Westley must focus on keeping things simple to secure that Ashes place

Facing doubts about his technique, the England batsman has to show the mettle to rein in his shots

We are going to learn a lot about Tom Westley over the next five days. He is playing at Lord’s with his place in the England team on the line. It is a very tough position for any player to find himself in. The West Indies players will be chirping him, telling him he will be dropped. Let that go in one ear and out the other.

Pundits like me will be raking over his performance. The bowlers will be probing his weaknesses.

But if you had said to Westley at the start of the season that he would play the final Test of the summer with a chance to clinch an Ashes place, he would have snatched your hand off. He has to be positive and look at this week as a big opportunity.

He cannot argue or complain about the criticism of his technique because it has been all over the place at times this summer. But at other moments it has looked good and he has scored runs. There is something to build on.

His problems start when his head moves over too far to the off side, which takes the hands and the bat away from his body. It means that when the ball is straight he has to overcompensate and his bat is angled towards wide mid-on, bringing the edge into play.

There have been players such as Steve Smith and Kevin Pietersen who have had a lot of success playing that way. But the difference between them and Westley is simple. They keep the head upright. It does not fall over to the off side.

If the head is in an upright position, a batsman is better balanced on the front foot. They are not on their tip toes like Westley. They are on a very good strong base on the front foot.

Westley has been dismissed driving at the ball five out of seven times, which is too high for someone who has played only four Tests.

My advice is simple. Put away the drive, forget about boundaries unless the ball is short outside off stump and cuttable. Play for ones and twos. It is easy to work out what the bowlers will try to do. They will bowl full outside off stump. They will try and drag him across the crease to get his head outside the line of off stump. Then every over he will get one ball that is straight aimed at getting him lbw with his head falling across the off side.

If I was Westley I would look at that purely as a positive. If he can leave the ball outside off stump, or cut when it is short, then he can wait for the straight one knowing that it will come at some point. If he keeps his head over off stump and does not let the bowlers drag him wide, that straight ball should not trouble him.

He has a chance if he can stick to that simple method, but nobody knows what is going on inside his head.

The pressure in Test cricket is immense. The scrutiny, such as what I am doing now, is 50 times more than you would get in county cricket. The anxiety levels are massive, which is why it is important he keeps it simple.

Can he do that? Those that last the longest in Test cricket, players like Alastair Cook and Joe Root, have a simple game plan and execute in the middle what they work on in the nets. They are repetitive. They have the same drills every day.

Westley must have a method in the nets because he has scored a lot of county runs and I saw in the second innings at Headingley, when West Indies bowled straighter, that he had his head in a decent position.

He got out because he panicked and flashed at a wide one. That was pressure. It is when they hang it out wide of off stump that he has to be more patient and look at how Dawid Malan played last week. He batted outside his comfort zone to grind out crucial runs.

It might be against your natural will but that is what Test cricket demands. It tests the character as well as the technique.

Westley’s Ashes place will not just be decided by the number of runs he scores at Lord’s. The manner in which he scores those runs will be important, too. The selectors will be watching to see if he looks in a controlled state, if he can play those straight balls well and have better balance.

In his position you have to stick to the basics and stay in the present moment. The only way Westley will score runs this week is if he forgets previous failures. He just has to play one ball at a time. Can he mark himself out of 10 for every ball he faces? Believe me, it does help keep you focused on the here and now. Can he stay in that one ball moment?

There are little tricks you can play to help. Look up at the crowd, and do not look down. Generally when a batsman looks down he is asking himself questions and thinking inwardly. Somehow you have to enjoy the opportunity.

It is a pressure situation but try and look at it as exciting pressure.

My advice is put away the drive, forget about boundaries, play for ones and twos