World Cup glory
“completely brainless” after 26 wickets fell in a day in a game against Essex last week as players struggled to adapt from T20 to four -day cricket. In a white-ball dominated schedule, batsmen learn that attacking 40s and 50s win matches but not in championship games. And certainly not in Test cricket.
The selectors though must share a large burden of blame. Australia were ruthless for this tour, selecting players on form in England before the series started rather than after their last Test series against Sri Lanka. Joe Burns and Kurtis Patterson were dropped despite making centuries against Sri Lanka.
England should have done the same thing when picking the squad for West Indies earlier this year. They selected Keaton Jennings ahead of Jason Roy despite his clear weakness against pace just because he had scored a Test hundred on a turning pitch in Galle. Jennings was dropped after one Test. Roy may not be a long-term Test opener but starting against West Indies, and not
Joe Root’s lapses in concentraton are not exposed in one-day cricket but are fatal in Tests
Australia, would at least have been a little less pressurised.
It is the selection of 33-year-old Joe Denly at No 4 that will be looked upon in years to come with incredulity. Ed Smith’s backing of his old Kent colleague forced Root to move to three to protect him from the new ball, exposing England’s best batsmen earlier than necessary. It also stopped Roy batting at four, where the captain and coach want him. Denly has talent but his time as a Test player was long gone. He edged seven and played and missed 16 times yesterday. It was painful.
Finally there is Jonny Bairstow. Root and Bayliss just cannot communicate clearly what they want from him. Bairstow scored a fifty at seven last week and thought he was set for a long run in his favourite position. But again they moved him, shifting him up to six to protect Jos Buttler. Either pick Bairstow as keeper and bat him at seven or bring back Ben Foakes and tell Bairstow to play in the top five as a specialist batsman. Give him clarity. That has been in short supply for a long time.