Cricket

"My gut feel is that the person England really want to come in to play in the Ashes is Jason Roy - but you can't just fly Roy out here."

"England have been very good recently, winning eight out of nine Tests [before the Barbados Test] so it's not a time for absolute panic and doom and gloom - but they have some flaws."

Former England captain Nasser Hussain adds his thoughts on possible changes..

Spinners - if they again opt for two spinners then Nasser Hussain reckons England may play Jack Leach instead of Adil Rashid in Antigua as they look to rebound from their hammering inside four days by Windies in the first Test.

Leg-spinner Rashid was rarely used by England skipper Joe Root in Windies' second innings in Barbados, getting through nine overs for 61 runs as Jason Holder (202no) and Shane Dowich (116no) out on a mammoth stand of 295.

Hussain believes left-armer Leach, who took 18 wickets during England's 3-0 sweep in Sri Lanka before Christmas, could add Root greater control if he is selected in the second Test, which starts on Thursday.

"There is a question about Rashid, Root only bowled him for seven overs on day three and then Windies' part-time spinner [Roston Chase] gets 8-60 on day four. Leach is more at you all the time, so they might go for him over Rashid."

Keaton Jennings - Opener Keaton Jennings' place has come under scrutiny after he was caught nicking off for 17 and 14 respectively at Kensington Oval, leaving his Test average at 25.86 from 16 matches.

Jennings' average outside of Asia, where he has scored both of his Test centuries - one in India and one in Sri Lanka - is a lowly 17.5.

But Hussain feels the fact England's spare batsman, Joe Denly, has been featuring in the middle order for county side Kent could work in his favour.

"Jennings at the top of the order is also vulnerable - his playing of seam has been poor, so do they keep him in the side?" Hussain added of the left-hander.

"Denly has not had a lot of cricket recently because of the way schedules are with no games in between, and he has been batting in the middle order for Kent in [County Championship] Division Two."

"My gut feel is that the person England really want to come in to play in the Ashes is Jason Roy - but you can't just fly Roy out here.

"This is the quandary they have. They might stick with Jennings and then hope that Roy has early season form "



Other issues the selectors may or may not think about are..

Stuart Broad Broad will obviously return. Broad’s stock rose in his absence and he is often at his best when he a point to prove, like last summer at Headingley when he bowled brilliantly against Pakistan after Michael Vaughan had suggested he was no longer a first-choice pick. That is the case now and Broad has to accept it. Sam Curran does not have the pace to open the bowling and the harder lacquer on the Dukes out here means it swings later in the innings, so England need a bit more with the new ball. Broad feels in fine fettle, thinks his new run-up is working and did well in the warm-ups. Expect a recall.

Drop Ben Foakes??
What? Drop a player who was man of the series against Sri Lanka? Foakes, through his brilliance with the gloves, has upset the balance of the team. It is really why Broad did not play in Barbados. Bairstow does not like No 3 and is still struggling mentally to accept why he was dropped as keeper and worries about having all his eggs in the batting basket. Foakes had his worst Test in Barbados but remains a wonderful gloveman, easily the best of his generation. But what if you left him out, moved Bairstow back to where he is happiest at seven and bring in Denly to bat at three. It would be bold.
It won’t happen.

Axe Sam Curran??
Curran won his first seven Tests, was brilliant (mainly) with bat and ball and landed an IPL gig worth £800,000. A fall was bound to happen. He was done by a brutish short ball in the first innings that will have been noted in Australia. He took one for 123 and is a second-change bowler, not an opening one. The sight of small Sam bowling at 75mph with the new ball at the Joel Garner End was incongruous. He could make way for Broad. But how about adding pace and picking Mark Wood, or Woakes with his extra height, pace and bats (compared to Curran)?
 
West Indies have apparently asked for a quick pitch to give their pacemen the best possible chance of clinching a series victory in the second test. Although preparation of the pitch will have been well underway for some time, the wishes of the home team will have influenced it heavily.

The pitch once again may be difficult to read. West Indies overwhelmed Bangladesh on a pacy wicket in the last test here, although previously to that it had always favoured slow bowling. Hopefully this time the England selectors (Ed Smith, Trevor Bayliss and Joe Root) might read it correctly, if in doubt then for me looking at what might suit the West Indies real strength, their quicks, might make sense.

Whatever they decide is bound to heavily alter the balance of the team with even Ben Foakes under some pressure after a poor test.

Broad is certain to play, Rashid certain not to, but a quick pitch may suit Wood or Woakes rather than Curran and four seamers (with Stokes) would be the way to go. If another spinner was required then Leach would play, and with Ali being expensive then Leach may be in with a shout regardless of one or two spinners.

For all they might like to change the failing batsmen, there is no Jason Roy and only Joe Denly (surely a mistake) as an alternative.

At this moment and given a quick pitch probable I would guess.

Burns, Jennings, Bairstow, Root, Stokes, Buttler, Ali, Foakes, (Woakes or Wood), Broad, Anderson
 
Fascinating stuff from Rob Key who for my money is one of the best thinkers on the game around today..


Rob Key looks at why England keep collapsing, explains how attack rather than defence could be the way to prevent future capitulations, and assesses the ways county cricket can better prepare batsmen for Test cricket...

The truth of it is that you've got to give a lot of credit to the Windies, Kemar Roach in particular, because I look back at that batting collapse in Barbados and I can't think of too many bad shots.

If you go wicket by wicket: Rory Burns was unlucky, Keaton Jennings played a poor shot, Jonny Bairstow was unlucky, it came off his elbow, Joe Root's lbw - they never look spectacular but that was a good bit of bowling from Jason Holder. You go through it and from the frontline batsmen there weren't many terrible shots.

Conditions were pretty tough and what you need is some to come and try and throw a few counter-punches, sooner than Sam Curran coming in at No 9. Throughout the summer, Curran was so valuable to this side with his batting and what he has done is come in and played shots.

Ben Stokes and over his last 11 Test matches, his strike rate has gone from 63.77 to 45.43. If I was Root, I would be reminding Ben of his knock against New Zealand at Lord's, when Paul Farbrace told him that he would be batting at six on a green seamer and he went out and scored 92 at almost a run a ball.

Now you see him scoring less than half the runs in the same number of balls. I know it is tough at times and in Sri Lanka it was spinning, and you can't always score as quickly, but I would like to see Stokes back to his counter-attacking best. That is one of the things I would be saying as a captain.

That isn't blaming Stokes for the collapse at all, I just think that he is almost trying too hard when actually when Stokes is on top of his game, looking to smash you round the park, there is no-one better in the world at that.

I almost don't care if he gets out playing the worst shot in the history of cricket. I wouldn't care because he is capable of doing something extraordinary.

The similarities between him and Adam Gilchrist were very fair when he got the double hundred against South Africa and I want to see him get back to that. Let the rest adapt, let Root, Jonny Bairstow and Jos Buttler adapt their games, let him go out and look to do something incredible.

During a collapse, the batsmen who have been and gone probably feel the momentum more than the batsman going in. You're the most optimistic you can ever be when you walk out to bat, then you find yourself walking back wishing you'd done something else.


What it actually needs, and I'd imagine Joe Root is good at this, is someone to go up and says 'we're going in and before we know it, we're getting a good ball, somebody go in and at least go down swinging!'

That is a tough thing to do because all we ever hear is about how Twenty20 cricket has ruined batsmen, no-one knows how to bat for long periods of time now and everyone needs to look at Cheteshwar Pujara and how he bats.

That might be the case but there is no point in Root, Stokes, Buttler or whoever trying to bat like Pujara, they've got to play their own way and try and flip the momentum. But that is so hard to do because conditions aren't easy for batsmen at the moment across the planet.

So often these things come back to the domestic game and I don't think county cricket is doing everything it can to help produce top-level batsmen.

The best surface in the country is at The Oval. You can ask any batsman in the country and good bowlers like The Oval as well because it has a bit of bounce too. And who has produced the most cricketers for England of late? Surrey.

Yes, they've got an excellent set-up but they also play on a proper wicket, that's why Rory Burns gets runs, Ollie Pope has been around but you also have to know how to bowl to get wickets there so they produce bowlers as well.

Put it this way, our first-class cricket would be in a much better place if every surface was more like The Oval - it spins there too.

The things that have been done in county cricket - toss rules, no heavy roller - to try and help out first-class cricket, have helped in some ways and hindered in others. First-class cricket now is more intense than it ever was with the pressure on being in the first division and staying there.

That has really added to the intensity but, at the same time, there are not a lot of games that go four days. The result has become so crucial that actually it's become a fast-food version of first-class cricket where 15 or 20 wickets go down on the first day, then again the second day and it's done on the third.

I imagine most umpires book themselves in for a game of golf on the fourth day of every championship game!

That's not hard to change but there has to be a will to do it. I think county cricket is producing some seriously talented cricketers yet they're not having the opportunity to learn the longest form of the game because we're cheating the system a little bit.


Conditions have been tough for batsmen in county cricket in the past couple of years
Somehow, you've got to put a premium on the surfaces that they're playing on, The Oval should be rewarded for the surface they produce, which I'm sure they are in some way. But the problem is, when it comes down to it the first four or five rounds of the County Championship season are so early that it is near impossible.

I'd imagine if you look at the scores ion the first day of the season, in most games there will be five wickets down by lunch and that's not what you want. Then five or six games in, you feeling like you're just trying to claw it back as a batsman.

I have said that I'd like to see Jason Roy open the batting for England and the response is always, "well he doesn't even do that for Surrey!" I would argue that if you're playing in county cricket at most places, that doesn't prepare you for Test cricket anyway.

That Roy opens the batting in 50-over cricket against international bowlers on a good surface is probably better preparation than a lot of people are getting in county cricket at the moment.

As for the second Test in Antigua, I would have Joe Denly in there now for Jennings. Otherwise I'm quite happy with who is in there at three, four, five and six. I might swap Stokes and Buttler around, especially with the amount that Stokes is having to bowl at the moment.

The game is simple at times, pick five frontline batsmen, have an all-rounder at six, wicketkeeper at seven and then you pick your best four bowlers for the surface.

https://www.skysports.com/amp/cricket/n ... -in-future
 
England have named a 12 man squad


England squad: Burns, Denly, Bairstow, Root, Buttler, Stokes, Moeen Ali, Foakes, S Curran, Broad, Anderson, Leach

The headline is Denly for Jennings.

Explaining Jennings' omission, Root said: "It's down to the fact that we are 1-0 down in this series and feel that we want to make a change. We want to change things up at the top of the order and be proactive in making sure that we find ways of winning this series.

"One thing we did in Sri Lanka was we made sure that we didn't concentrate on what was happening six months down the line; we looked at the here and now. Having a very similar approach is very important; I don't think it's a panic selection. It has come down to getting us off to the best start possible.

"Keaton has worked extremely hard at his game and managing certain areas and I think that he will be back again, I really do. I think he's a fine player who will respond well to this and will come back and try to prove people wrong."

Broad and James Anderson - who have 1,003 Test wickets between them - could now be reunited in England's attack for the first time in five Tests. Sam Curran took just one wicket and scored 31 runs in two innings in Barbados, but keeps his place in the squad.

Leach has four Test caps to his name, taking 20 wickets at 25 runs apiece in those appearances, and Root said the Somerset spinner's inclusion in the squad offers the side a different balance.

"We've gone with Leach as a second spin option, depending on the surface, not because of performance throughout the last game but more because of the balance and how we want to approach things if we are going to play two spinners - having someone who can offer a bit more of a holding role," said the skipper.

"Adil's job when he plays for us is to come in and make things happen, use all of his tricks and to offer us a little bit of mystery. Adil is going to go home; his wife is expecting in the next week or so. I think it's important that he goes home and spends some time with his family and can enjoy that moment."

No surprise whatsoever at Denly after his long net yesterday or Jennings really as that option always looked possible.

Wood was apparently considered, but possibly with the batting failing so miserably they wouldn't want to potentially weaken it further. Curran is a genuine bowling all rounder, his first real failure with the bat doesn't materially change that, he is far more suited to the role of fourth seamer than opening the bowling.

Rashid would almost certainly have missed out anyway but is flying back to England with his wife expecting, he will be back for the ODI's.

Leach may play, but I would suspect with Denly and Root available as part timers to help Ali, it will be four seamers.

The West Indies will have an all seam attack, even if a non spinning part timer took a second innings bagful of wickets, pace had won the test well before that, it was virtually irrelevant for me.

If in doubt look at what the home side are doing should be the mantra, play four seamers.

You would think Foakes isn't in the squad to be 12th man so it probably looks a decision between four seamers or two spinners.

Should get Nick Hoult's prediction later, but the pitch was looking very green on Monday and the West Indies are known to want a quick wicket, my guess is Leach to carry the drinks.
 
Nick Hoult writes..

Joe Denly will be handed his Test cap by Sir Alastair Cook on Thursday as he becomes the oldest specialist batsman in nearly 25 years to make his debut for England after replacing Keaton Jennings in the side.

At 32 and after a winter spent carrying the drinks, Denly must have feared his chance for a Test debut had gone but the support of Ed Smith, the chief selector who is here on tour with the England team, and the stunning defeat in Barbados that made batting changes inevitable has handed him a golden opportunity to seal a place for next summer’s Ashes.

Jennings has paid for his inability to cope with sustained pressure when facing seam. If this was a longer series, England would have given him one more match to prove himself but they have been ruthless, particularly after seeing a grassy pitch at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium that will make batting against the new ball very hazardous. Denly will at least be given two Tests, here in Antigua and St Lucia next week.

Jennings has paid for his inability to cope with sustained pressure when facing seam. If this was a longer series, England would have given him one more match to prove himself but they have been ruthless, particularly after seeing a grassy pitch at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium that will make batting against the new ball very hazardous. Denly’s selection is about winning this series rather than looking any further ahead.

“It’s a great opportunity for Joe to show what he's capable of,” said Joe Root, the England captain. “At 1-0 down in the series I feel it's proactive to change things up at the top of the order. We're not here to look forward to the Ashes. We're here to win the series. We felt this change was an opportunity to really take that forward.

It became apparent at nets on Tuesday that Denly was in strong contention as he batted with the top order regulars and had a long bowl with his leg spin set to back up Moeen Ali.

Stuart Broad was named in a 12-man squad and will replace Rashid in the starting XI. Jack Leach was named in the 12 but England look set to play four seamers so Sam Curran stays in the side.

The pitch is tufty and been scarified for the first time, dragging up old dead grass which means it is likely to be two paced so hitting the surface hard again will be key, and should suit Broad.

England (probable) Burns, Denly, Bairstow, Root, Stokes, Buttler, Ali, Foakes, Curran, Broad, Anderson.
 
Tbf to Nick I've interpreted his comments to give that possible team, I suppose he didnt actually say who would provide the spin ootion., Jack Leach or Moeen Ali, I wouldn't mind giving Leach a go ...

But combined with Root's comments on Leach

"We've gone with Leach as a second spin option, depending on the surface, not because of performance throughout the last game but more because of the balance and how we want to approach things if we are going to play two spinners - having someone who can offer a bit more of a holding role," said the skipper.

I suspect Leach only plays if two spinners and as Nick says four seamers looks likely.
 
Yes,

Looks a very obvious decision, green pitch rain this morning. Root admitted he wouldn't have had any hesitation in bowling first but was unlucky to be on the wrong side of it for the second match in a row.

Very much a bowl first day and no surprise Burns out early.

This looks a fantastic toss to win for Holder
 

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