On Compton - he is certainly in wonderful form but does anyone else think as I do that there are definite echoes of Ed Smith's sudden elevation to the international game? Sure he did okay for one knock, but good county form didn;t make him an international cricketer any more than it will do Compton.
So who? You all know that I'd prefer a five man atack anyway, with Bresnan and Rashid at seven and eight in one order or another. But that won't happen, and Stokes is not yet fit to bowl, so the long term plan that England sem to be aiming for cannot yet come to pass. Bopara would seem the most likely candidate - here England need to make a decision as to whether they really feel Bopara will make it in Test cricket. If they think he will, give him the next ten tests to find out (even if that means dropping somone else to play the extra bowler in India) - if not, and I suspect that this is the case, they should just say "sorry Ravi, we just can't see it working out..."
That, for me, leaves a difficult choice. Bairstow is in decent nick and we all think he's good enough...but I'd give him another year in the ODI set up first...as for Taylor...well, he's in pretty poor form and maybe finding life harder now he's playing with the metaphorical big boys...Carberry and Root would both need to bat up the order...and there really isn't a left field selection that I can see.
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Topic: England No 6 (Read 12805 times)