The English Test Summer

Jofra has Smith out for two Diamond Ducks then.

So England are unchanged and will bowl first if it ever stops raining.

I see they have switched the batting line up again with Buttler moving to 7 and Bairstow up to 6. It is a bloody shambles. Is it any wonder that Moeen Ali looks like he has forgotten which end to hold the bat and Bairstow and Stokes have struggled to find any consistency? You can't blame the selectors for this. The coach and the captain pick the batting order and they are muddying the waters. How can anyone have any clarity over their role in the side? As I said last time out, I have been in favour of moving various members of the batting line up up the order but that has clearly had a negative effect on peoples form. It has to stop. A settled 4-9 of Root, Stokes, Buttler, Bairstow, Woakes and Archer would give us a chance of developing a middle order that are destructive and capable of averaging more than 30 with the bat.

I also think bowling first is a big risk. We have won Test Matches in the UK over the last few years by batting first and scoring 280 / 300. When we bowl first we tend to miss our length and concede a first innings lead.

Well this is going well isn't it! I think if we'd have really hit our stride yesterday Australia would have made less than 100. My belief that we should have batted first stems from England's fallibility when bowling first (borne out by the spells bowled after lunch by Woakes and Stokes) with both the bat and the ball. Clearly conditions were better for bowling yesterday than they are today, but I am not sure we are good enough to fully capitalise.

Losing the Ashes would hurt, but longer term I do wonder whether a convincing defeat might force the ECB to ask some searching questions. The first class structure, coaching and leadership set up and pathway is not producing test quality batsmen and a convincing home series defeat has been on the cards for a few years.

As you say, Bayliss is off. I think we need two coaches reporting into Giles. One a white ball specialist (like Bayliss) and the other a red ball specialist. It's up to Giles to manage any conflict that ensues. 

I would keep Ed Smith for now. Baring the Denley selection I am not sure the selectors have done that much wrong, assuming the selectors aren't influencing the batting order. 

There are some talented players in this side but we need a mentality shift. It feels like the majority of them have gone backwards since making their debut. Since Root came into the side, is there one player who has been picked who has really nailed down a spot in the side? Stokes is closest, and is a match winner, but a man with his talent should not average 35 with the bat. On this basis, I would also sack Root. He is not so important as captain that we can sacrifice a 15 run drop in his batting average. Let him focus on his batting and put him back at number 4. I am also sticking with a 5-7 of Stokes , Buttler and Bairstow. Let's see whether some stability over the next couple of summers and a change in leadership has any impact. They have the talent, but I think they need to accept their limitations and Giles should appoint a coach with a remit of improving the standard of coaching across the international set up. 15 years ago the likes of Strauss, Trott, Prior, Pieterson and Cook came into the side and looked at home from the outset. We didn't need coaches, we needed mentors. Now we have talented individuals but they clearly need to work on their mentality and technique. I would stick with those who have the talent and show the aptitude to work on their game for at least another 10 tests. If there isn't a willingness to adapt, or an acceptance that there is an issue then move on.

I would drop Roy. It was worth trying him at the top of the order and if he was showing any sign that he could work it out then I'd give him an elongated run, but he is not. When we were crap at one day cricket, we picked good test players and hoped for the best. We are falling into the same trap in Test cricket. Just about fair enough with one or two players batting 5 or lower but we have to move away from this policy with our top order players.

I'd stick with Burns for the want of better options, but I don't think he is the long term answer. He is fallible to short bowling and looks likely to nick off. I have seen a bit of Sibley. He is not flashy, but has a good mindset and is comfortable batting long periods of time. I'd like to get Pope into the side, but he hasn't batted higher than 4, ditto Sam Northeast and Ben Foakes. It would be really useful if one of those guys could move up to 3 for their county but as it stands, they will have to join Roy in waiting for a middle order space to open up. We have tried moving middle order players up to the top order and it hasn't worked. I have not seen Zak Crawley much but he's had a decent season. I also think we discarded Malan a bit too early in hindsight. I see Sam Curran batted at 3 for Surrey this week, but he has not hit a first class century yet.

Captaincy wise, it would be nice to give it to someone who is guaranteed a space in the side, but that only leaves Root, Stokes or one of the bowlers. Not a big fan of Stokes taking the captaincy so you have to take a punt on someone. Buttler is hanging on to his place in the side, but could the added responsibility, as well as feeling secure in his place in the side help? He is clearly part of the leadership group. Probably too early for Burns, but he has captaincy experience.

What a bloody mess.

Where are Pope and Foakes batting though? If they are batting 4-7 you have to leave Root at 3 and drop one of Stokes, Buttler or Bairstow. Buttler is captaining both our sides so we're dropping Baristow and leaving Root at 3? It's certainly possible. You could throw one of them in at 3 but I would want to speak to Alec Stewart first to understand why they were batting below Patel, Curran and Borthwick in their line up.

I was also thinking of Chris Dent the other day. It's not impossible. Right now you'd take a top 3 who are capable of batting time and averaging 30. Nick Compton would walk into this side wouldn't he? If I was a county cricketer I'd be desperate to bat in the top 3 for my county. 

I’d be fine dropping Roy, Denley and Bairstow for Dent, Pope and Foakes. I by no means think Chris Dent is the answer to our problems but he’s averaging over 50 and Labuschagne has shown that Division 2 batsman at smaller counties can do a reasonable job. England seem to recycle the same names though so expect it to be Jennings, or Vince.

Well you can talk about making changes but who will you put in? Nothing against Dent but if you think there is a gap between county cricket and Test matches then boy is that gap multiplied ten times between that of Division two and test cricket. Division two batsmen have had a field day this year against some average trundlers in league 2 and it would be a massive step up, too great in my opinion. And I suspect that James Taylor and Ed Smith wouldn’t know how to get to most Division two grounds. We saw what happened with Simon Kerrigan when he was given a chance it destroyed him. We really can’t panic at this moment in time. There are some good young talent around the county scene, Kent, Surrey and Warwickshire have given their youth a go but they now need to spend time in the middle learning how to play long innings. Some of those shots today showed that some of our batsmen are just mentally shot at the moment. Foakes would be a better shot but I’m not sure we will see many changes. Root struggles with captaining new players imo. We’ve had a fairly settled team for some time, with the exception of Cook’s opening partner, and he always goes for the tried and trusted. I think Jack Leach did alright today but Root didn’t seem to trust him bowling and looked to take him out of the attack as soon as he could, players not among the trusted have really struggled to get a place in the team and the captain has to be responsible for that. He’s handled Archer pretty well but he is a very good player and at the moment we are not taking advantage of that as we should be.

I agree with jack about keeping our 5-7 as Bairstow, Buttler and Stokes. But unfortunately those three were so instrumental in us winning the World Cup they must be drained after playing such pressure based cricket for so long. They must need a rest to recharge the batteries. We really won’t drop Joe Root as a batsman so he stays at 3 or 4 and Rory Burns deserves a chance to continue to open. I’d like to drop Roy but don’t know who you’d bring in at the moment and whilst I’m not a fan of Denly he hasn’t been anywhere near the worst. We never found a reliable partner for Alistair Cook and when he retired realised we had to find two openers. We never solved the problem of finding one opener to partner Cook so how we thought that we could magic up two from the same place is crazy.

The ECB have got themselves into this problem with their scheduling of county cricket. None of really know who to bring in because there has been almost no county cricket in July and August so no one has any form to speak of because they haven’t been playing cricket! Had we been winning it wouldn’t have been a problem but as we seem to be losing then it is. None of the youngsters have had a chance to claim a place. If we want to rediscover our red ball mojo then the ECB have got to put together a sensible schedule which has championship cricket being played in the months of June, July and August but I know thats unlikely to happen esp with the 100 ball coming next year. They have created their own dilemma. Most counties have had a similar schedule to Somerset and from the end of the Yorkshire game on 16 July we have only had 4 days red ball cricket until Tuesday 10 September! What chance has anyone had to impress the selectors? Totally crazy! Surrey this year are almost unrecognisable from the team of 2018 due to injuries and lack of opportunities to play. Olly Pope will come good again as will the Currans who haven’t done anything wrong but seem to have been written out of the test team at the moment.

And credit where credit’s due. The Australian bowlers have bowled very, very well and have been more consistent than ours. That Starc can’t get in the team tells me that Hazelwood, Cummins and Pattison must be exceptional bowlers. And now they have their confidence they will be very hard to beat.

Biggest question of the day was... where did Shane Warne sleep after booking out of his hotel in anticipation of another England collapse!!

What a sport, Stokes is an absolute animal.