First Test: England v South Africa, Lord's, July 6-10.

[dan08]

Long tail...

Cook, Jennings, Ballance, Root, Stokes, Bairstow (wk), Moeen, Roland-Jones, Wood, Broad, Anderson.

[dan08]

If Dawson plays, he bats at nine!

8

[Arthur Crabtree]

Maybe Mo will stay at five then, allowing Stokes and JB to fill their usual slots.

[westoelad]

It would be a big risk to go with the normal 4 front line seamers of Stokes, Broad, Wood and Anderson given all have had recent or long term injury concerns. Perhaps Dawson is in to offer an extra bowling option in case of one breaking down
Cook
Jennings
Ballance
Root
Bairstow
Stokes
Dawson
Ali
Broad
Wood
Anderson

[rich1uk]

i've never really been a fan of picking someone just in case someone else in the XI gets injured

if a player isn't 100% fit and able to get through a 5 day test they shouldn't be getting picked in the first place

[Slipstream]

We will have 6 bowlers and also part time Root and Jennings. Madness.

[bigfluffylemon]

We will have 6 bowlers and also part time Root and Jennings. Madness.

Agree. I'll join the chorus who can't understand Dawson's inclusion.

I also agree with Rich - if you've got Bairstow, Stokes and Moeen at 5, 6 and 7, who've all been averaging 45+ over the last year or so, the fact that your tail is long shouldn't matter. I know I'm in the minority here, but I still believe for tests in picking your best batsmen to bat and your best bowlers to bowl. If you have a genuine allrounder, fantastic, but ultimately whether a bowler averages 5 or 15 won't make much difference. You don't win too many games when your top 7 fail.

Also have to disagree that Cook's in decline - the evidence so far suggests otherwise. His conversion rate hasn't been as good as it used to be, especially the big hundreds he used to score more often, but he's still reliably opening the innings and getting plenty of 50+ scores. And his early season form - 6 hundreds and 4 fifties from 19 innings in all competitions is as good as you could ask for - he's been the star batsman of the one day cup, and well up with the top performers in the CC. OK, that doesn't guarantee test scores, but it's all you can hope for.

[ianp1970]

It would be a big risk to go with the normal 4 front line seamers of Stokes, Broad, Wood and Anderson given all have had recent or long term injury concerns. Perhaps Dawson is in to offer an extra bowling option in case of one breaking down

A bit odd to have a rookie spinner to cover for a possible paceman breakdown?

[ianp1970]

An injury to Chris Woakes causing so many issues would have seemed highly unlikely this time last year!

[rich1uk]

the squad is confirmed as per the discussions above

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/40465336

really dont see what Dawson adds to the squad

[Gingerfinch]

I guess he can bat and bowl a bit? We like those type of players.

[ianp1970]

Can't remember the last time we had a pair of spinners in the first test squad of a home summer.

[sussexpob]

Drop Hameed on form, pick a part time spinner averaging 20 with the bat all season...

#flowerpower

[rich1uk]

Can't remember the last time we had a pair of spinners in the first test squad of a home summer.

we still dont

[Durhamfootman]

Strikes me that the only reason for including Dawson in the squad is if they intend to play him, so it looks as though I'll have to re-jig my T20 FL team. Besides... 5 seamers either seems greedy, or suggests that we have no faith in the other 4, so I think TRJ is there in case one of the other seamers fails a fitness test

Good to see Ballance back in the side.... he has thoroughly deserved the opportunity, and if he doesn't make an impact whilst in top form, then at least we'll know for the future

I thought there was a concern over YJB's ability to keep when batting high up the order, so he might well bat at 7.

Baby faced assassin to bat at 3, for me

Cook, Jennings, Root, Ballance, Stokes, Moeen, Bairstow, Dawson, Wood, Broad, Anderson

(YJB and TBTBF are interchangeable)