It’ll be Wood or Willey in fight for remaining spot
Chris Stocks discovers that England’s planning for the summer has almost been decided
Paul Farbrace has revealed he already knows what England’s first-choice team for the Champions Trophy will be.
The assistant coach, in charge on this one-day tour of the Caribbean in place of the rested Trevor Bayliss, says the XI for the opening match of the tournament against Bangladesh at The Oval is pretty much settled.
However, there is still hope for injured fast bowler Mark Wood.
“Yeah, I would say I know – there’s 12 names in my head right now,” said Farbrace. “Woody will have to bowl well to get himself back in. David Willey brings variety. But Liam Plunkett and Chris Woakes have been really impressive.”
England’s top six looks set in stone so it is the bowling attack where that one place may be up for grabs.
If Plunkett and Woakes are firstchoice then Wood would be competing with Willey, out of this tour with a shoulder injury, for the one last remaining spot.
The Durham fast bowler was last week name-checked by one-day captain Eoin Morgan before England’s first ODI in Antigua.
And his return from a third major ankle operation will come with Farbrace looking on from the stands when he plays in the North v South 50-over series in Abu Dhabi later this month.
“Mark needs to get overs under his belt and get his confidence back,” said Farbrace. “He went out to South Africa at the start of the year with the fast-bowling group and he was a little bit stiff and sore after that.
“He’s been bowling in the tent at The Oval for the past few weeks so, hopefully, touch wood, he’s on track to come back in and play full-on cricket.
“He’s someone who gives you that extra pace and is someone you definitely want in your 15-man squad (for the Champions Trophy).”
Bayliss has been enjoying some time off back home in Australia after a long winter. Farbrace, though, has revealed he has been in constant communication with England’s head coach during this tour of the Caribbean.
“As you know, he’s a pretty chatty bloke so we have half an hour on the phone every day!” he said. “We’ve talked mainly via text and email every day. We’ve had one or two phone-calls.”
Farbrace has also been keeping a analytical eye on Australia’s Test series in India ahead of next winter’s Ashes series.
Steve Smith’s team lost a dramatic and ill-tempered second Test in Bangalore this week after their brilliant win in the opening match of the series in Pune.
Those performances have put England’s 4-0 defeat in India before Christmas in an unflattering light but Farbrace says: “It’s been a brilliant series so far. The pitches are obviously a little bit different to what we played on – we went there expecting the wickets to turn and found we had fantastic pitches, didn’t we?
“But it looks like it’s quite a feisty series.
“We had an opportunity in that first game (in Rajkot) and didn’t take it so we could have gone 1-0 up but we didn’t and we ended up losing (the series) heavily. That was quite tough.
“You just have to say fair play to Australia. They had obviously learned a lot of lessons from what we did and watched that quite carefully and closely.
“They started the series well and the Indians have hit back.
“But I don’t think you can get too caught up in it. That series is not going to have a massive effect on next winter’s series in Australia. I would think the pitches would be a bit different!”