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[alexhilly1492]

talking of ali and being a bad opener, what about nick browne at essex? not straight away but in a few seasons of county championship cricket can tap into gooch/cooks experiance while theyre back at essex

[alexhilly1492]

maiden test 50 for adil rashid!!! shown some guts and application this innings, actually enjoying watching him bat too

[edge]

Yes Ali is a better bat than Rashid (probably, not a lot of difference in their fc averages ) but if we are picking only one to bat at 8, you could easily argue for Rashid being a better bowler.

[uknsaunders]

England appear to have reversed the batting order. Village 

[Kulli]

Ali ihas shown he's at is best at no 8 he is not good enough for the top  six

Who is then?

[WalkingWicket37]

On the selector's current form they might drop Ali for the next test, bring Taylor into the middle order and give Rashid a go opening!

[petehosk]

A few players are currently proving that they are struggling in the top 6 to be honest!!
But two things are blatantly clear!! Buttler is on shocking form and can barely buy a run at the moment!
And Ali is not an opener! I would have added that Bell is out of form but I see he hit a 46, so this may (hopefully) see a slight improvement in form?
I suspect that Buttler would give his right ball to hit that score at the moment!!
So Buttler and Ali need to be addressed right now! Not in a couple of weeks!
 

[edge]

Bell batted very well actually, tad unlucky to get out the way he did. Don't think he's in any danger anyway - 3rd highest scorer in the series for England I believe, proven test player and performing better than Ali YJB, and Buttler at the moment. Buttler out for Hales in the next game I suspect, assuming Cook is fit.

[iand123]

Can see buttler losing out in the next game. I would bring hales in to open and drop Ali down to 7 with bairstow keeping

[rickjames]

10 overs of the session surived, surely they won't get them all in...

[GoldenArm]

With such a powerful and versatile middle order I can't for the life of me understand why England don't just pick a proper opener like Compton and make sure they set a platform for the rest. It is a slightly negative attitude I suppose when you look at openers around the world like Warner but should we really be looking for someone like that? I can see Hales performing poorly thrown in at the deep end and then where will we be.

[northernboy1987]

England are never going to get these runs at this rate, time for Wood and Rashid to push on and open their shoulders a bit

[csnew]

Final hour, decent effort from these 2 so far!

[edge]

Rashid just left one from Shah that pretty much pitched on middle! Boy's got some stones, clearly...

[ppccopener]

give the umps some blacked out ray bans and tell them it's 'getting dark'

come on!!!!