Second Test: England v India at Lords, 9-13 August 2018.

[backfootpunch]

Drop Sam Curran, replace him.

We will drop him if you drop kohli

Deal or no deal?

[backfootpunch]

Pope bats at six for Surrey I think. Will he come in at four for England?

I'm guessing we won't see Mo at Lord's.

I'd give buttler the gloves move bairstow to 4 and put pope at 5

[ianp1970]

Pope bats at six for Surrey I think. Will he come in at four for England?

I'm guessing we won't see Mo at Lord's.

I'd give buttler the gloves move bairstow to 4 and put pope at 5

A test team with 3 specialist batsmen

[GGAS]

No one keen on getting Ali in for Stokes, and Porter / Woakes in for Rashid?

On another note, surprised Pope has been picked over Alex Hales.

[Arthur Crabtree]

No one keen on getting Ali in for Stokes, and Porter / Woakes in for Rashid?

Was just thinking about that.

Can't afford to upset Rashid though.

The sensible thing to do would be to move the specialist batter at seven up to four, and bat Pope at six. But it doesn't seem likely.

That would give England a middle order of keepers.

Cook/Jennings/Root/Buttler/Bairstow/Pope/Woakes/Curran/Rashid/Broad/Anderson.
Porter/Moeen.

[Durhamfootman]

No one keen on getting Ali in for Stokes, and Porter / Woakes in for Rashid?

On another note, surprised Pope has been picked over Alex Hales.

ah..... but Hales is on a white...... oh wait a minute

[backfootpunch]

Pope bats at six for Surrey I think. Will he come in at four for England?

I'm guessing we won't see Mo at Lord's.

I'd give buttler the gloves move bairstow to 4 and put pope at 5

A test team with 3 specialist batsmen

Bairstow is the second best batsmen we have

[backfootpunch]

No one keen on getting Ali in for Stokes, and Porter / Woakes in for Rashid?

On another note, surprised Pope has been picked over Alex Hales.

There is zero chance they drop Rashid

1 Ed Smith put his neck on the line picking him
2 he actually bowled quite well when needed

His ability to get the tail out will be very useful

[Arthur Crabtree]

For me, if you've got a spinner you only bowl to the tail, you need another spinner to bowl at everyone else.

[ianp1970]

Pope bats at six for Surrey I think. Will he come in at four for England?

I'm guessing we won't see Mo at Lord's.

I'd give buttler the gloves move bairstow to 4 and put pope at 5

A test team with 3 specialist batsmen

Bairstow is the second best batsmen we have

That might well be true - but I doubt you want to bat him at 2 or 3?

We need to select people that will bat ahead of Bairstow, not move him up because we cannot find anyone else...

[ianp1970]

We have been spoilt by being able to field a 5/6/7/8 of Stokes/Bairstow/Ali/Woakes

Now that we cannot find a top order batsman - the solution seems to be: Move everyone up one /down one - then select another 5/6 to fill the gap

[backfootpunch]

For me, if you've got a spinner you only bowl to the tail, you need another spinner to bowl at everyone else.

We don't have anyone who is better though

He didn't bowl at the top order because the seamers were consistently getting wickets so he wasn't needed

That is the advantage of having 5 bowlers, Rashid doesn't need to bowl when conditions are seamer friendly

At least give him a chance to bowl a proper amount of overs before we completely dismiss him

[backfootpunch]

Pope bats at six for Surrey I think. Will he come in at four for England?

I'm guessing we won't see Mo at Lord's.

I'd give buttler the gloves move bairstow to 4 and put pope at 5

A test team with 3 specialist batsmen

Bairstow is the second best batsmen we have

That might well be true - but I doubt you want to bat him at 2 or 3?

We need to select people that will bat ahead of Bairstow, not move him up because we cannot find anyone else...

You can't pick players that don't exist though

[ianp1970]

Nor can you pick two openers, Root, five number 6's, a spinner, Broad and Anderson and hope it will work!

[bigfluffylemon]

Personally I'd drop Buttler, give Foakes the gloves and play Bairstow as a specialist bat. But not at 3 or 4...

Given Malan had to go, who else is there? Joe Clarke has been in good form and bats 4 for Worcs. James Hildreth is a top order bat and consistent county performer for years, but I've come to the conclusion that he must have shagged Andrew Strauss' sister or something, as it doesn't seem to matter how bad England's batting is or how well Hildreth plays, he's consistently ignored.

Not sure if there's anyone else really banging on the door demanding selection from the CC, but I don't watch a lot of it, so there could be people I've missed.