Vince in line for recall if Bairstow is ruled out
In-form batsman set to be named as cover today Root backs Cook to confound critics again
James Vince is poised for a recall if Jonny Bairstow fails to recover from a broken finger in time to play in the fourth Specsavers Test against India next week.
England are to name the squad today, and Vince will initially be included as cover, but he has a great chance of one more attempt at a Test career as Bairstow struggles to be fit after fracturing the top of his left middle finger.
Vince was dropped by Ed Smith, the national selector, when he named his first squad in May after averaging 24 from 13 Tests. Smith blamed his failure to make big scores, saying his “cricketing history has not produced the runs it should have done”. An innings of 147 for Hampshire in the current round of County Championship matches against Nottinghamshire was well timed by Vince and swelled his average this season to 56.46 in Division One.
If he plays, Vince would bat at four, allowing Ollie Pope to drop to five, a position that could be easier for a young player to make the transition to Test cricket after three low scores in his first two matches.
Moeen Ali provides another batting option and has just scored a double hundred for Worcestershire, but England are reluctant to pick another left-hander because of the dangers posed by Ishant Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin.
Keaton Jennings will be given the series to prove himself despite another failure in Nottingham, a sensible decision considering England must stop changing their opening partnerships. Alastair Cook was backed by Joe Root, who believes the former captain still has the appetite to play on until next year’s Ashes. Ultimately, it will be left to Cook to decide if this is just another blip or the end of the road.
“We have to be realistic about the surfaces we’ve been playing on,” Root said. “Throughout the whole summer, they’ve been very much tailored around seam bowling and we’ve had some very bowlerfriendly conditions – a lot of cloud cover, it’s seamed around quite a lot and it’s obviously swung as well.
“The hardest point to bat is opening up. He’s a world-class performer, he’s proven that time and time again and actually I’d like you to write him off because every time he’s written off he comes back and scores a double hundred.
“You never really know what someone is thinking if you’re being brutally honest about things but you watch him apply himself in training and go about his practice on the morning of every game, the way he speaks on the field, the way he speaks to the batters around the group and offers his experience, it doesn’t look like someone who is thinking about jacking it in. He seems very much dedicated to helping this team and scoring as many runs as he can.”
Two sessions cost England the Test. First, on the opening day, when India batted for the afternoon without losing a wicket as Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane wore the bowlers down, and 24 hours later when England lost 10 wickets in a session.
Such collapses are common currency for England and Root led an inquest in the dressing room on Sunday to try to focus minds.
“You can nitpick around other areas in the game, but ultimately that first innings for us was very poor,” said Root. “We sat down and spoke quite honestly about how we’re going to get this right. It’s happened on a couple of occasions and it’s obviously not good enough. In this format, and for the group of players we’ve got, it’s well below par of what we’re capable of – even if it is bowler-friendly conditions.”
Jos Buttler will keep wicket if Bairstow misses the Test in Southampton, but he will be determined to be fit and desperate not to give his place away. Bairstow is a strongminded, tough cricketer and he will be confident of being fit, and could play as a specialist batsman to protect his finger from further damage by keeping wicket.
“It is very early days in terms of a small fracture at the top of his finger. We’ll have to see how that settles down over time,” said Root. “We have a bit of time until that next game so we can assess that later down the line. He’s obviously a world-class batter in good form and
would warrant his place within the side as a batter.
“In terms of keeping, we are very fortunate to have Jos in the team and it would make things very easy in terms of him stepping into that role.”
Root’s own form is a big worry for England, given how much they rely on his runs. Since he was run out for 80 in the first Test, he has lacked rhythm and Jasprit Bumrah worked him over here.
“I don’t feel as though I’m Bambi on ice or anything,” he said. “If you are realistic – which I try to be – I don’t think I’m far away from making big scores.”