I've been following Borthwick recently. He did quite well for the lions over in SL (both with bat and ball) so would he fit your spinning all-rounder criteria?
Plus he's a leggie which will just confuse the opposition - since when do england ever field a leggie!
ali did well in the first game as well before going to the windies, plus he has a doosra, and atm is probably a better bat,
borthwick needs to leave durham, and go to a county where he can bowl as i dont think he will do a steve smith an become a batter who u can chuck the ball too
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I like your thinking, we do need an allrounder because we like to play 4 seamers and with the retirement of Swann, for us to play 4 seamers and only have broad who can through the bat means that our tail starts at 8 which is low. Having that allrounder means we have a bit of batting depth for when our top order have a normal day at the office and forget which end of the bat to hold.
are u proposing no spinner just 4 bowlers?
jordan is handy with the bat, but if wanting 4 quicks then sa ali at 6 id pick stokes at 8, 6 was too high, and he has more potetntial than woakes to become a 3rrd seamer
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For England I think a spinning allrounder is currently more valuable purely because there isnt a good enough front line spinner in the country. Hence I would be inclined to pick Moeen Ali at 5 (or 6 if Stokes isnt fit) allowing you to play 4 genuine seamers - Broad, Anderson Onions and AN Other, probably a fast shit-your-pants merchant like Mills or Overton. Having a spinning allrounder allows you the luxury of this quick (if raw) bowler.
generally agree, although there isnt many of them around, and ali is a good enough bat look at his stats. a seaming allrounder for english conditions would be huge as long in imo they can bat top 6, whihc rules out stokes he is a 7 at best atm
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I really like Woakes in the longer form. His stats at Warwickshire have been incredible. For me, there are only two issues that he has to prove/solve.
The first is, can his batting in Domestic games be transferred to Test level? I mean, he's not likely to average 40 in Tests, but with his bowling he doesn't need too. If he can average 35+ in Tests, then I think that he's more than worth a go.
Secondly, his bowling probably makes him a 4th Seamer in the current England team. If he does that role, he needs to be able to keep it tight. I think he can take wickets, the bigger issue is, can he put together spells without the loose balls.
For me, both of those are things that he might be able to do right now, he just needs a chance to show it. Stokes probably deserves to get first crack at that all rounder spot, but if he's still injured come the first Test of the summer, then I'd stick Woakes in for sure. He's the type of young talented cricketer in the domestic arena that deserves a chance to show what he can do at the highest level.
thing is i genuinely believe he would average high 30s with the bat if put in now, and he will only improve with exposure, his batting is coming on at an astonishing rate.
Also has the mental capacity to play as well captaining lions being an all rounder must be tough, and he is the favourite to captain the bears early season with troughton out. Although CHOPRA will probably end up getting it.
he does pick up wickets, and i agree atm a 4th seamer or a 3rd when two spinners in the sub continent imo, much better suited for that than stokes. his bowling is alsi a lot tighter in red ball tahn stokes who will give a bad bowl, CW probes a length and he has cut out the loose ball in fc, sstill throws it in one day where he tries to hard
and why does stokes neccesrily get first go, woakes did nothing wrong at the oval and then didnt even make the tour to oz. also woakes generally does well early season as well