Whereas the England Test team were a perfect example of planning and execution in the winter we see that when it comes to One Day Internationals we still do not seem to have any clear idea of tactics and continue to react to circumstances. Thus it is that for yesterday's warm up match against Canada with the World Cup just round the corner we opted to open with Kevin Pietersen alongside Andrew Strauss with the view to use this partnership in the competition. I like the fact that Prior is dropping down the order where I feel he can be more effective (his 78 yesterday a good early sign of this) but the decision to do this now on the eve of the World Cup after seven ODIs against Australia is a little late and an obvious ploy to counteract the loss of Eoin Morgan. Pietersen himself talks of relishing the opportunity as you would expect but it still feels like we are throwing players into the team and hoping for the best. http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc_cricket_worldcup2011/content/story/501272.html
The one positive in a faltering display was Stuart Broad's return with a five wicket haul alongside Ajmal Shahzad's two wickets. Reservations still remain about the fifth bowling option with Wright and Collingwood sharing the duties yesterday but without Anderson, Bresnan and Swann. The danger is that without Morgan in the middle order and with Collingwood's lack of form with the bat we try to fit an extra batsman into the team and share the fifth bowler duties amongst part time bowlers. This would not be necessary as with Broad and Swann back and with Bresnan in the lower middle order our batting line up should be long enough to cope with Morgan's loss without having to sacrifice one of them.