Now the dust has settled on our embarrassing test series in India, it’s time to look ahead to 2017. Which players actually have a test future and which ones should be dumped faster than Kim Kardashian’s next husband?*
Alastair Cook – twist and stick
England’s team is full of young, somewhat impetuous, attacking young players. Cook is therefore out of place as the team’s leader. He’s simply not a good fit for either this group of players or the Australian coach. England persevering with Cook would be like Guns & Roses hiring Aled Jones as their new singer. It’s a recipe for destruction.
As a batsman Cook is obviously still worth his place. However, I’m slightly concerned that he’s not making the hundreds he once did – just five in his last 60+ test innings. Is he simply burned out and in need of a rest, or has his hunger diminished somewhat?
I wouldn’t be surprised if Cook plays for another five years; but neither would I be surprised if he shocked everyone and hung up his boots unexpectedly.
Keaton Jennings – stick
You can’t ask for more than a test century on debut. Jennings looked assured, relatively compact, and drove the ball nicely (which made him a good foil for Cook). Although he didn’t look quite so secure in his next three innings he showed more than enough ability to warrant a place next summer.
What I really like about Jennings so far is his character. He seems like a strong individual with a good head on his shoulders. He speaks well and I don’t expect him to wilt easily. We’re going to need people like down under. We also need to include the odd South African just to wind up the Aussies.
Haseeb Hameed – stick
Young Hameed showed an orthodox technique and an unflappable temperament in his first three test matches. He didn’t blow people away like a young Tendulkar, but he did impress observers like a young Alastair Cook.
It will be fascinating to see how he plays against South Africa’s seamers in England next summer. He occasionally got a turned around outside off-stump – so his technique might not be quite as perfect as everyone thinks – but I’m pretty sure he has the work ethic and gumption to be a big success at test level.
For what it’s worth, I think Hameed is the best candidate to bat three if Keaton Jennings is retained (with Root moving back to four). Ideally I’d like to keep a left-hand right-hand opening partnership but I want Cook’s calm head and experience in the middle from the outset next winter. Solidity at the top of the order will be all-important in the cauldron of Brisbane.
Joe Root – stick
Although he didn’t win his person duel with Virat Kohli, I still think Root is his equal. He just needs to start converting some of these fifties into daddy hundreds.
It speaks volumes that some people were actually a little disappointed with Root’s performance in India. To average nearly 50 away from home is normally seen as a great achievement. However, because Root has the complete game, and possesses every shot in the book, expectations are incredibly high.
Root is England’s best test batsman of the last twenty years. Should he still bat 3? I’m not so sure. I prefer him at four myself.
Garry Balance – twist
The fact Ballance was considered unselectable for much of the winter, and has just been made Yorkshire’s captain, suggests we won’t see much of Garry in an England shirt for the foreseeable future.
Unless he changes the way he plays – something he’s been unable to do in the past – it’s hard to see Ballance cracking test cricket. I like the man but I really dislike his technique. Unless you’re Shiv Chanderpaul, doing an impression of a crab at the crease probably isn’t going to work.
Ben Duckett – stick (!)
Yes you read that correctly. England should persevere with Ben Duckett. Why? Because going from division two of the county championship into a test series in India is bloody tough. Most inexperienced young players would’ve failed. It’s not like Virat Kohli looked brilliant on his first tour of England is it?!
Sometimes talented young players need time to grow. And there’s no denying that Duckett is supremely talented. He just needs to work on a very specific technical weakness against spin. It’s easy to dismiss Duckett as a white ball player – and yes it could well be that he ends up being the next Neil Fairbrother – but it would be wrong to write him off now (before he’s actually had a chance to adapt). After all, he’s only just turned 22.
Duckett might not be in my first choice test XI at the moment but he should be kept around the squad and made to feel part of the setup. He should at the very least be in the one-day squad and could replace Eoin Morgan’s in a heartbeat if required.
Moeen Ali – twist, I mean stick, or … I dunno.
First let’s discuss Mo the test batsman. He averaged 47 in 2016, scored four centuries, and did pretty well as England’s makeshift number four in India. But can he really bat 4 against South Africa and then in Australia next winter? Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood will be licking their lips. Mo is still quite loose outside off-stump and sometimes appears all at sea against the short ball.
It’s probably unfair to drop Mo right now because he’s done everything asked of him with the bat (although he needs to cut out the silly mistakes). However Mo remains, and probably always will be, an enigma. Everyone loves to watch him play, and everyone recognises the stellar year he’s had, yet absolutely nobody is convinced that he’s a proper test batsman.
Now we come to Moeen’s bowling. I’m afraid he’s been desperately poor this year. His bowling is actually getting worse not better: he averaged 28 in 2014, 40 in 2015, and a whopping 53 in 2016. Mo should either play as a batsman who bowls occasionally or not play at all.
Jonny Bairstow – stick
We all knew that Jonny was ‘a keeper’. But is he a wicket keeper? He actually did pretty well behind the stumps towards the end of the year. He still missed the odd chance, and this proved very costly in India, but at least we’ve seen some improvement. It took Matt Prior a while to develop so perhaps we need to show Jonny the same patience. Personally I remain open minded on this one.
The big question is whether Jonny would excel even more as batsman if he passed the gloves to Jos Buttler, Ben Foakes (my preferred option) or someone else? As a pure batsman Bairstow was exceptional in 2016 scoring 2500 runs at a brilliant average of 59.
At the start of the year George Dobell wrote that Jonny’s swagger and dominance at county level reminded him of Graeme Hick. I sniggered at the time because Hick was the most intimidating domestic batsman I’ve ever seen. However, George has probably been proved right. Jonny looks a very talented and robust player indeed these days.
Jos Buttler – twist, I mean stick, or … I dunno
A bit like Moeen Ali, nobody quite knows what the future holds for the likeable Buttler. Nobody denies the talent but what, exactly, is his role in the England team? If Jos is going to play as a batsman then he needs to move up the order and give all-rounders like Stokes and Bairstow a bit of a breather.
Buttler looked better than I expected in India, showing more patience that we’ve seen before and he averaged a respectable 39. But the acid test will be whether he can move his feet against quality seam bowling in English conditions next summer.
Unfortunately for Jos I’d like to see England invest in true specialists next year as the strategy of picking a plethora of all-rounders hasn’t really worked. The presence of Ben Stokes should be enough for us to field a balanced side without the likes of Ansari, Dawson and Moeen. The question is, does Jos fall into this bits and pieces category too?
Chris Woakes – stick
I’m not going to let one bad tour of India put me off Woakes. He had a brilliant summer and I think he’ll be an important player for England over the coming years. If truth be told, his bowling style was never going to suit Indian conditions: he’s very classically English in style and injuries obviously disrupted his rhythm somewhat.
Overall Woakes will ever be Glenn McGrath but I do think he will be a very capable test player with both bat and ball. And he’ll be more than handy in places like New Zealand, South Africa and perhaps even Australia too.
Stuart Broad – stick
Duh. No brainer this one. Although Broady’s injury problems are a bit concerning, Stuart can still be a very effective test bowler if England manage his workload properly. I’d like to see him bend his back a bit more but one can’t argue with his returns.
Stuart did pretty well this winter – taking ten wickets at 29 in conditions that don’t really suit him – and if you look at his record over the last four years he’s been very consistent. Rather than slowing down in his (relatively!) old age, Broad averaged comfortably below the 30 benchmark in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. We need him fit and firing in Australia next winter.
Jake Ball – stick
Two wickets in three tests at an average of 114 doesn’t look brilliant on paper, but Ball bowled better than that in very trying conditions. He’s tall, quick enough, and should be a good bowler both at home and in Australia, where I can see him performing a Joe Angel (remember him?) type of role.
The lumbering Ball hasn’t actually played that much first class cricket (or indeed professional cricket of any kind) in his career to date so I’d like to see him get overs under his belt for Notts rather than being rested like other England bowlers. He’ll need a bespoke development plan.
Steve Finn – twist
I have nothing to add to my previous thoughts on Finny as he didn’t really see him bowl this winter. I love the person, I love his physical attributes, and I love what he used to be. But I dislike his action and I’m not particularly fond of the bowler he’s become: unreliable and uncertain of himself.
Finn is still capable of bowling lethal spells now and again but I doubt he’ll ever be consistent. Whoever remodelled his action, and robbed him of the extra yard of pace he used to have, needs to be shot and never allowed near any young bowler ever again.
Adil Rashid – stick
If I had to choose between keeping Moeen or Adil in test side next summer I’d go for Rashid every time. He wasn’t exactly the revelation many claim he was this winter – he took 30 wickets at 36 with economy rate of 3.7 – but he did show signs of promise. In fact, he did a lot better than many visiting leg-spinners do in India.
Although he’s a poor fielder, Rashid offers enough with bat and ball to warrant a place in the side in all conditions … for the time being at least. It’s a good thing he went on the tour too. Had he been omitted, he would’ve been accused of chucking and been forced to remodel his action. Ahem.
Zafar Ansari – twist
He’s a good young cricketer but nothing in his domestic record suggested he deserved a chance at international level and so it proved. His on-field demeanour suggested that he didn’t really believe in himself either. Ansari’s selection will go down as yet another quirk of England’s occasionally barmy selection policies: let’s not pick the best spinners in county cricket, let’s pick the ones who can bat a bit instead.
Liam Dawson – twist
Yes he batted well at Chennai but he shouldn’t have been in the side for his batting! I think Dawson showed a good head and a straight enough bat, but England need to move away from bits and pieces cricketers. I’m not against giving Dawson another chance in test cricket in the future, but he’ll need to prove that he’s one of the best five or six pure batters in the country first. Can he do that? I doubt it.
Jimmy Anderson – stick
Duh! Was rushed back into the team without any match practice (another thing we can thank the schedulers for) and didn’t really do himself justice in his three appearances. England’s strategy of picking a million bowlers didn’t exactly help him find his rhythm either: Jimmy only bowled 79 overs in five innings! I think the reason why is pretty obvious: Cook was desperately trying to give other bowlers a go to justify England’s weird selection strategy.
Gareth Batty – twist
Rumour has it that England inexplicably picked a 39 year old blonde off-spinner with a modest county record for the tour of India. Worked out well, didn’t it.
I’d love to know what other people think. Have England found a couple of new players we can build a team around or is it back to the drawing board? And what XI would you like to see us field next summer and in the 2017/18 Ashes?
Here’s my two pennies worth: Cook, Jennings, Hameed, Root (capt), Bairstow, Stokes, Foakes (wkt), Woakes, Rashid, Broad, Anderson. My 12th man (if fit) would be Mark Wood. He’d compete with Woakes for a place.
James Morgan
PS Apparently Kim Kardashian is some kind of star / socialite. I’ve never heard of her either but I bet she’s really, really, really talented.
Definitely agree with the bits and pieces cricketer thing. I think we are unnecessarily placing too much emphasis on being an “all-round” cricketer, whatever that is. Do we really want the likes of Jimmy Anderson spending hours in the nets just to improve his all round game? Of course we don’t. We need out and out specialists in each department.
I think Woakes did enough with the ball this year for him to get in on that discipline alone but if that were to drop off, I don’t beleive his batting should be considered in selection discussions, regardless of how handy he may be. We need 20 wickets to win games.
Having said all that, I’m not convinced about Foakes keeping either, I think Jonny deserves to retain the job. However, he can’t keep coming in at 80/4, we need the specialists above him to deliver on their job.
P.S. loved the Aled Jones / GnR remark :-) I’ve got tickets for their London gig next year – so ner.
Can’t disagree with much of that. I have to say I worry about the test team for 2017 and can quite easily see series reverses versus both South Africa and Australia. If that happens I can see quite a bit of blood letting. Planning needs to be done now and it is the right time to do so as there is over 7 months until the first test v SA. There is a heck of a lot wrong with the batting cadre, they were often 50-3 or so even against Sri Lanka at home and got rolled out by one of the most ordinary Pakistan pace attacks that has travelled to England for an inadequate score at the Oval in the first innings. It hardly needs to be pointed out that both SA and Aus have considerably superior fast bowling stocks to both Pak and SL.
England need a good up and coming quickie to start giving them an extra dimension with the ball and a couple of extra specialist batsmen to make the grade. Happy with a top 3 of Cook, Hameed and Jennings for now yet of course that itself might look different come August, let alone January 2018……….
Good, sensible overview.
Duckett – I agree. He’s 22 and he was picked on weight of first-class runs (albeit Div2 runs). He can go away, address those issues and come again. Odd that he wasn’t picked for the Lions’ first class games in the New Year though.
Finn – also agree. Needs a complete season at Middlesex and next winter off. See how he does but resist the urge to bring him back before 2018, unless he’s in outrageous form. We’ve got Wood, Ball, Plunkett, TRJ and the Currans should we need to rotate the seamers. Such a shame.
On the spin front, with the Windies series taking place in late-summer, this could give us the opportunity to play a Leach or a Rayner.
Moeen is so likeable, but is he unbalancing the side? Arguably so. As so often, it comes back to the ECB/selectors who decided to punish Stokes for his locker injury against Sri Lanka two years ago (he batted and bowled for Durham, so was fit and ready to play. Unlike Prior and, to a lesser extent, Broad) and picked Moeen to fill the all-rounder position. I don’t know which spinner they would have picked instead (even less blessed with options then than now), but I highly doubt they’d have picked Moeen at 8 to start off with. Put him at 5 and see how he does. But who goes at 8? Whether you go with Buttler, Rashid or Dawson, are they going to participate enough? Not sure there’s an answer, so England will just have to take a punt – I suspect they’ll go with Buttler.
Root – out of boredom, been looking at some stats this morning. Out of all players with 10 Test centuries, only 9 players make a 50+ score more frequently (every 2.58 innings) – only Smith out of current players does better. His 100 rate is one every 8.91 innings, which is 67th (out of 123). His conversion rate of 28.9% is 114th, so the 10th worst. Brilliant yet frustrating. I hope the captaincy shakes him out of this 50-and-out mode. Interestingly, I remember Cook going through a similar spell in 2008.
Personally I hope they realise by promoting Moeen to 5 that he isn’t the spinner they are looking for and select one in the open slot at 8.
It isn’t going to do Jos or Jonny any favours to be a specialist bat at 7 or 8, be interesting too see how much red ball cricket either plays before July. With Buttler stated to be going back to the IPL then into the England White ball summer
The selectors have some big decisions to make, they have been using a lot of talented all rounders as stop gaps for a while hoping to find the missing specialist batting pieces they needed.
Unfortunately the specialists they looked at haven’t panned out with it being too early to say about Hameed and Jennings while the bits and pieces Cricketers have contributed heavily in roles that we are not certain they can hold on to.
Moeen Ali the batsmen doesn’t deserve to be dropped but can he maintain a place at 5? because that is the only spot going. England are wasting test matches they could be using to front line spinner although its far from easy to see who that man should be, in 2014 it was Adam Riley, remember him?
Firstly,I understand the all rounder debate being thrown around but our best seven batsmen definetly includes moeen stokes bairstow, and woakes is the third seamer. Moeen has scored 4 hundreds this year and 3 of them when others didn’t, forget how he gets out (it’s obviously frustrating but getting out is per of batting, he’s scoring the runs to be in the side) he’s one of our best players now though he seems much less confident or enthusiastic with the ball which I’m slightly happy about having watched him bat 3 for worcs and bowl a few overs.
Hameed and Jennings both looked good and seemed to have great temperaments. Not sure myself if they should both be in the top three and I’d favour hameed right now, though if Jennings didn’t make the side at 3 that would be because they find a decent middle order batsman capable of scoring runs in Australia, I personally think Duckett will be brilliant.(I spent a few days in Perth recently and was lucky enough to see a small bloke from Coventry score some runs with a bat made by a mate…)
Buttler looked very good I thought and that’s because he is very good. He should hopefully play the second half of the county season and will tour aus as keeper batsman. Ben foakes is not worth a place in the test team, both buttler and Bairstow are good enough now (foakes makes mistakes too…) and are clearly better batsmen. Bairstow or buttler would probably get in every other test side in the world.(I’ve enjoyed laughing at the useless wade/Neville situation).
Rashid bowled well, noticeably when he had a coach, credit to cook for calling for full time. Not sure he’s a better spinner than leach in red ball cricket but the summer may dictate that. Ollie rayner is light years away from what a test spinner should be.
All of this means my test xi for summer and perhaps the ashes:
Cook hameed root (c) Duckett stokes mo Bairstow (wk) woakes rashid broad anderson
With Jennings, buttler bell Clarke (perhaps) leach ball Roland jones all very close
May raise an eyebrow that the that is the team for the first test in India too (except anderson for ansari) but the batting collapses should be less likely when the best seven players are backed and given a settled position
That side you’ve named looks even more likely to collapse more regularly !
Would love to hear who’d you back and if you’ve seen players play
Foakes averages nearly ten runs per innings more than Buttler in first class cricket, has more hundreds to his name (despite being 3 years younger), was top run scorer for the Lions in the first class match in the UAE, and is the best pure keeper in the country (according to most judges). Jos is obviously very talented but he needs to start justifying the hype in first class cricket. I’ve gone with Foakes above simply because he deserves it more at the current time. Plus he’ll start the English season playing red ball cricket rather than spending time at the IPL.
I agree with pushing Foakes forward but reserve judgement on whether he is the best gloveman available. For several years Steven Davies was streets ahead in this field and now he is going to Somerset and picking up the gloves once more it will be interesting to see what happens.
Sure, foakes’ first class stats are better but there’s no way he’s in the top 7 batsmen in England anyway and Bairstow is good enough with the gloves and looks better at 6/7 than 4/5 so this debate is realistically about a reserve spot on an ashes tour. Buttler should have much better first class stats but remember buttler has barely played any first class games in 3 years. (Also remember with buttlers stats it includes tests where he’s played 3 world class attacks.)
Also looking past their stats, I think all oppositions would prefer foakes coming in at 7 to buttler.
Sorry, but Buttler’s FC and test batting averages are the same to within 1 – so his FC average outside tests is not brought down by facing test attacks. And Buttler must make his case purely as a bat or not at all. His keeping is (at best) good club standard. You have to require an extra 10 runs an innings from him (compared with Foakes or Davies) to compensate for drops and extras if he is to keep wicket.
Didn’t mean to suggest his average is brought down by test cricket but that is the only first class cricket he’s played recently so can’t compare record with foakes. Buttler does have to demand a place as a batsman alone I agree but not because his keeping isn’t good enough. It’s because Bairstow plays and is also good enough with the gloves. To say buttlers keeping is of club standard is shocking, he’s still better than Bairstow, much better standing back too, and shows a complete lack of understanding of professional cricket and is really quite daft.
All keepers make mistakes, on tv and even more so now, those mistakes are magnified so much people think they can’t keep. Foakes also makes mistakes and that doesn’t make him a bad keeper. James foster dropped catches last season aswell as Chris read, of course no one was watching so they don’t count…
I have played Southern League and Surrey Championship (both some time ago!), both of which leagues are littered with future, current and ex FC players, so am judging against a known standard. I also realise how difficult it is with the gloves and that everyone makes mistakes (I still keep myself in emergencies). But the measures are simple. Does a keeper make more mistakes (Buttler does) and does he look secure doing the basics (and the most damning thing for me about Buttler’s keeping is his fairly regular inability to judge where to take outfield returns, resulting in fumbles).
I stand by my judgement. I have seen better keepers with clubs I have played in the past. Sometimes there is a tendency to think there is a big gulf between top club and FC cricket, but I have come across FC players on a surprising number of occasions and realised the gap is more one of consistency – precisely what Buttler lacks with the gloves.
Absolutely, all club cricket has good keepers, where’s Michael bates? But that does not make buttlers keeping club standard, he was comfortably good enough when he kept in test cricket. In fact standing back he was brilliant but he wasn’t any mug up to the stumps either. He was certainly better than Bairstow who has quite a major technical problem with his weight which comes from what is actually quite a strange and tense position he gets into which is why he has missed so many low catches low and slightly to his right. He can’t move to them and can only flop down with the ball.
I’ve played with or against two current fc keepers and can say for sure that I’ve played with guys who were better with the gloves, but the naturally brilliant keepers have a limited impact on a test match which I find is a slight shame as it is a real talent but there just isn’t the value in picking keeper batsmen.
Guys like Bairstow and buttler are quickly becoming good keepers as being good enough you can learn. They are already better than wade/Neville (Aussies think Neville is a specialist) both the Indian ones and pretty much most playing internationally. De kock is similar in that he’s learnt it, he’s not a natural GLOVEMAN but is a natural athlete which goes a long way at the top level.
Hi Dom. I love wicket keeper debates! Good stuff guys.
Here’s an article on Foakes from a couple of months back http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/story/1053429.html It has a lot of quotes from Andy Flower who has worked extensively with both Foakes, Buttler and Bairstsow (I think we can all agree that he knows a bit about both keeping and test batting). He describes Foakes as a keeper-batsman who is very natural behind the stumps, and the others as batsmen-keepers. Having said that he’s also a big fan of Foakes’s batting.
Alec Stewart has also gone on record as saying Foakes is the best pure keeper in the country (although it’s only mentioned briefly in this article). That’s two very fine judges in my opinion.
My argument (above) for Foakes is based on wanting to get the best pure keeper in the side. I’m sure Foakes isn’t perfect (and you’re right in saying that all keepers are human and miss chances) but some make more mistakes than others. I’ve only seen him play a few times, so I’m no expert, but I do think he’s a natural keeper and good enough to bat 7 in test cricket. I think that’s what England should be looking for imho.
The other view is that a stronger England top order, which seems to be in prospect, will take some of the pressure off Bairstow.
In any event, the selectors are so resistant to change (what other explanation is there, for example, for the inclusion of Ballance in the India squad ?), that Bairstow is very likely to remain the keeper unless his steady improvement starts to go dramatically into reverse.
Couldn’t agree more that modern crickets demand for white ball players has meant that a pure specialist is even less likely to be produced. The odd genuine talent will be able to command a top six spot in all formats (root, Williamson, kohli and AB) but the rest..
There is a lot of hype around certain players and quite honestly, given the flat tracks they’ve got runs on etc.. they really don’t deserve to be hyped so much. I’m not going to bother naming a side because it’ll never happen anyway and every single player should be told to go back to county red ball and play games and score big tons (and be watched to see how they score it!! – too many like duckett and hales just biff county bowlers as they are poor but anyone sensible knows they won’t cut it)
debate is pointless until the systems are changed back to something that will produced specialists and reward technique and mentality.
Buttler, Hales, Duckett, Roy, should all stick to white ball cricket.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 1000 times, you have to be absolutely world class to be international quality at both test cricket and T20 cricket. Root is world class. No other English cricketers are.
Getting proved right over and over again is getting seriously boring.
Like it or not, Moeen is currently the 4th best batsman in the side. His bowling is good enough to hold up an end on English pitches, nothing more.
Generally agree with James so I will only comment where I have reservations;
Jennings. Whilst I would stick I cannot see that a good temperament compensates for a middle order technique when choosing the openers. Let Hameed open (he is a proper opener) and let Jennings work his way into the team in a less exposed position.
Moeen Ali. He remains as decent an off spinner as is available (faint praise) so he is a no brainer with his (eccentric but generally effective) batting.
Woakes. Streets ahead of Ball (why is Ball fast enough when he only bowls at the pace of Woakes when he was condemned for being too slow?). Less effective in Indian conditions as was inevitable but he did bowl the best seam spell of the tour when making a fair attempt to decapitate Pujara. His batting would not be relevant but becomes relevant when considering him against bowlers who are no better or inferior. As an all rounder he is better than the overrated Stokes.
Buttler. Not sure about white ball. Baseball seems more appropriate. Same for Duckett.
Janes, agree with the majority of your assessments but can’t support Mo or taking the gloves off of Bairstow who has been doing well recently. I would therefore go for Cook, Hammed, Root(capt), Jennings, Ali, Stokes, Bairstow, Woakes, Rashid, Broad, Anderson, Wood (12).
As the 3rd best batsman in the side I feel Jonny is wasted down at 7. We’re weak at 5, a place I believe you need an assertive and reliable player, and we have other guys capable of taking the gloves.
I do appreciate that Jonny’s keeping has improved though. I’m just wondering whether we’d get even more out of him as a batter if he played as a specialist bat without the keeping responsibilities i.e. like a Sangakkara.
Bloody good team that.
I still think Jos Butler deserves another go as wicket keeper as he is a special talent.
Think Moen should be given a run a 5 especially after the year he has had but can’t actually get him into the team there can we?
I think Rashid bats well enough to warrent a place as the spin bowler instead of Moen but he does need to start winning games for us in the fourth innings regularly
Thanks Paul. I agree that Buttler should be kept in mind. Just because guys like Buttler and Duckett aren’t in my XI doesn’t mean I want to throw them on the scrapheap (as I’m sure you realise). They both have something to offer if they improve their techniques. The talent is definitely there.
I agree re: Rashid. He gets first go in 2017 because he played well enough this winter. However, he’ll have to perform well because there’s a certain Mr Jack Leach breathing down his neck.
I’d be very interested to see is Rashid improves under a captain other than Cook.
There are certainly some interesting discussions to be had about the composition of the test team next summer. With no test cricket until July, the Lions tour and early season domestic performances will hopefully feed usefully into that debate. To my mind though, the overriding priority is to ensure that the team is led by somebody with sound tactical understanding, who is able to stand above dressing room politics, motivate all his players and get the best out of individuals – and who can instill a mindset of resilience and determination throughout the team. However strongly individual members of the squad express their loyalty to him, the evidence of results and of what we can actually observe of his captaincy suggests that Alastair Cook unfortunately is not that somebody – at least not for the England team of now as opposed to that of four years ago.The captaincy question, together with the issues we’ve seen with the selection process, is in my view what needs to be addressed before all else.
Pakistan do their best to make England feel better:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/38465986
And just saying… if you don’t know who this Kim person is, why are you assuming they are a woman ?
17 wickets and 1100 runs and two declarations over the first 4.3 days (142 overs lost to rain), and then Pakistan crumble in under two sessions on what was still a road to lose by an innings.
When Aus began their first innings chasing 440 half way through day three it looked liked a draw or Pakistan win was the only possible result.
Got to hand it to Misbah’s team – win or lose, there’s never a dull moment…
6, 7, and 8 of Stokes, Foakes, Woakes — could help with writing a Dr Seuss-style rhyming picture book to get the pre-school market interested in cricket?
Not since the famous dismissal involving Lillee, Dilley and Willey senior would there have been so much rhyming fun to be had from a simple score card.