Who will cross the Whitewash for England on 19th May?

First topic message reminder :

England's summer opens with the first test against Sri Lanka at Headingley on 19th May

Westley must be behind the likes of Robson though, who's scored loads of runs in Div one and is more "on the radar" as it were. I think England will stick with Hales, who's scored a few runs. The loss of Taylor means they'll want to keep changes to the minimum. I wonder if Robson could slot in at 3? Compton's form has been pretty awful...

Vince is someone who's been on the radar for a bit now, and could well get his chance.

guildfordbat wrote:

alfie wrote:You could make a good argument for Robson on form ; but I'd be a little surprised if they dumped Hales so quickly , after just the four Tests in SA.  Have to say I am by no means convinced he has the game to survive at Test level - but he is surely worth the Sri Lankan series to either suggest improvement or be marked "limited overs only".
....

Hi Alfie - yeah, I would go along with that. At least for the first two SL Tests. Robson (another ton yesterday) must though have already made himself a contender for this summer.

Btw, don't know if you've been following all this thread and the Surrey v Durham one on the domestic section but suspect you would have very much appreciated Collingwood's performance the other week. Realise his England days are gone but he got a flippant mention here earlier and I thought it only fair to flag above that he's still excelling in his current playing role.

When Matthew Hoggard retired I feared that we'd seen one of the last examples of a one time test stalwart returning to the county game and 'giving back' to where he started. Tresco was of course around but due to the unfortunate circumstances in which his England career ended early it felt like a more unique situation.

I'm delighted to see Colly playing such a key role for Durham still. Having players with significant Test experience in the CC is vital to the development of younger players for the top level IMO.

I fear that with t20 contracts available around the world to see out a career it will become an increasingly less seen occurrence as seasons go by. With the likes of Bell and Trott also performing well this season along with Rogers coming back to CC cricket following test retirement I am feeling a bit more positive about it though.

I was thinking of Robson as having to displace Hales to get in the team, whilst Westley is not an opener so could come in at 3 or 5

Saying that Robson at 3 is an interesting idea that I haven't seen mentioned as yet

Its certainly going to be one of the more interesting squad announcements for a while anyway

Just looked at Compton's form...sheesh. Not sure I'd want him in out of form, we've seen how that ends before...

Should be noted Robson's unbeaten century today came against an attack containing Broad, Gurney and Ball - all current, former and future internationals

That's impressive and will count for something

It's good there are a few options anyway. I seem to recall last summer the form of most of those marked for possible Test inclusion was so bad no one would have been surprised to see Mark Ramprakash given a game

Rumoured that Compton will remain at 3 and Vince will bat 5 replacing Taylor.

Wondering if Jake Ball made the squad as Fletcher got recalled from Derbyshire early.

Jake Ball instead of who though? Plunkett? Bit harsh in my opinion

Ball has shot up the ladder overtaking Woakes and Plunkett. When fit I see the pecking order

1 Anderson
2 Broad
3 Finn
4 Wood
5 Ball
6 Woakes
7 Plunkett
8 Footitt
9 Jordan
10 Curran

Ball and Vince is squad. Get in there Vincey!

Squad:
AN Cook (captain), MM Ali, JM Anderson, JM Bairstow, JT Ball, SCJ Broad, NRD Compton, ST Finn, AD Hales, JE Root, BA Stokes, JM Vince.