Selectors stick with Eoin Morgan after all

I am pleased too see that Eoin Morgan got named in the England test squad at the expense of Ravi Bopara today. I was certain that Bopara had it for his bowling, but I had obviously and wrongly got caught up with the media opinion on this.

I said all along that if it was purely down to batting, that I’d go for Morgan. It is also a selection based on consistency, something that this team’s success has been based around.

Another thing this team is built on is ‘strength of character,’ a fact not lost on Geoff Miller. On explaining the decision to go with Morgan, Miller said, “Ravi has been getting a lot of runs for Essex, but the controlled innings that Eoin played just gave him the nod. That innings really just showed us what he is capable of doing. It shows his strength of character.”

The last three words of that sentence are telling, ‘strength of character.’ Something that the selectors clearly look for these days, something which they – and I also – believe Morgan has a lot of, compared to Ravi, who I don’t believe has displayed too much of, over the years.

Ravi has had a reasonable start too the season, two centuries isn’t a bad return, but he hasn’t produced the type of form that has demanded the selectors pick him. Whereas Morgan comes back from IPL, plays one innings, and it’s an innings that has almost demanded his selection.

I’m glad to see the selectors retain Chris Tremlett, assuming the reports are right and Steven Finn is in as cover, then Tremlett will obvioulsy play. It would have been interesting to see what the selectors would have done had Tim Bresnan not got injured. Stuart Broad was always going to come back, so would it have been Tremlett or Bresnan who would have made way?