The revolving door at No 4...

SINCE promoting star man Joe Root up the order to first drop in the summer, England have tried five other batsmen at No 4 in Tests. No other team has fielded as many different players in the role in 2016, but England are still looking for an answer in their problem position. during the first Test at Rajkot, Moeen was England’s sixth No4 in Tests this year. Of those, only Root has made a success of it.

The numbers do not make pretty viewing for the rest. Root scored one century and three fifties from the position in 2016, but the next-best score by an England No4 has been 42 (twice) by James Vince.

Since Root made 80 against Sri Lanka at Chester-le-Street in May, the role has yielded 248 runs at an average of 14. And this winter in Bangladesh, where Gary Ballance scored 24 runs in four innings, and India, that figure has dropped to 10.

Root’s promotion was overdue, and his majestic 254 against Pakistan at Old Trafford in July assuaged any concerns that first drop was a place too high for England’s classiest batsman.

But an unintended consequence of his move to No3 has been to destabilise the next man in — whoever it has been.

Vince never got going, undone by a love of the coverdrive and tailing off with one and nought against Pakistan at The Oval.

Ballance resembled a walking wicket against the Bangladeshi Jos Buttler as a specialist batsman would not solve one problem, even while it endeavoured to solve another.

On Wednesday, England’s batting coach Mark Ramprakash was asked whether Buttler would go straight in at No4. He admitted it was a ‘good question’. Because while Buttler hadn’t played Test cricket since October 2015, both Moeen and Stokes had scored centuries only two games earlier, at Nos 5 and 6.

As so often, it was Moeen who took the hit, entering the fray here after Root had got himself out aiming an ugly hoick at Jayant Yadav first ball after drinks in the morning session.

And it meant he has now batted in every Test slot in the top nine other than No3; ironic since his upturn in form over the summer coincided with his resolve to imagine himself batting in precisely that position for Worcestershire.

Whether he has been regularly caught on the hook at fine leg 10 minutes before lunch at New Road, as he was here, is another matter. But the suspicion remains that, come the summer, England’s hunt for their permanent Test No4 will be far from over.