Another double ton by the young Warwickshire opener. 1215 runs in cc league 1 at an average of 67.5 . Most be a shoe in for the England tours of New Zealand and South Africa.
He has to be selected, there is no credible alternative. He’s hammering the door down for a place in a team which is struggling for batsmen. Him to open with Burns, Olly Pope into the middle order. One of Buttler or Bairstow to drop out, Denly given another go, as in a woeful batting side he was nowhere near the worst. I’d have the keeper at seven, not six, I thought Sam Curran was one too high at seven, though I’d try and get him in the team. With Anderson, Broad, Archer, Woakes plus Overton, Wood and Stone competing with Curran for likely three seam places if Stokes is fit to bowl, we seem to have more strength in the other area of the game. It would be nice to see Moeen back and on form to compete with Leach too.
Denly is a grinder not a stroke player and can't even face a bouncer. He tried his ballax off but as drop him into the middle order you might aswell keep Buttler.
averages 57 in FC cricket. England picked him at 4 despite never having batted higher than 6 before. plus and this is a very big factor that should not be understated, the rule of law on the BBS for both football and cricket is you are a better player if you arent in the team. in this case however he probably deserves a go again
What makes Foakes a better choice than Bairstow? Foakes batting average in the county game this season for Surrey is 27. Hardly a stand out stat.
Bairstow has been poor in the test side for 2 years now. He should be left to concentrate on being an excellent ODI opener.
It's take your pick, really. I think Bairstow has been poor and his reviewing is frustrating. Foakes is more of a specialist keeper but he's not a terrible batsman. Give Foakes a few games to keep Bairstow on his toes/see if he steps up and performs. Same thinking behind bringing Pope in. Drop Buttler as he hasn't done what he's been meant to be doing, and see how Pope, who's young and promising, performs.
It all started going wrong for Bairstow when he was bairning about not having the gloves, then batting too high, then too low etc. I’d take the gloves off him, drop him for NZ, tell him to go and work on his batting and come back as a specialist batsman for the SA series.
Denly hasn't been offered a red ball contract just a white ball contract. He has been offered an incremental contract for his efforts during the ashes series. Does this mean he could still be selected for the winter test squads? Or is it the end for him with the selectors possibly looking at someone else to partner Burns at the top of the order?