Well that went well. Feel sorry for Moeen shouldn't have been thrust in to open and as such bell was always in early and under pressure meaning he was out early which left it to cook and root again! Was as always going to be a collapse of some proportions but we didn't have the bowlers to ensure it was us that capitalised on it. 3 spinners, 2 of which are part time and one who is still young and inexperienced.
Some of our players need to seriously man up and some need dropping. I would do the following: - Drop Moeen down to 8. - Drop Bell completely. - Give Hales a go. He has 18 innings at an average of 49 batting at 2 at country level - 8th best in whole of the league Who bats at 3 is a real problem. We seem to have a few players kicking about who bat at 4 but nobody really at 3. You have James Hildreth of Somerset who bats at 4 with an average of 53 after 27 country innings - the 4th best in the whole championship - aged 31. And you also have Root who looks well settled at 4. You also have KP smashing 100's left, right and centre batting at 4 (I know the ships sailed). I would be tempted to give Root a go at 3 and Hildreth a go at 4. 1. Cook 2. Hales 3. Root 4. Hildreth 5. Taylor 6. Stokes 7. Bairstow 8. Moeen 9. Wood 10. Broad 11. Anderson Another thing I noticed when looking at the country championship records this year is Tim Bresnan's form. He is still taking a shed load of wicket and is averaging 49.9 over 22 innings - the 7th best in country championship! The guy has never done anything wrong to be out of the frame and did the business in Aus a few years back - and is only 30. He should be in the frame fighting it out with Wood. He has experience too. As per usual - our bowling looks okay but our batting looks iffy.
Bresnan is a good shout. Also Jack Brooks from Yorkshire who has taken wickets for the last 2 years on regular basis and is young. I still think Ballance should be in that line up. Averages close to 50 in test matches and was brilliant when he first came in. Had a couple of bad games and was kicked out the team v Aussies even though he was averaging no less than a few of the batsmen.
