Ryan Sidebottom - an inspired choice

England's selectors have been prone to conservatism in recent years. By-and-large that's been a good thing. It's kept things on an even keel. Occasionally however, they've seemingly plucked a name from nowhere.

Last winter, Paul Nixon got an England call to initial widespread derision from the press. Before long, those same journalists were falling over one another trying to sing his praises the loudest as one of the few England one-day players to emerge with any credit from the World Cup.

Before this Test match, it had widely been assumed that James Anderson would replace Matthew Hoggard. Instead Ryan Sidebottom got the nod. A bowler with one cap to his name and not a player so much as mentioned in passing in conjunction with England's 30 man development squad or whatever it's called.

Again the selectors have played a blinder. Steve Harmison and Liam Plunkett hid a good few brilliant deliveries amongst a much greater volume of outright toss. Ryan Sidebottom just kept landing the ball in the right place and swinging it a bit. He picked up 4-42 in the West Indies first innings and has currently taken 2-12 in their second.

England v West Indies, second Test, day 2 at Headingley
England 570-7 declared (Michael Vaughan 103, Kevin Pietersen 226, Matt Prior 75)
West Indies 146-9 (Ryan Sidebottom 4-42, Liam Plunkett 3-35)
West Indies 22-2 following on

Ryan Sidebottom makes the England squad

He makes it into a hat - a rather fetching straw boater.

No, he's just been included in the squad for the second Test. James Anderson's probably still favourite to play, but it's a sign that Ryan Sidebottom's in the selectors' thoughts and who knows, he may get a game.

Ryan Sidebottom appears to have transformed into Roger Daltrey since we last saw him. Feel free to record your favourite memories of Ryan Sidebottom's hair in the comments.

Ryan Sidebottom's 'thing' is his hair. Our 'thing' is being uncomfortable in social situations. Perhaps if we were blessed with Ryan's mane, we could use it as a shield to protect us from questions like: 'So, what do you do?'

Matt Prior to make Test debut

Just over a year ago we launched the Matt Prior for England campaign. We started about four campaigns that week, none of which we felt too strongly about. At least now we can put that one to bed. Matt Prior will make his Test debut behind the stumps on Thursday.

We didn't really think there was much of a decision to be made about England's wicketkeeper. Read and Jones were obviously out, so it was between Prior and Paul Nixon. Paul Nixon performed well during the World Cup, but he's about 53 and has never played a Test. There was simply no point in picking him. You'd just be postponing the real decision and denying someone experience.

Besides, Matt Prior's a better batsman. He's been pretty ordinary when he's played in England one-day games, but he's always been solid for Sussex and more importantly, he was the only batsman other than Kevin Pietersen who could score a run when the A team toured India a few years back.

Doubtless Prior will get the whole summer to prove his worth and meanwhile his rivals will have to continue jostling for position via county cricket. At the end of the season the next player in the queue might be clearer, but hopefully it won't come to that and Matt Prior will have kept impeccably and scored 12 hundreds.

Will Owais Shah finally get a run in the England side?

So THAT'S what Owais Shah's arse looks like. We've always wondered.

Owais Shah has been one of England's finest and most productive batsman for a gosh-darned long time. Last winter he got one Test against India when everyone else in the world was injured. He hit 88 and 38.

The order of the queue for England batting places has been pretty obvious for quite a while now. Officially, Alastair Cook's still filling in for Marcus Trescothick and Paul Collingwood for Michael Vaughan.

Being as Michael Vaughan's likely to miss the first Test next week, Collingwood will keep his place. However, it now looks like Kevin Pietersen might also be injured, which means that there's another batting place up for grabs.

According to The Queue, that place should go to Ed Joyce who was called up for the Ashes when Trescothick flew home. However, that was Duncan Fletcher's team. It's Peter Moores' side now and he's worked with Owais Shah over the past two winters. Also, rumour has it that Moores recognises that Shah's absolutely mint. He could potentially be in Moores' England side even without injuries.

According to The Queue, we're 1,451st in line for an England batting spot because of that time when James' dad said that we knew one end of a cricket bat from the other. We do as well. You hold the thin bit.

This means that in the unlikely event of well over a thousand injuries, we'll edge out Mark Ramprakash for the final batting spot.

West Indies' baffling team selection

They probably would have lost anyway playing the way they did, but the West Indies team for yesterday's match against New Zealand was bizarre. It also sent out the wrong message.

They selected an extra batsman, Lendl Simmons, in place of a bowler. They obviously wanted depth in their batting, which is a strength when it happens naturally, but smacks of a lack of confidence in the upper order on this situation.

Sure enough, the top order stuttered and faltered, but bizarrely, Simmons didn't come in until number eight. He was 14 not out when the Windies lost their final wicket, so they didn't really get anything out of him anyway.

We're just enraged because of the three pounds we've got riding on the Windies. How dare they be so reckless when there's cold, hard cash at stake.