Ravinder Bopara called into England's one-day squad

As you're all no doubt aware, Ravi Bopara has been called into England's one-day squad. Bopara has a decent if unspectacular record in county cricket. He's only 21 though, so the seeming mediocrity is more just an absence of information.

Bopara used to open the batting for England under-19s with Alastair Cook. It's presumably on the grounds of his promise at that level and an impressive attitude at the Academy that he's earned his place. He bowls a little bit of medium-pace as well, so he can join Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood as under-used part-time bowlers for England.

Our outside hopes of an international debut came to nothing despite our spending a full six minutes practicing the flipper with a tennis ball last Wednesday. That's six minutes we'll never get back. Although arguably we've redressed the balance by spending precisely no time at all writing anything this weekend.