Buttler chance to have job for keeps

Jos Buttler will be given another chance by england to prove he is their best red-ball wicketkeeper batsman when he is handed the vice-captaincy for the first test against West Indies. Buttler will take charge of one of the england teams today in their intra-squad practice match at the Ageas Bowl, with interim captain stokes leading the other. And Buttler, who is yet to fully demonstrate his considerable talent in test cricket, will be stokes’s No 2 next week, with captain Joe root now ruled out of the first test because he will be isolating after the birth of his second child. that means Buttler (right) is certain to take the gloves next week ahead of Ben Foakes, his deputy on the aborted tour of sri lanka, leaving Jonny Bairstow frustrated once again. Bairstow’s only chance of returning in southampton is as a specialist batsman in place of root, who will return home today to be with wife Carrie for the birth. But Bairstow may miss out, with the return of fit-again rory Burns at the top of the order meaning england could include him alongside Dom sibley while keeping Zak Crawley and Joe Denly in the team at three and four. the other option is for england to hand the exciting Dan lawrence a test debut at six and move ollie Pope up to four in root’s place in what coach Chris silverwood calls one of ‘10 possible permutations’ for the first of three bio-secure tests. england will field two enlarged teams over the next three days in southampton as they attempt to give game time to the majority of their 30-man training group before whittling it down to an enlarged 22-man squad. that will give them potential replacements for every player, with the ICC allowing substitutes for anyone who shows Covid-19 symptoms. root, meanwhile, is expected back for the second test at old trafford on July 16, with silverwood saying yesterday: ‘Joe has trained very hard and is doing everything he can to put himself in the best position to play in Manchester.’ england face some tricky selection issues, not least in the fast bowling, where Jimmy Anderson, Jofra Archer, stuart Broad, Mark Wood and Chris Woakes are competing for three places. But with england facing six tests against West Indies and then Pakistan in little more than seven weeks, rotation is sure to play an extensive part. the only two players who look certain to miss out on the first test squad are surrey off-spinner Amar Virdi and somerset fast bowler Jamie overton, who were last night left out of england’s two warm-up

match teams for today.

n TEAM STOKES: Sibley, Jennings, Crawley, Bairstow (wkt), Stokes (capt), Foakes (wkt), Moeen, Gregory, C Overton, Leach, Stone, Anderson, Mahmood. TEAM BUTTLER: Burns, Bracey (wkt), Denly, Lawrence, Pope, Buttler (capt & wkt), S Curran, Woakes, Bess, Wood, Archer, Broad, Parkinson, Robinson.