Pick the best 11 including a keeper batsman is the point myself and @Manormanic and others are making.
Crawley has not done enough he is dropped making 1 spot.
One of the top 2 other batsmen moves up to open. Not ideal I grant you…but needed. Brook stays where he is as he does not have the experience.
Even Stokes could move up.
No one I’ve read on here thinks Bairstow should not play that would be madness.
Got to ask if JB continues to keep like this match how much will he be in credit by the end of the series.
To be honest, given how his performance deteriorated from the first morning (not Foakes, but decent) through the evening (me, if I still played), you'd have to wonder if he will even make it through the series fit. And this is another point - with the bat he is hugely important in all three formats, so why are we damaging his long term prospects making him keep?
Genuinely, it doesn't matter who you drop - I'd assume one of the openers, since Pope is vice captain - nor does it hugely matter who is your make shift opener, whether Pope moves up and Stokes or Root bat three, or whether Foakes (or even Ali) do it to make up the numbers. The point is, Foakes is the man most likely to change a game in the field (I'll allow him the first Carey drop, and the second barely cost a run, but Foakes would have gobbled the stumping and that cost 36 on paper and more in reality) and Jonny is in your top three with the bat.
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Topic: Ashes 2023 (Read 32521 times)