Rumblings and Ramblings

England hindered themselves straight off the bat on this West Indies tour with their selection in the first test. Granted it can happen that you misread a pitch. England certainly did but even so their team selection was weird. If they thought it was going to be a slow turner selecting Rashid as the second spinner, rather than Leach, was misguided given Rashid has basically been used for bowling at the tail, and Root seems unwilling to trust him. An attack of Anderson, Curran, Stokes, Ali and Rashid just put too much emphasis on Anderson and Stokes, two guys you really want to be looking after.

Olly Stone was injured before the tests got underway which was a shame given he would have been useful on a lot of these wickets getting bounce and movement. He hits the pitch hard and would have found the up and down bounce more than Anderson and Curran did. He probably wouldn't have played though judging by the team selections. It still feels like a missed opportunity to have not played him in that final test in Sri Lanka, especially when you consider that Broad, who did play in SL, was then dropped for the first test in the West Indies. 

The return of Keaton Jennings for the third test was a cruel gesture by the England management. After being dropped after the first test, he and they surely thought his tour was over. He spent most of the time in the second test substitute fielding at short leg, and it possibly wasn’t until a couple of days before the third test that he would have became an option for selection. There would have been very little time to work on his game, or to attune his mind to the task ahead. Why was he considered for selection? Probably because they no longer wanted to bat Bairstow at 3, and Root was once again reluctant to move up to 3 – and so they stuck a guy who was struggling back in to open. Too often Root has moved others to make his life easier. As captain, and the best player it makes sense to a degree to make him happy, and it’s his prerogative as captain to make that decision. Still using Balance at 3 (who bats below Root at Yorkshire), Ali at 3, Stokes at 3, Pope at 4, bringing Jennings back; none of these things were likely to be successes. Whilst most would appreciate the chance of playing for England and be accepting of the opportunity, many of these haven’t been given the best chance of success. 

Bairstow looked particularly cheery this game having got his way back batting at his favoured 7. 3 tests of decent success and he’s dropped back down. Really you must ask what was the point? It’s tough putting the team together with the lack of top order options but the team selection over this series was especially troubling.