Moeen Ali injury provides audition for Joe Denly’s leg spin against Pakistan
Three weeks from the start of a World Cup England have spent four years planning for, there are still a couple of questions left to address. Trevor Bayliss says he is hoping it will all be settled over the course of five one-day games against Pakistan.
The first is a day-night game at the Oval on Wednesday and by the time it is over it looks like England will be that much closer to one of the answers. We will likely learn something about whether or not Joe Denly is a good enough bowler to fill in as the second spinner.
A slight rib injury means Moeen Ali is being rested as a precaution. “He’s fine,” Bayliss said. “Once upon a time you wouldn’t have even got it x-rayed, because it’s only a bruise.” But this is exactly the reason England want Denly in the World Cup squad. During the tournament they can replace an injured player but once they have done it they cannot bring them back into the squad if they recover later on. They need someone around who could conceivably fill in those overs for a stretch of matches until the first choice is ready again.
It is asking a lot of Denly’s part-time leg-spin. He has taken only 47 List A wickets in his 15 years in the game but he also offers cover as a top-order batsman, so England want to give him every chance to prove he can do it.
Bayliss admitted the selectors still have not quite decided between Denly and Liam Dawson for that position. “Someone like Dawson will certainly be in discussions,” the coach said. “He’s done well this year and he’s done well for us in the past when he’s been given an opportunity at this level. I’m sure he’ll be discussed as well.”
Dawson is not part of the squad now but Bayliss said the selectors may still call him up before the series is over. “We’ve decided to give Denly a go this time. But yes we have spoken about it. There will be a little bit of flexibility and I am sure there will be discussions throughout this series.”
In the meantime, he said, they would be keeping a close eye on how Dawson goes for Hampshire in the Royal London Cup. “He got a game yesterday and they’ve got a semi-final coming up so there is some game time for him.”
Then, of course, there is what Bayliss called “the big one”, which is whether or not to pick Jofra Archer. If they do, he explained, it will certainly be instead of one of the other fast bowlers. Otherwise “you might ask the question if we’re overstocked with fast bowlers and the answer would probably be yes”. So one of the quicks is bound to miss out. Of course, even after all the hype, it may yet be Archer.
Bayliss certainly did not get carried away with Archer’s two performances so far. “He looked fairly nervous to me [in last Friday’s ODI] in Ireland and I think that showed in his bowling,” he said.
“There have been plenty of big statements made about young guys in the last few years, young guys coming into the team and before you know it they are out of it again, either with injury or loss of form. But he is very skilful, he has a bit of extra pace and he’s fitted into the team in a short space of time very well. He’s a fairly quiet sort of guy, which is always good first time into the team.”
Jason Roy is also going to miss the first match, while he recovers from a back spasm. But again, Bayliss is not worried. “We’ve been fairly laidback
about it, it’s just the game. We can keep them in cotton wool but then they don’t play or get to improve or be in form.
“If you get injured, well, someone else has just got to take up the slack. But it does give us the chance to give the guys a bit of a rest during this series, which allows us to do what we want to do and give some of the other guys some game time.”