Gareth Southgate has selected an England squad for this summer’s World Cup in Russia that has quality in all areas, if not quite the star names of years gone by, which has ensured that he has battles for selection all over the pitch.

That, combined with the healthy team dynamic that he has engineered, has created genuine competition for places in nearly every position.

The selection of players for the England team is generally a fairly partisan affair but it has reached the point now where many supports will not be too bothered which marginal call Southgate makes in a variety of positions.

One such decision is between Tottenham’s Kieran Trippier and Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold so we put the question to you, should Southgate go for youth or experience?

The poll was very tight, again underlining how tough a choice it is but the Reds man came out on top with 54 per cent of the vote as you can see below…

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England’s final World Cup Group G game has become a matter of priorities for Gareth Southgate.

While finishing top would be due recognition for the fantastic progress the Three Lions have already shown at the tournament and provide a real statement heading into the knockout stages, it’s also a question of whether it’s really worth risking the fitness of key players when England have already qualified.

At the same time, while Southgate’s clearly fond of Raheem Sterling, the Manchester City forward hasn’t really set the World Cup alight in the same way as some of his attacking accomplices like Harry Kane and Jesse Lingard.

How far will England get in Russia? Tell us now and win any World Cup shirt of your choice.

So perhaps it’s time to give Sterling a bit of a rest and allow someone else the chance to prove themselves, with Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford inevitably the standout candidate.

The hugely promising youngster, valued at £58.5million at Transfermarkt, dazzled in England’s last World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica but has picked up just 22 minutes during the tournament so far.

So, England fans, would you start Sterling against Belgium to maintain England’s continuity in attack or hand Rashford a start instead? Let us know by voting below…

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Arsenal have been linked with Sevilla and Argentina midfielder Éver Banega, with The Daily Star reporting that the Spanish side have already signed his replacement.

What’s the story?

With Sevilla confirming the signing of Roque Mesa from Swansea this week, rumours linking new Arsenal boss Unai Emery with Banega have become even more prominent.

The experienced Banega has played for a number of top European clubs including Atletico Madrid, Valencia and Inter Milan and has a release clause of £17.6m.

However, Arsenal are also in for CSKA Moscow’s playmaker Aleksandr Golovin, as cited by Metro, who is rated at €18m by Transfermarkt and their transfer budget may mean it is Golovin or Banega rather than both.

Who should Emery choose?

A more attacking player than Banega, Golovin has quick feet and likes to use his pace to run at defenders whereas Banega will generally sit deeper and attempt to pick out a defence-splitting pass.

Valued at €18m by Transfermarkt, Golovin scored five goals and created four assists in 27 league games for CSKA last season and can play out-wide when needed.

At just 22-years-old, the Russian youngster has been impressing at the World Cup this summer, with a goal and two assists so far from his side’s three group games.

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Banega is clearly a quality player but if Emery wants to build for the future at Arsenal then Golovin may be the better option. With his pace and trickery he could create problems for Premier League defenders and would offer something different to Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

[brid playlist=”4766″ player=”12034″ title=”World Cup 2018″]

After being hit by a spate of injuries, England have called up Durham fast bowler Liam Plunkett as cover for the first two one-dayers in South Africa

Cricinfo staff17-Nov-2009After being hit by a spate of injuries, England have called up Durham fast bowler Liam Plunkett as cover for the first two one-dayers in South Africa.A growing injury list which includes three first-choice bowlers – Graeme Swann (rib), James Anderson (knee) and Stuart Broad (shoulder) – and two senior batsmen, Paul Collingwood and Alastair Cook (both with back complaints), forced England to use bowling coach Ottis Gibson as a fielder briefly during the warm-up match against South Africa A in Potchefstroom on Tuesday.Plunkett, who was already part of the Test squad, will fly out to join the limited-overs squad on Wednesday. It has been more than two years since he played an ODI; the last of his 27 England appearances was against West Indies in Nottingham in July 2007. He had a successful first-class season but was less effective in the domestic one-dayers, taking 14 wickets at 39.07 in 16 outings for Durham.England play the first of their five one-dayers against South Africa on Friday in Johannesburg.

Indian cricket’s prodigal son Sreesanth returned in style with a five-for to leave Sri Lanka in tatters in the second Test in Kanpur

The Bulletin by Sriram Veera26-Nov-2009
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outSreesanth’s comeback to Tests was spectacular•AFP

Indian cricket’s prodigal son Sreesanth returned to international cricket in style with a five-for, and six wickets overall, to leave Sri Lanka staring at defeat in the second Test in Kanpur. Sri Lanka, forced to follow on after tea, were tottering in the second innings still 356 runs adrift with six wickets standing.Though India’s spinners and Sri Lanka’s batsmen – the senior-most duo contrived a run-out while following on – contributed to the collapse, most of the work was done by Sreesanth, playing his first international game in 19 months. For nine successive overs in the first session, and for seven on the trot in the second, he ran in hard, hit the deck and found life in a slow pitch. He led the way in the second innings too, removing Tillakaratne Dilshan with a leg cutter, before Sri Lanka started to disintegrate against spin.Mahela Jayawardene and Prasanna Jayawardene offered some resistance with a 60-run partnership in the first innings but Sri Lanka threatened to implode without much fight in the second. Tharanga Paranavitana was trapped by an arm-ball from Virender Sehwag and Kumar Sangakkara chopped a topspinner from Harbhajan on to the stumps.However, the decisive moment of the collapse, and something that exposed the visitors’ mindset, was the run-out of Mahela, the first-innings top scorer. Sangakkara pushed the ball to the right of a straightish midwicket and called for a suicidal run but Mahela had no chance to beat the throw from Yuvraj Singh. Perhaps the fact that they had lost nine wickets in just over two sessions and yielded their biggest-ever lead to India had knocked the fight out of them.Or perhaps it was just Sreesanth. Green Park was where he played his last Test 19 months ago before disappearing from the sports pages and becoming an occasional feature on Page 3. Today, he stormed back, lifting India with spells that read 9-2-28-3 in the first session and 7-2-18-2 in the second.His bowling was sublime through the day but the high point of his redemptive journey was the delivery that gave him his fifth wicket, a peach that cut away from the middle stump line to take out the off stump of the clueless Rangana Herath. The celebration was muted: a folding of palms in prayer and gratitude, the right hand raised to accept the high-fives from his team-mates and the face slowly creasing into a smile. It wasn’t dramatic, it wasn’t the usual Sreesanth theatrics that make him perhaps the most complex cricketer in this side. Today, those signature self-exhortations at the top of the run-up were rarely seen, as was any special celebration after a wicket.It was all about the bowling. If he troubled the batsmen with seam movement in the morning, he found some reverse swing post-lunch with the old ball and continued to harass the batsmen. He got the big breakthrough of the second session when he terminated the fighting partnership between the two Jayawardenes. Prasanna had taken an aggressive route, slog sweeping and driving the spinners and, though he faced Zaheer Khan, he didn’t have to play Sreesanth till he reached 35. Sreesanth probed Prasanna with 11 testing deliveries that included leg cutters, inswingers and a lovely inswinging yorker but Prasanna stood firm. However, Prasanna chased the 12th, a short and wide one, and got a thin nick through to the keeper.That was a recurring theme. Sreesanth would severely test the batsmen with a cluster of good deliveries and would invariably pick up a wicket with one slightly wide from the stumps. His pace wasn’t frightening (135 kmph was the average), there were no fiery bouncers and he didn’t swing it around corners, but what he did was land each ball on a probing line and length, and cut it either way just enough to test the batsmen. He had his share of luck too – two batsmen played on off the inside edge – and Sri Lanka’s batsmen didn’t tailor their techniques to the demands of the pitch.Instead of playing as close to the body as possible on a pitch with variable bounce, the batsmen erred by playing away. Tharanga Paranavitana was set up by a bouncer that crashed into his shoulder before he pushed at one cutting away from him. Sangakkara, who faced 24 deliveries from Zaheer Khan today, fell in the first over he faced off Sreesanth. Sangakkara played out three straight deliveries but was lured into a cover drive by a full and wide one, and ended up dragging it on to his stumps. Thilan Samaraweera was the next to go, pushing hard and early at a length delivery cutting away from him.Not everything went Sreesanth’s way though. He produced an edge from his best delivery but it didn’t get him a wicket. Jayawardene, on zero, pushed at one that cut away late and got an edge but neither MS Dhoni nor Sachin Tendulkar at first slip went for the catch. It was the wicketkeeper’s catch. Jayawardene got another reprieve on 25 when he edged a late cut off Harbhajan to first slip where Rahul Dravid couldn’t hold on to a sharp chance. The same thing happened in the second innings too but it didn’t matter on either occasion as Mahela couldn’t carry on for long.It was not a completely solo show by Sreesanth, though, as the debutant Pragyan Ojha kept things tight, allowing Dhoni the luxury to attack from the other end. Ojha also got the big wicket of the first innings when he beat the top scorer Mahela in the flight and produced a mishit to mid-on. Ojha also hastened the end of the Sri Lankan innings post-tea by trapping Muttiah Muralitharan in front but Sreesanth was undoubtedly the star today.

Bangladesh’s first-class competition, the National Cricket League, has been rescheduled and will commence on January 13 due to unavoidable circumstances, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has stated

Cricinfo staff31-Dec-2009Bangladesh’s first-class competition, the National Cricket League, has been rescheduled and will commence on January 13 due to unavoidable circumstances, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has stated. The tournament was initially set to begin on Friday (January 1), but hit a major roadblock after leading players threatened to pull out unless the BCB increased their match fees and reverted to the previous format of the four-day competition.The BCB, however, added that there will be no changes to the format, and that a new itinerary will be announced in due course.The dispute came about after the BCB altered the existing first-class competition. The number of games has been reduced but the match fees have been increased from 10,000 Taka (US$ 144) to 12,000 Taka (US$ 173). Per this modification, the finalists will play nine matches while the two teams who fail to quality for the Super Four stage will play five matches, which is five less than the previous home-and-away format.The changes did not go down well with the country’s players, not least the leading internationals such as Mohammad Ashraful and Shakib Al Hasan. The Cricketers’ Welfare Association of Bangladesh (CWAB) demanded that match fees be fixed at 35,000 Taka (US$ 505) for four-day games, 20,000 Taka (US$ 288) for one-day games, and 10,000 Taka or Twenty20 games. Aside from the issue of remuneration, CWAB also demanded reinstatement of the original format.Debobroto Paul, the general secretary, said earlier this week that the players preferred to play more longer-version games in a bid to improve cricket, but were waiting for the board to respond.

Cricinfo presents the plays of the day from day four in Hobart

Cricinfo staff17-Jan-201098, 99, 100!
It’s been a hard summer in the 90s for Simon Katich, who began the season with 92 against West Indies in Brisbane. He has also posted a 98 and a 99, so when he was faced with the triple-figure barrier again, albeit in a much lower-pressure situation, he was determined not to fall at the final hurdle. Katich brought up his milestone with a clipped single behind square on the leg side but that was his last run. In the next over he was caught on the boundary.Delayed gratification
Shane Watson picked up two wickets with lbw decisions but on neither occasion was he certain that he had his man, as Mohammad Yousuf and Umar Akmal both called for reviews. Watson was confident that both times the ball would have hit the stumps and the third umpire’s verdicts backed him up, but he said the review system had created a strange dynamic on the field. “When there’s a decision now it’s hard to fully celebrate because you know there’s a good chance of it being referred,” Watson said. “Occasionally it’s given not out so you don’t want to carry on too much. It’s always nice to see the finger go up but you know it’s not a confirmation until the referral goes ahead.” Who needs a fielding coach?
At last count Pakistan had dropped 16 catches and four were missed by Kamran Akmal in one Test alone. All along the camp has insisted no fielding coach is needed and that everything that can be tried is being tried. This morning before play Intikhab Alam, the coach, was practicing edging catches to the wicketkeeper, with a fielder throwing a ball at him. It is routine practice, but Intikhab was ultimately only able to direct roughly four edges in the direction of the wicketkeeper.Rain, rain, go away (or stay)

Australia knew there was going to be wet weather on the horizon towards the end of the game and the players will be racing to the hotel windows as soon as they wake on Monday. The forecast is for cloudy periods with occasional showers, which is a better predicament for the locals than the heavier falls predicted earlier for the start of the week. The final hour of the fourth day was lost to the weather with the hosts in a commanding position. They want six wickets, the visitors need Hobart’s unpredictable weather to turn into a day of rain.

Plays of the day from the first day of the second Test between India and South Africa in Kolkata

N Hunter14-Feb-2010Petersen pierces the field
Silly point, short cover, and extra cover were in place as Amit Mishra tossed up a legbreak on middle and off stump. Alviro Petersen, a debutant, took on the challenge, strode forward and drove handsomely to the boundary. It was easily the shot of the in morning.Mishra kicks dust
The last ball of the same over was a straighter one that pitched on middle stump, held its line and, as Hawk-Eye indicated, probably would have hit between middle and leg. But when the umpire turned down Mishra’s vociferous appeal, he couldn’t believe it and raised his arms and shrieked. He had bowled 53 overs without a wicket in Nagpur and continued to toil.Laxman drops a sitter
They don’t come much easier. Hashim Amla tried to cut a delivery outside off from Harbhajan Singh but the outside edge travelled straight to VVS Laxman at first slip. He juggled thrice but couldn’t hold on. He made amends, though, by running from first slip towards short third man to catch Jacques Kallis, also off Harbhajan.Spell of the day
4-1-12-0. It was delivered by Ishant Sharma, whose first spell in the afternoon was about half hour before tea. Until then, play had been dominated by Petersen and Amla. Maintaining speeds between 129 and 140 kph, Ishant pitched accurately – short of a length on the off-stump line. Even Amla, who had survived 100 overs in the series till then, was hopping and skipping as he tried to fend off Ishant’s snorters, one of which hit him on the hips. It was a crucial spell because the runs dried up for the first time in the day.Blunder of the day
After Petersen’s departure on the brink of tea, South Africa needed Amla to extend his vigil. He was more aggressive today compared to Nagpur and had stepped out dangerously against Harbhajan but got away. There were a few misses as he tried to upper-cut Ishant during his hot spell as well. But off the fourth ball after tea, an away-going short delivery from Zaheer, Amla went for an unnecessary pull, and the edge travelled into MS Dhoni’s gloves.Harbhajan’s tent
As soon as Harbhajan trapped Ashwell Prince and JP Duminy off consecutive deliveries, Dhoni set a tent-like field to help his spinner take a hat-trick. Men had already been positioned at first slip, silly point and short leg, and joining them now were a leg slip and an additional slip. Memories of 2001 returned as Harbhajan charged in to claim a dramatic hat-trick. Even as Dale Steyn survived the ball, the ring of close fielders jumped up and appealed in unison out of sheer excitement., Harris
India did not forget Paul Harris’ choking lines and lengths in the first Test as well as his quips to mentally disintegrate them. So Zaheer, having just run out AB de Villiers, walked alongside Harris, the new man, as he stepped into the raucous Eden Gardens. Next, Ishant did not waste time in bowling in the channel and repeatedly breathed under Harris’ nose. Smiles and words were exchanged. Harris tried to stay calm, but the pressure was relentless, and he eventually edged a delivery that shaped away a bit. Ishant bowed dramatically with folded hands (traditional Indian greeting ‘namaste’) to see the South African out.

Earlier in a press release, Butt had referred to the CCUSA as an “illegal” institution, and criticised Javed Miandad, the PCB’s director-general, for wanting to take an illegitimate cricket team to China

Cricinfo staff10-Feb-2010The PCB has been served a legal notice from the Cricket Council of the United States of America (CCUSA), over comments made by its chairman Ijaz Butt. Earlier in a press release, Butt had referred to the CCUSA as an “illegal” institution, and criticised Javed Miandad, the PCB’s director-general, for wanting to take an illegitimate cricket team to China.”Your defamatory statements represent false and unprivileged expressions of negligence and malice. Your actions have directly insulted the wonderful cricket constituents of the venerable PCB,” the CCUSA notice, through attorney David Rubin, read. “Your reference to Mr Miandad working with a non-sanctioned American organisation to try and take an illegal cricket team to compete in China is totally false. Never has CCUSA assembled a cricket team for such purpose. My client demands the retraction of these falsehoods.”In its response, the PCB said the CCUSA was not an ICC-recognized member, and that the ICC had earlier written to the board objecting to any association with the US body. “Upon this, the PCB informed Javed Miandad of the ICC’s protest and he clarified not to have any dealings with the CCUSA in an official capacity,” a PCB release said.”The PCB would like to clarify that the United States of America Cricket Association (USACA) is the officially recognised ICC member and any statements made by the chairman on the issue was to reflect the factual position, as the ICC had written to the board, lodging strong concern over any PCB official travelling with CCUSA to China.”The board said that it would attend to the CCUSA notice in due course after consulting its legal advisor.

Graham Onions faces an extended period on the sidelines after the back injury which forced him to leave the Bangladesh tour proved to be more serious that first thought

Cricinfo staff23-Mar-2010Graham Onions faces an extended period on the sidelines after the back injury which forced him to leave the Bangladesh tour proved to be more serious that first thought. He now has a battle to be fit for Bangladesh’s return visit with the series starting at the end of May.The ECB had asked Durham to take Onions, who is a centrally contracted player, with them to Abu Dhabi for their floodlit match against MCC but he will now remain in England for further treatment and is unlikely to make the start of Durham’s Championship defence on April 15.”He came back from Bangladesh with a back injury, which they initially thought was a minor complaint,” Geoff Cook, the Durham coach, told the . “X-rays, though, have shown it is a bit more serious and he has gone for another set of scans. He may be out for a month, he may be out for a month or two.””We have not been able to identify the exact cause of the problem,” Cook added. “He had another scan over the weekend and we are waiting for the results. It is disappointing he probably won’t be fit for the start of the season, especially for Graham as he has international aspirations. I am sure it is also a concern for England because they were starting to pull a bowling group together.”Will Smith, the Durham captain, had earlier told Cricinfo he hoped to have Onions available for the start of the season but now it appears he won’t have the luxury of the added firepower during the opening weeks of the summer. Smith, though, believes Onions has a key part to play in England’s bowling attack.”When he did play I don’t think he did a great deal wrong and was unlucky not to play the last Test in South Africa and he has done himself proud this winter,” he said. “The more we see him the better for us, of course, but for Graham’s career I would love to see him playing for England as much as he can.”It has been a difficult few months for Onions after he was surprisingly left out of the final Test against South Africa, at Johannesburg, when the management felt he was fatigued. This was despite him having bowling impressively, but without luck, during the first three Tests and twice surviving the last over at Centurion and Cape Town to secure thrilling draws.With James Anderson rested for the tour of Bangladesh he had been earmarked for a recall, but arrived for the trip with his back problem and when it didn’t improve ahead of the first Test at Chittagong he was sent home.Meanwhile, Onions’ county team-mate Liam Plunkett will leave Bangladesh a day early after experience discomfort in his elbow. He will be assessed back in England and may yet link up with Durham in Abu Dhabi for the MCC match which starts on March 29. Plunkett’s winter has been spent on the sidelines with just one international appearance in the third one-day against Bangladesh.