What's Missing From The England Cricket Team?

The first test of Kevin Pietersen's captaincy has been, so far, fairly successful, bar the weather. The bowlers have done a fine job, notably Monty Panesar's 2.4 overs in the first innings and Jimmy Anderson's 2 days of brilliance, backed up by a great return to international cricket by Steve Harmison and the ever fearsome Andrew Flintoff, even Stuart Broad, who's bowling was mediocre at best to start, upped his game and took the sword to the tourists, with a fantastic comeback and a magical start to the second innings with a wicket maiden, bowling Neil McKenzie through the gate. 

The batting however, was a different matter. Andrew Strauss, after averaging over 80 against New Zealand has had a poor series, struggling outside his off-stump, playing at shots he doesn't need to. Alastair Cook has been better, but still not to the standard we know he can play at, getting out playing some strange shots. Ian Bell's time is surely closing in, after a long 199 knock at lords, in which he hardly looked as comfortable as he should have been, his performance has been the same as always, get in, get out. Collingwood had a poor start but looks to be in good form now, back to the batsman we know he can be, a staple of concentration and consistency, almost back to the brilliance he showed in New Zealand in spring. Tim Ambrose's batting has not been worth his keeping and Freddie has been his lusty self but not very conscious of other batsmen (Monty and Jimmy need not have been run out at Edgbaston), whilst Broad, Jimmy and Harmison have been brilliant, all averaging more than Michael Vaughan in this series. Kevin Pietersen has been excellent, as usual, being the one batsman to stay in form throughout.

So what's this team missing? A shake up. Some new blood, with all the talent in the county championship these days, why not think about Kabir Ali, Simon Jones, Vikram Solanki, James Foster, Jonathon Trott or any other of the fantastic county players. The selectors seem to want to stick with the same old players and hope, they may have lost the plot and perhaps, it's time for a football style manager, rather than a head coach who seems to shy away from any sort of spotlight and shoe criticism away from himself to the captain (it's unforgivable to try and blame Vaughan for Pattinsons selection when Vaughan wanted Simon Jones, the selectors and coach should be ashamed of themselves). As for the captaincy, KP will no doubt inspire the team and boost morale, which is why he is perfect for the job of leading the team, but in terms of tactics, the best candidate for the job would be Robert Key, a brilliant captain and opening batsmen, so what about bringing him in as an opener and vice-captain to advise KP throughout? Just a thought...