There’s no doubt that the way white ball cricket is played nowadays has moved so far from first-class cricket as to demand completely different skills and mindset, for batters at least. Roy is so good at 50 and 20 over games but 4 and 5 day games aren’t his thing at all. Same with Eoin Morgan, Alex Hales, and probably Jos Buttler as well.
Roy isn't good enough for Test cricket. Not much to add. Buttler, Hales, Morgan, Vince, Denly and Roy are all similar players in terms of their mindset at least - I consider none of them good enough for test level. Burns is very different and will succeed long term in red ball in my opinion - he's an opener which helps, hardest place to bat.
The cupboard is very bare. Very bare indeed. I like the idea of Foakes keeping and Bairstow batting 6 for a start. That gets one of Buttler and Roy straight out. As mentioned Sibley is the only viable option really to open with Burns currently. The only other option is Root, but I hate exposing him to the new ball - he's good enough to open though with Burns, they compliment each other well.
I think Pope, Northeast, Lawrence could be given a chance. Pope did quite well in his first stint with England if my memory is correct.
I would definitely pick Pope over Buttler, Roy or Denly. Lawrence I like the look of also. Not convinced by Northeast for England.
Pope’s only played 2 CC games this season though, Sibley has played 18 innings with an average of 55.
Northeast has scored 853 runs for Hampshire at an average of 56.87. He's also played for the Lions. I think he deserves consideration.
It should be noted that Northeast has the highest batting average in division 1 who has batted more than 3 innings.
Similar stats to Sibley, albeit slightly lower scores. Let’s pick both of them, instead of Roy and Buttler.
I know. He would be better than Buttler at 6 or 7 that's for sure. I suppose part of me doesn't want him not playing for Hampshire. That could be a factor but I can't be sure. 1. Burns 2. Sibley 3. Root 4. Lawrence 5. Northeast 6. Bairstow 7. Foakes (wk) Looks better than our current line up. Even with Northeast in there higher than I want. I'd rather bat Northeast and Bairstow that way around personally. Suspect Lawrence did himself in making a pair in his last FC game which is a shame for him. Out of the team Burns is my captain and Root is vice captain. That's another matter entirely however.
No. Ben skipped my mind. Not sure how but he did. Stokes plays at 5. Weird that he would slip my mind after the last game. He never has when I've written a team down before. I wrote Buttler down as keeper too despite saying above he needs to be dropped. Strange. 1. Burns 2. Sibley 3. Root 4. Northeast 5. Stokes 6. Bairstow 7. Foakes (wk) there it is then, maybe I'm getting older.. I'm sure I pictured Foakes's face but wrote Buttler.
That's because he's been injured though. It's quite clear that he's next in line (rightly or wrongly) because he was called up for the 3rd test. He averaged 70 last season, with a career average of 60. Sensational numbers. Albeit still a small sample size.
