Try to cheer us all up, Joe
England must win at the Oval Giles has to back captain in public End the stand-off over selection Plot way forward with new coach
What happens on the field at the Oval over the next five days is hugely important because a 2-2 scoreline in the ashes would be far better for England than 3-1 to australia.
But what happens away from it will be equally important as England begin to plot the best way forward after the failure to regain the ashes.
When I became captain in 1999 our new coach Duncan Fletcher stayed in the background before fully taking over that winter, but I was having a lot of meetings with him and Lord MacLaurin to work out the best direction to take the team in. So that should be happening again now.
this is a big week for ashley Giles as he first should decide if he believes Joe Root is still the best man to take England forward. and if he does then he should announce that publicly.
then he must sit down with Root to discuss the issues and the ‘new direction’ the captain talked about yesterday and ask why this test side is not making the same strides as the one-day team that won the World Cup. While the limited-overs team are unrecognisable from the one trevor Bayliss inherited, the test side is pretty much the same and the only player who has really added to the side, Jofra archer, has come from abroad, not the English set-up.
Giles will think about what type of coach Root needs and can work with and what are the issues with selection because there are rumours of a stand-off between Root and Bayliss on one side and the selection panel of Ed Smith and James taylor on the other.
there have been clear mistakes made this year. I still cannot understand how Stuart Broad was left out in Barbados for the first test of what became a losing series against West Indies for Sam Curran to take the new ball. that was unbelievable.
how can Chris Woakes, with his excellent record in English conditions, be left out at Old trafford for one of the biggest matches of England’s summer?
If you think Woakes is done as an international cricketer then, fine, you move on to Craig Overton. But I don’t think he is — and clearly England don’t either because they have now been harsh on Overton, who fought with the bat and did OK with the ball in the fourth test, by bringing Woakes back today.
there is more. What is Jonny Bairstow’s best role in the side? Should he be keeping? Why were England playing Jos Buttler as a specialist batsman at seven only to promote him to six today?
and how can England be bowled out for double figures four times in the last two years?
I am not talking here about the clear and fundamental issues with our domestic structure and the undermining of first-class cricket. that is for people higher up in the ECB food chain to sort out. I am talking about issues that England can sort out themselves. the current uncertainty was summed up when Bayliss said before the headingley test that he felt Jason Roy should be batting in the middle order. then he had to push Roy out of the door and tell him to open in the third test.
Now Roy has missed out altogether but England are right to play Ben Stokes as a specialist batsman today. It would appear he will not bowl and that is right because you do not want to take any risk with him.
Stokes is well capable of batting at four without his bowling but I would have moved Buttler up to five, Bairstow at six and Curran at seven followed by the best three seamers. and that’s archer, Broad and Woakes.
It’s a big test, too, for Jack Leach because however well he has batted this summer and deserves every bit of praise after his role in the miracle of headingley, he is in the team to bowl.
So there is a lot at stake for England this week both on and off the field. and after it they will want to sort out any issues there are and move on with a new coach and everyone together, just as they are with the white-ball side.