Picking England’s top six is a guessing game as Ashes loom

With three Test innings until they tour Australia, Root’s men still lack a settled batting line-up

It was here five years ago that Kevin Pietersen played one of his masterful innings, striking what he ranked as one of the best two shots of his career when he hit a tracer-bullet six off Dale Steyn which almost landed in the England dressing room.

Pietersen thrashed 149 in five hours, scoring 106 in the last session.

England’s batting order was settled. The team No1 in the world. It would, of course, all soon come crashing down after that match with the “textgate” scandal erupting, and England losing their No1 ranking two weeks later at Lord’s. The Ashes whitewash and Pietersen’s second sacking were only 18 months away.

But that match is a useful reference point in the development of England’s batting in recent times. Since then, 14 players have debuted as specialist batsmen and only one, Joe Root, has established a Test career. James Taylor is not included as he made his Test debut in that Headingley Test, Michael Carberry, too, played before 2012 prior to his recall for the Ashes tour. Jos Buttler’s three Tests as a specialist batsman in India can’t really count either. He was the last option on a horror tour. In total, three different England head coaches have backed one winner between them in 14 picks, enough to make even the most committed gambler take stock.

Tom Westley, Mark Stoneman and Dawid Malan are the latest to be given a chance and have the ultimate prize as their potential reward for success – a tour to Australia. All three will say they are not looking that far ahead.

All three are not telling the truth. Westley is the biggest worry. His strength has become his weakness over the course of his short Test career.

Twice against West Indies he has missed straight balls trying to play through his favoured leg side. His balance is off and to be stone-dead lbw hit on the back leg driving at a straight ball is poor for a Test match No3.

Stoneman has only had two innings and looked good for his 19 at Headingley before his dismissal, playing a drive and inside-edging behind. It was the last ball of Kemar Roach’s eighth over and he was due a breather. Better game awareness from Stoneman would have saved him.

Malan showed promise at Edgbaston with his half-century but his failure to convert that golden chance against a broken West Indies bowling attack into a hundred felt like a huge missed opportunity.

With only three Tests innings to go before the start of the Ashes, England are still no further forward with establishing a settled batting line-up that will be so crucial when the pressure is on in Australia. Warming up with England before play was Keaton Jennings, who drove to Headingley the night before as cover for Cook after he was hit on the inside of his knee at nets.

It is a sign Jennings is still very much in England’s winter plans but he arrived in Test cricket with a technical flaw outside off stump that was quickly leapt upon by South Africa and it is hard to see how he has time to correct it before Brisbane.

The three four-day warm-up games England have in Australia will be talent knockout contests for the squad batsmen with potentially three places up for grabs. The only thing stopping Australian sniggers already is the question marks over their own batting. When England won the Ashes in Australia six years ago, they had an experienced top order settled and ready to go. What the selectors would give now to have the solidity of Cook, Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott followed by Pietersen, Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood.

Instead, picking the top six for Brisbane is a guessing game. Of those who have tried and been dropped before, Alex Hales could make the squad as a lower order player but does he have the temperament for Test cricket, even batting at five? Gary Ballance played second-team cricket for Yorkshire last week and has a big final month of championship cricket to force his way back in.

Haseeb Hameed took a step forward with 77 in his last innings for Lancashire and is in the same position as Ballance needing runs in the final weeks of the season. The England coach, Trevor Bayliss, has not been overly impressed with some of the batsmen the selectors have handed him so he may place more emphasis on runs in the one-day series against West Indies. Root and Stokes will probably be rested and perhaps James Vince could be given another go or Ben Duckett or even Malan. There is still time for more names, more gambles.