Some interesting points made by one the selectors with regards to the balance of the side & the keeper position. I'm a fan of James Foster, so nice to see that he is in their thoughts.
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If we accept that we have no good test spinner & utilize Ali/Root as top 6 batsmen to bowl spin & Stokes as the 4th seamer batting @ # 7 - then Foster certainly could fit into the side better @ # 8 - than more batting dominant keeper bats like Prior/Kieswetter/Buttler/Davies
it is a very interesting debate, im also glad samit is in the mix although that may just be his notts connection
for me id love to see finn back but i think he will benefit from the time away, jordan will be picked and like beefy says if he could work on his run up. he could be up there with the greats of english cricket as he hits a long ball as well.
so the decision is really on the wk position and they then choose accordingly, if proior is fit i think he plays batting 6, with stokes/woakes at 7, jordan 8 broady and anderson plus 1 probably a spinner, but this doesnt look very likely, with the weather and time running out
bairstow is like a prioir lite and they clearly rated him as a batsmen highly enough, although that nest has flown, unofrunatley i dont see him fitting into this team as a pure wk or batting wk neither is good enough
i think in the end this summer the wk will be batting at 8 with jordan 9 and broady then jimmy, which is an awful lot of batting , however if that is the case then im not sure its a straight fight between foster and read (although i beleive foster has to be given a go) i just think it will be buttler as they may see 8 as a nice place to bring him in at , and especially with spin being less important his keeping which generally good to the quicks whilst questionable up to the stumps, his keeping frailities may be less noticeable, and if he continues his imporovement he can certainly be the long term heir to prior, as he can bat long as well as his fleeting fc form this year can testif he has got hard runs for lanky
the next decision is then root bell condurum, they bith seem to want to bat 4, and for roots sake they need to give him a position and let him stick this is however complicated by the wk situation as if long term the wk will be batting 8, as woakes/stokes seeming to be vying for the 7 slot and long term this gives excellent balanace to our team, ( at least until a spinner of note comes up-imo this maybe a while nobody is tearing up the cc ala ajmal and patel), then he could be a viable 6 long term but if that is the case they may look at the like s of morgan as a attacking player, and then complicated by the ali/patel choice, i am presuming bell bats 4(he does that for the bears even when trott is absent), ali bats 3 for worcs but patel is a 6 at best .
It is also looking like carberry isnt going to get another crack with hales being called up and waiting in the wings for the odis when you would thought carbs was the automatic replacemenet, so everyone seems to be saying robson, and i defer to the judgement, i have not seen enough of him to assess, but his scores suggest he can cut it.
And ballance looks a shoe in for 5.
so my team based on what we think is remoletly fasible(therefore ruling out bopara as a proper allrond prospect in red ball) would be
1.cook
2.robson
3.ali
4.bell
5.ballance
6.root
7.woakes/stokes
8.foster
9.jordan
10.broad
11.jimmy
The woakes stokes debate should only be of benefit to england long term as bith have the ability to be proper all rounders although no there yet
for me the next cabs off the rank would be
taylor-been treated very badly clearly has the ability to score runs at this level, should have gone in for goood years ago imo and would have been a regular
morgan-attacking batsmen also one of the few viable captain alternatives for cook
buttler- as per above
finn-just needs more time
plunkett-seems to be returning to the promise he once had
then the group of promosing ypung bowlers like meaker, overton(s)
spin cupboard seems bare i think borthwick has the x factor but he needs to ove counties to bowl regularly, playing for durham will hurt his international prospects unless he does a steve smith and becomes a proper batsmen (its a possibilty- but i dont think hed make the international team as a batter alone)
