain S K Warne.

To be honest, Joyce looks far more limited in terms of technique than Bopara. Compton could be good though.

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Mark.