First Test. England v Sri Lanka at Headingley. 19/5/16.

[Dr Cricket]

England don't really have any batsman calling to get picked right now so might as well pick Woakes or Ball.

That's quite a long way from the truth, there are 3 or 4 batsmen who've made very good starts to the season. That said England like their fourth pace option so Woakes, Barker or Ball would be the most likely selections.

big difference in scoring heavily in 3-4 county games and being ready for international cricket.
those 3-4 batsman scoring heavily are probably not ready to play international cricket or not even good enough to play it.

[Gingerfinch]

Only one way to find out.

[Dr Cricket]

Only one way to find out.

true but would be idiotic to pick one batsman for one game and probably never use him or pick him till bangladesh/india tour and quite possibly that batsman might not be good enough to picked on that tour anyway.
Just feel picking Westley, Browne is like going back to the 90s where any injuries or losses/bad personal performance players were dropped for the next best current domestic player even though most were out of their depth.
What I have seen of Westley and browne they are not international players.

the only possible batsman I can think of is Hildreth and Daniel bell drummond and that would be awkward to pick them for one game especially if 4-5 months later they are not really guaranteed to tour Asia.

Quite easier to pick Woakes and ball, then get into a selection headache right now.

[Dr Cricket]

Although it depends on how bad Stokes injury is.
Out of interest which batsman would people pick other than Ballance and Bell.

[Making_Splinters]

England don't really have any batsman calling to get picked right now so might as well pick Woakes or Ball.

That's quite a long way from the truth, there are 3 or 4 batsmen who've made very good starts to the season. That said England like their fourth pace option so Woakes, Barker or Ball would be the most likely selections.

big difference in scoring heavily in 3-4 county games and being ready for international cricket.
those 3-4 batsman scoring heavily are probably not ready to play international cricket or not even good enough to play it.

Nothing like a well informed opinion on a subject is there?

Care to go over the batsmen and explain why they're "not good enough"?

[Dr Cricket]

For one Browne and westley will struggle with the extra pace of international cricket.
Would like Browne to play more lions first before being picked for England and for westley the guy average 35 in first class cricket and you want to pick him for England just after 2 month of good cricket.
Really westley feasted on poor county attacks that haven't moved much because of the new toss rule, I haven't seen anything on him that suggest he will be able to handle quicker international Bowlers or world class spinners.
Anyway only an opinion think England will go with the all rounder or bowler doubt selectors actually know the next batsman in the ranks.

[Making_Splinters]

For one Browne and westley will struggle with the extra pace of international cricket.
Would like Browne to play more lions first before being picked for England and for westley the guy average 35 in first class cricket and you want to pick him for England just after 2 month of good cricket.
Really westley feasted on poor county attacks that haven't moved much because of the new toss rule, I haven't seen anything on him that suggest he will be able to handle quicker international Bowlers or world class spinners.
Anyway only an opinion think England will go with the all rounder or bowler doubt selectors actually know the next batsman in the ranks.

And what have you seen to suggest they will struggle with extra pace at international level? A specific technical fault perhaps?

[Dr Cricket]

Well for one he doesn't even look assured at the crease at division 2 county cricket and the fact he only score 14 first class centuries in 10 years.
Only cemented his spot for Essex 2 years ago as well. He would be a worse pick than Patterson at headingley.

[Dr Cricket]

I will give you a detail account next time I see Essex on tv.

[Making_Splinters]

Well for one he doesn't even look assured at the crease at division 2 county cricket and the fact he only score 14 first class centuries in 10 years.
Only cemented his spot for Essex 2 years ago as well. He would be a worse pick than Patterson at headingley.

Look assured at the crease? Is that a comment on his footwork, off stump awareness, defensive technique? Or are you simply asserting that a player had a slow start to their career and has developed since?

[Dr Cricket]

No idea why you attacking me considering you haven't even named a batsman to replace stokes. The fact is since 2010 barring root no England test player from domestic cricket has scored heavily in international cricket.
So if the likes of balance, Bairstow before SA, Robson, carberry, Compton, Lyth all failed at international cricket or found it tough and they all scored heavily in div 1 cricket.

And you really expect a guy that averages 35 to cope with it.

Can't got on westley flaws considering Essex haven't play a 50 over game on tv to but when they do you will get a detailed report on him.

[Dr Cricket]

By the way just watch you tube innings of westley knock against Sri Lanka. Even there his footwork was limited that isn't a really a big deal but he did have a lot of his weight on the back foot even when playing on the frontfoot. Anyway I will know more about his flaws when he plays on tv next you can only really tell about players flaws when their play and miss at balls not when they hit boundaries.
Also against spin needs to play with soft hand will struggle to rotate strike in India if he plays like he did against Sri Lanka.

[Making_Splinters]

So you've never seen him bat yet feel in a position to make claims about a supposed inability to handle quicker pace bowling? Get's right on my wick that kind of sweeping generalisation.

Root failed badly when asked to open, yet has come on and developed into one of the best players in the world, Bairstow looked liked he'd never be able to hack international cricket when he was repeatedly bounced out yet has made huge strides in the last few seasons, but because a player had a slow start to their career you can't expect them to cope in the present day?

When you're in a hole, stop digging.

[Dr Cricket]

Again my opinion. How about you give your opinion on the next rank batsman.
Really hard to take you seriously when you don't even give opinion on players.

[Dr Cricket]

I have seen enough of westley to make the claim he is not good enough for international cricket, if he has really improved he would average big in div 2 cricket for a longer period of time and actually score loads of runs in list a cricket against the stronger counties.