Daily Mail

NOW LET BAYLISS PICK SIDE

Ballance is all wrong in Root’s first team

- @Paul_NewmanDM

discipline and basic applicatio­n that are essential in the longest form of the game.

There was something profoundly worrying and sadly predictabl­e about the way England collapsed to 133 all out yesterday when handed the challenge of batting for as long as they could simply to hold South Africa up.

Their 4-0 defeat in India last winter was to be expected in alien conditions against such a strong team but to be beaten so shamefully on one of their favourite grounds by a side who had looked down and out is a new low.

There was no fight, no spirit. England were said to have stagnated under Alastair Cook’s captaincy but clearly their problems run a lot deeper than simply needing to swap the leader for a supposedly more adventurou­s model.

Only Root and Cook were undone by top-quality fast bowling yesterday as each was dismissed by magnificen­t deliveries from Chris Morris, one an unplayable yorker and the other a vicious short ball.

Other than that, England were incapable of at least salvaging a bit of pride in a losing cause by making their opponents fight.

Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali were most culpable in giving it away with shocking shots as England were hurried to defeat just before 3pm on the fourth day, the last five wickets crashing for 11.

This was, soberingly, England’s sixth defeat in their last eight Tests and their first reverse at Trent Bridge since the ‘jelly bean’ Test of 2007 against India and that is unacceptab­le for such a talented side.

It leaves England, little more than a week after Root was celebratin­g the ‘perfect’ start to his captaincy at Lord’s, with deeprooted problems and much to sort out ahead of the 100th Test at The Oval in nine days’ time.

Sadly and damningly, so many of those problems are self-inflicted and leave England needing to have a long, hard look at themselves with time running out before the biggest and most important battle of them all against Australia. Selection has been an issue for more than a year now and time after time a panel who were lucky to keep their jobs last season have come up with flawed squads that appear at odds with the choices coach Trevor Bayliss would make.

It is not using the benefit of hindsight to say England got their squad badly wrong ahead of Lord’s and the shortcomin­gs were masked by the scale of a victory that owed much to South Africa blowing big chances of their own.

The selection of Liam Dawson as England’s ‘No 1 spinner’, and the curious psychology in trying to convince Moeen Ali he is a batsman who bowls a bit, was wrong from the start. Dawson has surely played his last Test now.

And Root’s insistence that Gary Ballance is a ‘completely different batsman’ from the one whose technique was torn apart during his last ill-advised stint at the highest level has also been proved to be very wrong. No more time can be wasted on him with only five Tests left ahead of the Ashes.

There is just as big an issue now with Keaton Jennings, who has been found out after making a century on debut in Mumbai last winter and looking, in company with Haseeb Hameed, the answer to England’s top-order problems.

They are not thought of that way now, at least until Hameed can sort himself out, and Jennings could easily go the way of Nick Compton, Sam Robson, Adam Lyth, James Vince, Ben Duckett and Ballance in being prolific county players found to be not good enough at the highest level.

The art of selection, as once shown by Duncan Fletcher in unearthing gems in Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothic­k, is to find the players who can flourish among the big boys rather than just score prolifical­ly at county level.

For a start, England can avoid picking an all left-handed top three when South Africa possess two bowlers with fantastic records against left-handers — Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel. Did the selectors not think of that?

And Bayliss must surely put his foot down and insist that Root needs to bat at three.

England should make four changes for The Oval, with Mark Wood joining Jennings, Ballance and Dawson on the sidelines, where the Durham fast bowler can try to rediscover the mojo that has been missing at Lord’s and Nottingham.

And if Bayliss wants to give opportunit­ies to Dawid Malan and the exciting Mason Crane, as he appeared to before Lord’s, he should insist on them playing now.

The temptation is not to overreact after one defeat but this was a very bad one and it revealed a disturbing trend. England’s challenge is to sort it out before it’s too late and the Ashes are upon us.

 ??  ?? Spot on: How Paul Newman called it before the first Test
Spot on: How Paul Newman called it before the first Test
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