Now Wood is Ashes doubt
England to gamble on novices as skipper stays rooted to favoured No 4 spot in the batting line up
ENGLAND have been hit by another fast-bowling injury worry before the Ashes with Mark Wood forced to have a painkilling injection.
It comes 48 hours after scans revealed that Toby Roland-Jones is suffering from a stress fracture of the back which will almost certainly rule him out of the England squad named on Wednesday.
Wood has suffered a recurrence of his heel problem and received a cortisone jab to allow him to play for Durham against Worcestershire, starting tomorrow.
WHEN Andrew Strauss admitted a few days ago that he would be lying if he claimed England were going to Australia ‘with absolute clarity on our best XI’, the ECB’s director of cricket was opting for understatement. The truth is there will be moments during Tuesday’s selection meeting when a pin and a donkey’s tail could be as useful as pen and paper.
The selectors have finished their summer-long search for a top five capable of defending the Ashes back where they started, which is to say wandering around in no-man’s land, hoping for the best. Whoever makes the 16-man squad, that top five will involve novices and gambles, or oblige Joe Root to bat out of position. Or both.
Australia have problems of their own, not least an over-reliance for runs on opener David Warner and captain Steve Smith. But they will look at their opponents’ frailties and believe they still have the armoury, particularly among their seamers in home conditions, to pull off what would be only their third victory over England in 15 years.
If question marks hang over Tom Westley, Dawid Malan and, to a lesser extent, Mark Stoneman — though an absence of fit or in-form rivals means he will surely open with Alastair Cook at the Gabba on November 23 — then the entire look and feel of the top order hangs on Root himself.
Coach Trevor Bayliss believes, as most Australians do, that your best batsman goes in at No 3. But he also believes in player power: if Root wants to stay at No 4, where he averaged 60 in his first summer as Test captain, then stay there he will.
There are good reasons for this. First, he prefers No 4, where he averages 54 overall, compared with 45 a place higher. Trying to become only the second England captain since Mike Gatting in 1986-87 to win in Australia will be hard enough without the distraction of a gig he is reluctant to fill.
Second, recent England No 3s Down Under have found them- selves at the crease rather early. Only twice since Gatting’s tour have their openers shared a century stand in Australia, both by Cook and Strauss during the victorious 2010-11 trip. England would essentially be throwing Root to Australia’s new-ball wolves. And they would be diluting one of their two top- order strengths, Cook’s experience being the other.
Third, memories. During the 2013- 14 whitewash, Root — his career still in its infancy — was left out of the final Test at Sydney after averaging 27, mainly at first drop. These things can play on a batsman’s mind, even one as accomplished as his. If the captain desires the breathing space of No 4, he should get it.
But if not Root, then who? Westley fell away alarmingly in his debut Test summer, and would be a lamb to the slaughter in a country where only the most lionish England No 3s have prospered — Wally Hammond, Ted Dexter, J o hn Edrich, David Gower and Jonathan Trott.
England will be reluctant to hand the job to Gary Ballance, who struggled against South Africa before breaking a finger in July, although Root’s admiration of his Yorkshire team-mate means he could make a comeback lower down the line-up — and may mean he is in front of Alex Hales in the pecking order.
Then again, Hales might be argued to have had the best Test summer of any of the middle-order hopefuls by virtue of not playing. All 11 of his caps have come as an opener, but he has enjoyed a fruitful time with Nottinghamshire, is keen to reinvent himself and has an advantage over his rivals: international pedigree, though against the white ball rather than red.
Even if England stick with Westley at No 3 — and it’s a big if — Hales could replace Malan at No 5, on the basis that he is more likely to hurt Australia’s bowlers. It would be a risk, but Ashes series are not won by conservatism.
The next question is whether to try to squeeze an extra bowler into the starting XI, such as Hampshire leg-spinner Mason Crane. The tactic is tempting, since English offspinners have rarely fared well in Australia. Even when they won 3-1 seven years ago, Graeme Swann paid nearly 40 runs for each of his 15 wickets.
But that would mean shunting the powerful 6-7-8 axis of Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali up a place, depriving England of the lower-order ballast that has rescued them so often of late.
Neither will Bayliss need reminding that the most profitable batting partnership during the 3-2 Ashes win in 2015 came between Moeen and Stuart Broad, when Moeen was at No 8. If his stats are better a place higher, then his presence at
eight has often proved demoralising for bowlers, not least because Chris Woakes — a No 7 masquerading as a No 9 — is next man in.
Root will feel more comfortable with a bowling attack that took 134 of the 140 wickets available to them during the summer, though Toby Roland- Jones’s touring dreams could be over after he suffered a stress fracture of the back playing for Middlesex against Lancashire.
Mark Wood, meanwhile, must prove his fitness when Durham travel to Worcestershire tomorrow, and Woakes is short of overs after his mid-summer side injury.
But Root’s first concern will be to arrive in Brisbane with a line-up capable of avoiding England’s customary stumble to 50 for three.
If Bayliss wants to gently persuade his captain that his ascent to No 3 would benefit the team, he should make him watch his epic 254 from that position against Paki- stan at Old Trafford last summer.
Back then, everything clicked, including the sense that England’s entire innings had found the right tempo. But, Root was then in the ranks, not at the helm. Captaincy tends to focus the mind. And Root’s will need to be sharper than ever if he is to return home with the urn.