29 days to go.

i'm about four weeks early i will admit but i'm incredibly excited and optismistic about england's summer. to become the best, you have to beat the best and sri lanka and india are argubably two of the world's 'form sides'.
on twitter, i've seen former professionals and other journalists offer their views about team selection, so i thought i'd share mine. england are in a fortunate position that the majority of our team, picks it self, on form alone. we are lucky to have a number of world class players and players who are at the peak of their careeers. in my opinion, nine out of the eleven are pretty much secured but there are quite a few other players who are fully deserving of an england call up. 2010 was the most succesful year for english cricket and we need to keep improving, i fully expect this team to be number one in the world sooner rather than later.

this is the england team i believe should play in cardiff on 26th may:

andrew strauss:
captain fantastic, captained us to back to back ashes victories and played such an important role down under. strauss and flower are obviously the perfect team, england are a lot more settled now and this has obviously resulted in a dramatic improvement to the team. strauss, a world class batsman and fielder, certainly has respect of all the players whilst still maintaining the friendly atmosphere around the england camp.

alastair cook:
his ashes statistics speak for themselves. its hard to believe that only a few months ago, his place in the team was questioned and he was under an enormous amount of pressure to prove he was still worthy of opening the batting in brisbane. two months and 766 runs later, he was named man of the series. this has restored his own confidence and everyone else's faith in him. he needs to continue this fantastic form into the summer and challenge himself against both world cup finalists.

jonathan trott:
england's ever consistent number three. yet another player who had an incredible ashes series, he spent hours at the crease frustrating the aussie bowlers. he often adds stability to nervous situations but being stable isnt his only quality though, his batting was superb throughout the winter and his 168 not out in melbourne was an ashes highlight.

kevin pietersen:
the showman, 'mr ego' himself. the wicket every opposition bowler loves to pick up. with his eccentric and entertaining style of batting, he's always going to attract attention and with attracting attention, it means not everyone is going to be your biggest fan. pietersen often comes in for a lot of criticism, one bad game for him and everybody jumps on the 'drop pietersen' bandwagon. he's world class and loves the chance to prove himself in the biggest games. i believe he will have a successful summer.

ian bell:
i never used to understand the hype around ian bell. around this time last year, the sky team were discussing who they'd select for their ashes squad and every single one of them were singing bell's praises. it wasnt until the ashes series started that i finally began to see what a fantastic player bell really is. a fantastic player of spin and now a regular in the test team, it is hard to imagine anybody could replace him at the moment.

eoin morgan:
the obvious replacement for collingwood in my mind. with his unique and idiosyncratic style, he caught the england selectors eye immediately whilst playing for ireland. morgan is a constant fixture in the one day format of the game and the next logical step, would be to make him a regular in the test side. he's a good fielder (like collingwood) and i think he is a better player than ravi bopara, who quite a few people have argued should be playing a lot for england in the summer. as an essex fan, i can tell you that ravi has been hopelessly out of form with the bat this season and the only highlight of his season so far has been his bowling. i believe morgan to be more consistent and therefore, a better player in test cricket.

matthew prior:
pretty obvious who i'd choose for wicketkeeper. in my head, hes the best english wicketkeeper around at the moment. craig kieswetter, steven davies and james foster are all good players but thanks to matt's batting progress and fantastic ashes performance, i don't believe his test place is under any great threat.

tim bresnan:
this is the position which caused me and a lot of other cricket fans the most trouble on deciding. steven finn, chris tremlett and chris woakes all fully deserve a place on the team in my eyes but bresnan took a number of key wickets in melbourne and sydney, with the added bonus he's quite handy with the bat too. i expect the three other seamers i mentioned to play some part this summer but if i was choosing the team for cardiff, i think bresnan would just get the nod from me.

graeme swann:
who else? the number one ranked spinner in the world and although i may have rose tinted glasses on, i believe swann is the best bowler in the world, above steyn. despite the conditions not being in his favour, over in australia, he still had a good series - this time with the seamers taking centre stage.

stuart broad:
the future of england cricket, who's been particularly unforunate with injuries over the last few months but now is fit and ready for an important summer in his career. he gets more mature every game and has been lined up as a future england captain, which would only improve his temper and overall game in my opinion. his batting is the only part of his game which does need to improve. after the 2009 ashes, he was tipped to bat at six or seven but as yet, has not shown his true batting ability.

james anderson:
the man who tore the aussie batting line up to pieces on many occasions is england's most important fast bowler. we hope an indifferent world cup will not affect his recent outstanding test performances. in english conditions, he is expected to flourish.