Bairstow is one of the best batters in the world, if you don't want him in the side you lose that.
If you do want him to play but dont want him Wtk then you have to bring in Foakes, who is a mediocre batter, and drop one of the higher order batsmen or play without a recognized spinner.
this really is the dilemma isn't it?
bairstow's form was pre injury but was absolutely sensational. He is in not on current form but on what he did before breaking his leg and thats a choice for the selectors and not something i'd second guess (personally)
If we leave that out he played v ireland (facing a sum total of 12 balls as batsman), missed ipl. says he has a gait change as a result of this but played almost 300 overs as wicket keeper for his county.
the jump form where he was at to playing australia is ****ing massive.
If then you are a selector and make your mind up (fairly) that for bazzball bairstow at 75 average last year is a must and you feel that will come then you put him in.
The line up is
Crawley
Duckett
Pope
Root
Brook.
I sincerely doubt anyone could question this line up duckett in particular is in to play a game style and fiar enough. brook is brook and imo why buttler will neve rplay test again so is out of question for red ball selection at wicket keeper.
pope MAYBE is the only one people might think hmmmmm maybe move root up and that but i think that'd be unfiar too
Its the next 6
Stokes
Bairstow
Alli
Robinson
Broad
Anderson
First we are short one bowler right off the mark. Stokes cannot bowl like he is. it is absolutely ridiculous and any other captain would refuse to hand him the ball on the grounds they would be doing life long damage.
Then its wicket keeper issue
Then its injured spinner.
Then its a very old man main line bowling team that over 5 days and a slog are in trouble if they are not backed up and afforded the rest between short burst spells.
Which is the biggest issue to fix? England have plumped for runs from bairstow now and not reliable glove work and so the bowlers had to slog on for a long time in the first innings after several drops.
really if we were not talking stokes I'd say the man needs to drop out for an allrounder and we need to look and see what to do with moeen to harden him up for the test coming (no other option)
Bairstow importantly did his job with the bat in the first innings with a 78 and a 20 in the second innings wasn't great but nobody scored enough imo. The problem is the drops. If we have confidence that rust gets knocked off quickly then fire away.
I honestly think next test moeen needs a massive callus built up on that finger and stop ****ing about cos he is needed to bowl a lot of overs properly with robinson to save broad and anderson
stokes as well... scored 1 and 42. he needs to focus just on batting and fielding and most importantly stop standing in positions where he has to chase the ball. Get in at first or second slip ffs. Again some sense has to come into these things
None of these things will affect bazzball and "entertainment" but they will affect longevity and results.
We are under resourced on the bowling side and that probably what cost us alongside dropped catches and to a lesser extent the declaration.
the only way to fix that is move someone up the order and drop pope and i think thats be a bit unfair to pope as well. You could hand pope the gloves first for example. he's only 25 and he is there to get the best out of root as much as score himself given his average is below 40. 2 centuries last year as well as 1 this year