Durham Stars in England Squad
Captain Colly
By Jon Steer
January 9 2008
No less than five Durham players have been given places in England squads for the forthcoming winter Internationals. Phil Mustard could make his test debut alongside Paul Collingwood and Steve Harmison against New Zealand in March and Colly will captain an England side including Mustard in the one day series next month.
The demise of yet another England wicketkeeper, this time Matt Prior, has given Phil Mustard the opportunity to continue his duties as England's wicket keeper for the one day series against New Zealand. Mustard took up the role after Prior missed the Sri Lanka one day series with a broken thumb and will now be looking to make the place his own.
Mustard will be competing for his place agains uncapped Tim Ambrose but chairman of selectors David Graveney has stated that Phil will start in the one day series and a strong performance could see him beat Ambrose to the starting test spot.
Mustard will have to look no further than England captain Paul Collingwood for support and guidance during the one day series.
Steve Harmison will be at home during the one day series but will is almost guaranteed a starting spot in the test side after finding a decent vein of form against Sri Lanka before Christmas. As long as Steve can stay fit this series could restore his position as England's number one strike bowler.
Liam Plunkett and Graham Onions will also see international duty over the Winter, they have been named in an England Lions squad that will compete in the Duleep cup in India later this month.
Without wanting to tempt fate I expect England to beat New Zealand easily in the test series, the one dayers will probably be closer but NZ have a poor bowling attack-looks as if Bond won't be playing-so Mustard should be able to make some big scores and hopefully retain his place for the test matches.
Harmy did well in Sri Lanka and I thought it was funny how commentators -who were saying he was finished a few months ago -were complaining that he wasn't being given the new ball. Funny how they can be so fickle.