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England batsmen watch:

In an early season that has not been exactly great for batsmen, Bairstow has made some much needed runs. Foakes is nipping at his heels with some solid early season form, but as the man in possession, YJB is probably safe for now. Still, there could be worse options than playing both of them, with one as a specialist bat, given the issues with batsmen England have had.

Vince gets a 200, so despite the evidence that he just doesn't have it at the top level, the selectors might return to him

Stoneman's been missing in action, so his place has to be in jeopardy, if an alternative can be found. Keaton Jennings has some early season form with two hundreds, so could perhaps be in for a recall? Meanwhile, Haseeb Hameed has been dropped for Lancashire, so no recall for him yet. Cook's had a couple of fifties, although his domestic and international form are not always correlated, it's never a bad sign. Neither he nor Root are in great nick at the moment.

Malan has had a couple of decent scores, including a hundred, in his three games for Middlesex, so his place is probably secure for now.

No obvious candidates crying out for selection as alternatives will probably keep the incumbents safe for now. Most of the top scorers in the CC so far this season are overseas players, but Surrey's young wicketkeeper batsmen Ollie Pope is in ridiculous form. It's far too early to say whether this is a flash-in-the-pan, but has anyone seen him in action? He currently has a first class average of 58 (after only 10 games) and an average this season of 85, so maybe one to watch?

Cricinfo has Buttler coming back to Keep, and Dominic Bess replacing Leach as the spinner....

Vince out, Stoneman stays, Wood in, Woakes out....

We shall see if they are right. If Buttler gets in as Keeper over Foakes, then we can conclude Ed Smith is about as good a selector as he was a commentator and journalist.

Cricinfo gets it right, apart from Woakes and Wood come in....

Answer to Englands batting troubles is to pick the same team, save for a player who hasnt played in FC in yonks..... great plan

Alastair Cook, Mark Stoneman, Dawid Malan, Joe Root (capt), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Dominic Bess.

sussexpob wrote:Cricinfo gets it right, apart from Woakes and Wood come in....

Answer to Englands batting troubles is to pick the same team, save for a player who hasnt played in FC in yonks..... great plan

Alastair Cook, Mark Stoneman, Dawid Malan, Joe Root (capt), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Dominic Bess.

And Buttler is in as a batsman at 6 or 7 with Bairstow moving to 5 but also keeping!

That has Bairstow as the keeper, and presumably Buttler as a batter at seven. Malan at three? Losing Vince is a sensible move. Don't think Wood should be there, or Woakes (sadly). I think I would have left Stoneman out. Buttler is a very strange selection. He's given up fc cricket.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:That has Bairstow as the keeper, and presumably Buttler as a batter at seven. Malan at three? Losing Vince is a sensible move. Don't think Wood should be there, or Woakes (sadly). I think I would have left Stoneman out. Buttler is a very strange selection. He's given up fc cricket.

Yep. It's going to be Bairstow moving up the order and batting 5 or 6 ( I'd forgotten he was at 7 in the last test so mistakenly assumed he'd be at 5 this time.)

Didn't Vince score a half century is his last test and just hit 200 for Hampshire?

It seems like once again we have no thought process or any really criteria being used. If he was fit for selection last test, why is he not now? Why is others?

OK, I agree he doesn't look a test player but it doesn't make the splattergun selection criteria right.

Should have sensed buttlers inclusion. Newman wrote one of those ecb supporting texts in the last 24 hours championing buttller for Vince, he must have been leaked and instructed to support it

So, we’re picking our Test team based on T20 form now, makes perfect sense.

According to TMS Ed Smith says Root will bat 3, Malan 4 and Bairstow will keep and bat 5. Journalists all seem to think Buttler will bat 7 but I don't know if Smith has confirmed that.

captaincolly wrote:According to TMS Ed Smith says Root will bat 3, Malan 4 and Bairstow will keep and bat 5. Journalists all seem to think Buttler will bat 7 but I don't know if Smith has confirmed that.

Think he has now. So it'll be Stokes staying at 6 with Buttler 7.

So to resurrect ours batting woes we've decided upon: an unproven, non-specialist, attacking batsman at 7 to replace an unproven, specialist, attacking batsman at 3/4, with the hither-to, lynch-pin, number 7 keeper-batsman being shifted up 2 slots to 5

The bowling attack remains the same: with 4/5 right-armers and 0/1 unproven, specialist spinners

They might well win home matches but have little chance in away series

Bring back the days of Dexter and Bedser offering up such gems as 'who could forget Malcolm Devon' and 'that wasn't the Butcher I selected!'

hmm.... odd. Buttler doesn't play red ball these days and Woakes will be heading into the first test with no red ball cricket this season.

I'm surprised they haven't picked Moeen..... he hasn't played any red ball cricket yet either

even Stonemercenary hasn't played any red ball cricket this season, although that's just because he hasn't found a way to actually hit a red ball yet

I'm pleased they've gone with a young spinner with potential. The batter who bowled policy with Mo and Dawson, and the old timer pick like Batty were a bit depressing.

So it's two of Wood, Woakes and Bess, I expect.

I'd leave Wood out of that lot.

would they just throw Bess straight in? I'm not aware that he's been involved in any of the usual ECB approved routes into the team, which would make a mockery of the various England development programmes

Perhaps they are going to prepare a green top anyway.... or are they too afraid of what the Pakistan seamers might do to a batting line up consisting entirely of players shorn of form, confidence or red ball cricket to do that?