Replacement players

Sky News speculated this morning that English captain Michael Vaughan was likely to be called up to the World XI side to replace an injured Sachin Tendulkar. Now the Sydney Morning Herald tells us that Hershelle Gibbs has withdrawn from the one-day matches with an injury.

Given that Gibbs is an opener and that Marcus Trescothick did so well for England against Australia and that he has also made the shortlist of ODI player of the year, he could be the man called up as a replacement. The selectors might also see bringing in Vaughan and Trescothick as a way to bring in more of the high-profile World Champion beating English side, which currently only has two players in the World XI.

Given that England is still only ranked 7th in the world for one-day matches, I am not sure whether the selection of Vaughan would be merited. He has a very average ODI record (1730 runs at 28.36) and despite captaining England to such success recently, he should be ranked fairly low on the list of replacement batsmen. On a dispassionate analysis of form and the team make-up, one obvious replacement player should be Inzamam al-Haq - who has been in scorching form and who would happily slot in behind an explosive opening partnership of Sehwag and Tendulkar/Trescothick.