Put Lyth’s safe hands in the slips

England’ s slip fielding is a worry because, with the way tail- enders bat now, you cannot afford to waste so many chances if you want to take 20 wickets.

You could not say that a slip cordon of alastair Cook, Ian Bell and gary Ballance is inspiring confidence ahead of the ashes.

When England went to no 1 in the world, andrew strauss and graeme swann were extremely good slippers while Paul Collingwood would complete a formidable combination when he was alongside them.

They have all gone and England must forget any policy they may have to choose their slip fielders on seniority, and just go for who is best in the position.

They seem to have put adam lyth at short leg just because he is the new boy but he is an outstanding slip fielder for Yorkshire. If lyth is the best slipper then he should go in there for England and the management must decide that on what they see in training. It doesn’t matter if he is playing his second Test or his 102nd, it’s too important a position to compromise on second best.

We must not have short memories because Bell has taken some good slip catches in the past but his confidence is low and I don’t know how much he wants to go in there.

It is the way he has left a couple of chances here, the one that Tom latham offered which Cook had to go for, and yesterday’s from Tim southee that Bell and Ballance left for each other, which gives cause for concern.

From what I’ve seen, I would have lyth in at second slip and Joe Root, who looks a better slipper than Ballance, at third even though we should remember that he too dropped one at lord’s.

The bottom line, with australia round the corner, is that England need to settle on their slip line-up now. Chris Jordan’s catching has been missed in this series and his catching ability will always win him a 50-50 vote over selection.

By comparison, new Zealand’s catching has been exceptional, which is to their enormous credit in the cold and gloom of Headingley during this Test.

Bell’s miss yesterday may have been a sign that he was starting to think about his second innings because before the rain it looked like it would be a batting day for him. Both he and Ballance would have been thinking about making up for their first-innings dismissals.

Bell and Ballance may be at opposite ends of their careers but they have terrific records and are just a bit out of nick.

last summer all the focus was on Cook but now he’s getting runs we are looking at Bell and there will always be someone a little out of form, otherwise England would be scoring 800 every time they bat.

It may seem odd to advocate moving Bell up the order when he hasn’t been scoring runs but I would consider promoting him to no 3.

Bell was the stand- out player in 2013 against australia and the responsibility of trying to do that again at no 3 this summer might be the best thing for him. I have always thought of him as a natural no 3.

The difference between the pair is that Bell still looks good when he is out of form but Ballance looks horrendous and ends up playing French cricket.

Ballance has to stay true to himself because in his first 12 Tests he scored more than a thousand runs at an aver- age of 55. He just has to look at his game and make some subtle changes.

Ballance is mentally strong and if he has a bad couple of games it does not mean he won’t come back strong and score well against australia.

Today is an important one for Bell and Ballance with the ashes in mind but not least because England have to try to save this Test and clinch the series.

Then, with neither likely to feature in the one-day series coming up, they can go back to their counties and play some first-class cricket ahead of the ashes.