Who to replace Jonny No-runs at #6?

It's getting a bit silly now.

Taylor?
Ballance?
Bopara?
Stokes?

I assumed Ickle James Taylor was the heir apparent.

Long term I'd say Ballance.

Root?

Although I wouldn't mind seeing Prior at six and Stokes at seven.

taipan wrote:Root?

Root to 6, Compton to open

But yeah JT looks like the first one to replace anyone in the side.

I suspect Taylor is as clunky and technically inadequate as Bairstow.

Bopara would be back to the future though. Taylor deserves another go. Hughes has had three incarnations.

Red wrote:Bopara would be back to the future though. Taylor deserves another go. Hughes has had three incarnations.

What's Hughes got to do with it?  

I suppose it is not a good time to point out that Bairstow is averaging more than Cook, Trott and Prior in the series thus far.

baggygreen wrote:

taipan wrote:Root?

Root to 6, Compton to open

But yeah JT looks like the first one to replace anyone in the side.

sensible ...also means that the pomgolians will have restored a sensible quota of saffie imports

Root had one success after a yet another dire Haddit error when he was on 6...not an opener's bootlace

I think the selectors like Bairstow - I'll be surprised if he's dropped.

I like Gary Ballance. Looks a good batsman in the making. Stokes needs to catch up with his batting after a couple of slim seasons. He's got the goods though.

Taylor I don't rate. Bopara is Bopara.

Sam Robson has just become officially "English". An opener - and leading run scorer in division one this season - he could maybe do a Hussey and come in lower down.

taipan wrote:I suppose it is not a good time to point out that Bairstow is averaging more than Cook, Trott and Prior in the series thus far.

It's a good time to point out that Cook, Trott and Prior have about 40 Test hundreds between them, and Bairstow has none.

Taylor deserves a decent shot at establishing himself but you sense they favour a more naturally aggressive player at 6.

I'd be tempted to replace Bairstow with a bowler, given that we have Prior and a very competent tail. He's only making a number 7's contribution at best at the moment so we wouldn't lose a lot of batting depth in adding an extra bowling option.

Ben Stokes's bowling has come on this season. He's added a yard of pace and is now touching 90mph on occasions. He's taking plenty of wickets as well. On the flip side, his batting has gone backwards a bit, in the longer form at least.

Still, if he can average 30+ with the bat he would be as effective as Bairstow with the addition of a decent bowling option.

I like Bairstow. His attitude, his dedication, enthusiasm and his fielding.

But not yet his batting at the top level. I've said before he is extremely jittery (perhaps not surprising in view of his youth, and the way England kept him hanging on but prevented him from playing over a long while, for too long).

But the best/kindest thing to do in the short term might be to give him back to Yorks - with an assurance he is still earmarked - and introduce say Taylor.

Not that they are at all likely to do this - as Baz says above. Esp if England get out of the current tight spot tomorrow.

And who knows - maybe they're right. Maybe he will click, and stop giving us all nervous attacks for the first half hour of his Test innings.

I'd have to say in any case I trust the judgment and belief of such as Flower more than that of many a comfy armchair expert on this forum!

PeterCS wrote:I like Bairstow. His attitude, his dedication, enthusiasm and his fielding.

But not yet his batting at the top level. I've said before he is extremely jittery (perhaps not surprising in view of his youth, and the way England kept him hanging on but prevented him from playing over a long while, for too long).

But the best/kindest thing to do in the short term might be to give him back to Yorks - with an assurance he is still earmarked - and introduce say Taylor.

Not that they are at all likely to do this - as Baz says above. Esp if England get out of the current tight spot tomorrow.

And who knows - maybe they're right. Maybe he will click, and stop giving us all nervous attacks for the first half hour of his Test innings.

I'd have to say in any case I trust the judgment and belief of such as Flower more than that of many a comfy armchair expert on this forum!

Youth? He's almost twenty bloody four and has played 72 FC games.

He's a walking bag of technical ineptitude. Results haven't come and any success he's had has question marks hovering over them. There's a lot to admire about his game but they should've stuck him back in the oven for a couple of years

taipan wrote:

PeterCS wrote:I like Bairstow. His attitude, his dedication, enthusiasm and his fielding.

But not yet his batting at the top level. I've said before he is extremely jittery (perhaps not surprising in view of his youth, and the way England kept him hanging on but prevented him from playing over a long while, for too long).

But the best/kindest thing to do in the short term might be to give him back to Yorks - with an assurance he is still earmarked - and introduce say Taylor.

Not that they are at all likely to do this - as Baz says above. Esp if England get out of the current tight spot tomorrow.

And who knows - maybe they're right. Maybe he will click, and stop giving us all nervous attacks for the first half hour of his Test innings.

I'd have to say in any case I trust the judgment and belief of such as Flower more than that of many a comfy armchair expert on this forum!

Youth? He's almost twenty bloody four and has played 72 FC games.

23/24 is pretty young for an English batsman, we don't give many debuts younger than that and certainly very few mature as top Test players until a fair bit later.

beamer wrote:

taipan wrote:

PeterCS wrote:I like Bairstow. His attitude, his dedication, enthusiasm and his fielding.

But not yet his batting at the top level. I've said before he is extremely jittery (perhaps not surprising in view of his youth, and the way England kept him hanging on but prevented him from playing over a long while, for too long).

But the best/kindest thing to do in the short term might be to give him back to Yorks - with an assurance he is still earmarked - and introduce say Taylor.

Not that they are at all likely to do this - as Baz says above. Esp if England get out of the current tight spot tomorrow.

And who knows - maybe they're right. Maybe he will click, and stop giving us all nervous attacks for the first half hour of his Test innings.

I'd have to say in any case I trust the judgment and belief of such as Flower more than that of many a comfy armchair expert on this forum!

Youth? He's almost twenty bloody four and has played 72 FC games.

23/24 is pretty young for an English batsman, we don't give many debuts younger than that and certainly very few mature as top Test players until a fair bit later.

Well that's probably because of the 5 year qualification process.

Jokes aside, England should be blooding players at a younger age.

Well, I'm never keen on handing debuts to 30-year-olds, but we can't be throwing raw kids in with bugger all county experience.

The old journeyman pro still owns county cricket in the most part, and we're not going to pick second XI players for Test cricket on potential. When someone's tearing up the county scene at 19 then obviously get him in, but nobody's done that for years. Sometimes taking a punt on a young talent has paid off (Cook for example) but others have sunk without trace due to being thrown in too soon.

beamer wrote:Well, I'm never keen on handing debuts to 30-year-olds, but we can't be throwing raw kids in with bugger all county experience.

The old journeyman pro still owns county cricket in the most part, and we're not going to pick second XI players for Test cricket on potential. When someone's tearing up the county scene at 19 then obviously get him in, but nobody's done that for years. Sometimes taking a punt on a young talent has paid off (Cook for example) but others have sunk without trace due to being thrown in too soon.

Just looked at a couple of England legends. Compton was 19, May and Cowdrey both 21.

Bairstow is hardly inexperienced. He has 72 FC games.