Now the dust has settled on our embarrassing test series in India, it’s time to look ahead to 2017. Which players actually have a test future and which ones should be dumped faster than Kim Kardashian’s next husband?*
Alastair Cook – twist and stick
England’s team is full of young, somewhat impetuous, attacking young players. Cook is therefore out of place as the team’s leader. He’s simply not a good fit for either this group of players or the Australian coach. England persevering with Cook would be like Guns & Roses hiring Aled Jones as their new singer. It’s a recipe for destruction.
As a batsman Cook is obviously still worth his place. However, I’m slightly concerned that he’s not making the hundreds he once did – just five in his last 60+ test innings. Is he simply burned out and in need of a rest, or has his hunger diminished somewhat?
I wouldn’t be surprised if Cook plays for another five years; but neither would I be surprised if he shocked everyone and hung up his boots unexpectedly.
Keaton Jennings – stick
You can’t ask for more than a test century on debut. Jennings looked assured, relatively compact, and drove the ball nicely (which made him a good foil for Cook). Although he didn’t look quite so secure in his next three innings he showed more than enough ability to warrant a place next summer.
What I really like about Jennings so far is his character. He seems like a strong individual with a good head on his shoulders. He speaks well and I don’t expect him to wilt easily. We’re going to need people like down under. We also need to include the odd South African just to wind up the Aussies.
Haseeb Hameed – stick
Young Hameed showed an orthodox technique and an unflappable temperament in his first three test matches. He didn’t blow people away like a young Tendulkar, but he did impress observers like a young Alastair Cook.
It will be fascinating to see how he plays against South Africa’s seamers in England next summer. He occasionally got a turned around outside off-stump – so his technique might not be quite as perfect as everyone thinks – but I’m pretty sure he has the work ethic and gumption to be a big success at test level.
For what it’s worth, I think Hameed is the best candidate to bat three if Keaton Jennings is retained (with Root moving back to four). Ideally I’d like to keep a left-hand right-hand opening partnership but I want Cook’s calm head and experience in the middle from the outset next winter. Solidity at the top of the order will be all-important in the cauldron of Brisbane.
Joe Root – stick
Although he didn’t win his person duel with Virat Kohli, I still think Root is his equal. He just needs to start converting some of these fifties into daddy hundreds.
It speaks volumes that some people were actually a little disappointed with Root’s performance in India. To average nearly 50 away from home is normally seen as a great achievement. However, because Root has the complete game, and possesses every shot in the book, expectations are incredibly high.
Root is England’s best test batsman of the last twenty years. Should he still bat 3? I’m not so sure. I prefer him at four myself.
Garry Balance – twist
The fact Ballance was considered unselectable for much of the winter, and has just been made Yorkshire’s captain, suggests we won’t see much of Garry in an England shirt for the foreseeable future.
Unless he changes the way he plays – something he’s been unable to do in the past – it’s hard to see Ballance cracking test cricket. I like the man but I really dislike his technique. Unless you’re Shiv Chanderpaul, doing an impression of a crab at the crease probably isn’t going to work.
Ben Duckett – stick (!)
Yes you read that correctly. England should persevere with Ben Duckett. Why? Because going from division two of the county championship into a test series in India is bloody tough. Most inexperienced young players would’ve failed. It’s not like Virat Kohli looked brilliant on his first tour of England is it?!
Sometimes talented young players need time to grow. And there’s no denying that Duckett is supremely talented. He just needs to work on a very specific technical weakness against spin. It’s easy to dismiss Duckett as a white ball player – and yes it could well be that he ends up being the next Neil Fairbrother – but it would be wrong to write him off now (before he’s actually had a chance to adapt). After all, he’s only just turned 22.
Duckett might not be in my first choice test XI at the moment but he should be kept around the squad and made to feel part of the setup. He should at the very least be in the one-day squad and could replace Eoin Morgan’s in a heartbeat if required.
Moeen Ali – twist, I mean stick, or … I dunno.
First let’s discuss Mo the test batsman. He averaged 47 in 2016, scored four centuries, and did pretty well as England’s makeshift number four in India. But can he really bat 4 against South Africa and then in Australia next winter? Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood will be licking their lips. Mo is still quite loose outside off-stump and sometimes appears all at sea against the short ball.
It’s probably unfair to drop Mo right now because he’s done everything asked of him with the bat (although he needs to cut out the silly mistakes). However Mo remains, and probably always will be, an enigma. Everyone loves to watch him play, and everyone recognises the stellar year he’s had, yet absolutely nobody is convinced that he’s a proper test batsman.
Now we come to Moeen’s bowling. I’m afraid he’s been desperately poor this year. His bowling is actually getting worse not better: he averaged 28 in 2014, 40 in 2015, and a whopping 53 in 2016. Mo should either play as a batsman who bowls occasionally or not play at all.
Jonny Bairstow – stick
We all knew that Jonny was ‘a keeper’. But is he a wicket keeper? He actually did pretty well behind the stumps towards the end of the year. He still missed the odd chance, and this proved very costly in India, but at least we’ve seen some improvement. It took Matt Prior a while to develop so perhaps we need to show Jonny the same patience. Personally I remain open minded on this one.
The big question is whether Jonny would excel even more as batsman if he passed the gloves to Jos Buttler, Ben Foakes (my preferred option) or someone else? As a pure batsman Bairstow was exceptional in 2016 scoring 2500 runs at a brilliant average of 59.
At the start of the year George Dobell wrote that Jonny’s swagger and dominance at county level reminded him of Graeme Hick. I sniggered at the time because Hick was the most intimidating domestic batsman I’ve ever seen. However, George has probably been proved right. Jonny looks a very talented and robust player indeed these days.
Jos Buttler – twist, I mean stick, or … I dunno
A bit like Moeen Ali, nobody quite knows what the future holds for the likeable Buttler. Nobody denies the talent but what, exactly, is his role in the England team? If Jos is going to play as a batsman then he needs to move up the order and give all-rounders like Stokes and Bairstow a bit of a breather.
Buttler looked better than I expected in India, showing more patience that we’ve seen before and he averaged a respectable 39. But the acid test will be whether he can move his feet against quality seam bowling in English conditions next summer.
Unfortunately for Jos I’d like to see England invest in true specialists next year as the strategy of picking a plethora of all-rounders hasn’t really worked. The presence of Ben Stokes should be enough for us to field a balanced side without the likes of Ansari, Dawson and Moeen. The question is, does Jos fall into this bits and pieces category too?
Chris Woakes – stick
I’m not going to let one bad tour of India put me off Woakes. He had a brilliant summer and I think he’ll be an important player for England over the coming years. If truth be told, his bowling style was never going to suit Indian conditions: he’s very classically English in style and injuries obviously disrupted his rhythm somewhat.
Overall Woakes will ever be Glenn McGrath but I do think he will be a very capable test player with both bat and ball. And he’ll be more than handy in places like New Zealand, South Africa and perhaps even Australia too.
Stuart Broad – stick
Duh. No brainer this one. Although Broady’s injury problems are a bit concerning, Stuart can still be a very effective test bowler if England manage his workload properly. I’d like to see him bend his back a bit more but one can’t argue with his returns.
Stuart did pretty well this winter – taking ten wickets at 29 in conditions that don’t really suit him – and if you look at his record over the last four years he’s been very consistent. Rather than slowing down in his (relatively!) old age, Broad averaged comfortably below the 30 benchmark in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. We need him fit and firing in Australia next winter.
Jake Ball – stick
Two wickets in three tests at an average of 114 doesn’t look brilliant on paper, but Ball bowled better than that in very trying conditions. He’s tall, quick enough, and should be a good bowler both at home and in Australia, where I can see him performing a Joe Angel (remember him?) type of role.
The lumbering Ball hasn’t actually played that much first class cricket (or indeed professional cricket of any kind) in his career to date so I’d like to see him get overs under his belt for Notts rather than being rested like other England bowlers. He’ll need a bespoke development plan.
Steve Finn – twist
I have nothing to add to my previous thoughts on Finny as he didn’t really see him bowl this winter. I love the person, I love his physical attributes, and I love what he used to be. But I dislike his action and I’m not particularly fond of the bowler he’s become: unreliable and uncertain of himself.
Finn is still capable of bowling lethal spells now and again but I doubt he’ll ever be consistent. Whoever remodelled his action, and robbed him of the extra yard of pace he used to have, needs to be shot and never allowed near any young bowler ever again.
Adil Rashid – stick
If I had to choose between keeping Moeen or Adil in test side next summer I’d go for Rashid every time. He wasn’t exactly the revelation many claim he was this winter – he took 30 wickets at 36 with economy rate of 3.7 – but he did show signs of promise. In fact, he did a lot better than many visiting leg-spinners do in India.
Although he’s a poor fielder, Rashid offers enough with bat and ball to warrant a place in the side in all conditions … for the time being at least. It’s a good thing he went on the tour too. Had he been omitted, he would’ve been accused of chucking and been forced to remodel his action. Ahem.
Zafar Ansari – twist
He’s a good young cricketer but nothing in his domestic record suggested he deserved a chance at international level and so it proved. His on-field demeanour suggested that he didn’t really believe in himself either. Ansari’s selection will go down as yet another quirk of England’s occasionally barmy selection policies: let’s not pick the best spinners in county cricket, let’s pick the ones who can bat a bit instead.
Liam Dawson – twist
Yes he batted well at Chennai but he shouldn’t have been in the side for his batting! I think Dawson showed a good head and a straight enough bat, but England need to move away from bits and pieces cricketers. I’m not against giving Dawson another chance in test cricket in the future, but he’ll need to prove that he’s one of the best five or six pure batters in the country first. Can he do that? I doubt it.
Jimmy Anderson – stick
Duh! Was rushed back into the team without any match practice (another thing we can thank the schedulers for) and didn’t really do himself justice in his three appearances. England’s strategy of picking a million bowlers didn’t exactly help him find his rhythm either: Jimmy only bowled 79 overs in five innings! I think the reason why is pretty obvious: Cook was desperately trying to give other bowlers a go to justify England’s weird selection strategy.
Gareth Batty – twist
Rumour has it that England inexplicably picked a 39 year old blonde off-spinner with a modest county record for the tour of India. Worked out well, didn’t it.
I’d love to know what other people think. Have England found a couple of new players we can build a team around or is it back to the drawing board? And what XI would you like to see us field next summer and in the 2017/18 Ashes?
Here’s my two pennies worth: Cook, Jennings, Hameed, Root (capt), Bairstow, Stokes, Foakes (wkt), Woakes, Rashid, Broad, Anderson. My 12th man (if fit) would be Mark Wood. He’d compete with Woakes for a place.
James Morgan
PS Apparently Kim Kardashian is some kind of star / socialite. I’ve never heard of her either but I bet she’s really, really, really talented.
Subscribe to The Full Toss. It's free. Simply enter your email:
The post Stick or Twist? A look ahead to 2017 appeared first on The Full Toss Cricket Blog.