Impressed with akash deep though. Not the quickest on the speed gun but his whippy wrist action makes him rather skiddy.
Hope India go in with the left armer option the next test. Prasidh likely to get dropped even if he bowled well this match. Lot depends on the surface. Lords generally has a fair bit to offer to bowlers (both spinners and pacers)
I’d drop one of washy / jadeja personally. Most likely going to be washy that the team management decides but he’s a better bowler at this point though than jadeja.
Play both in Perth for the opening test. you’ve already got 2 tests out of the pair and then you can pick and rotate them through the rest of the series and only need to play them both once more to get 7 tests out of them. So something like:
There are a number of county batsmen who’ve put up great numbers but continue to get overlooked for the hapless Crawley and inconsistent Pope. Sibley has been in great form since he last played for England and has also found ways to expand his game so he’s not just a more classical blocker. McKinney is a more attacking player who was in contention for the Zimbabwe test but his form has tailed off a little bit. Tom Haines is scoring loads of runs on Divison 1. You have the likes of Cox and Banton who’ve been around the England set up before. Rehan Ahmed has been scoring runs up the order as well and is a much better bowler than Bethell if they wanted more of an all rounder.
I wouldn’t be against them trying Bethell as the opener if they are determined to stick by Pope, he basically did that in NZ recently anyway because Crawley was so unfathomably shit in that series.
Most if not all teams face that problem. India with Kohli during the last 3-4 years of his test career as a peak example. Everyone knew he wasn’t cut out for tests anymore but no one could make the call of dropping him.
The point is that the ashes is literally the final call for a lot of careers. I remember Trott / Swann calling it quits mid series.
Give him more series against Zimbabwe , Pakistan and windies to get his average to the mid 40s.
Averages are just an indication of how good the batsman is but all it takes is a purple patch and playing against minnows for that average to change to a much better one.
History is full of examples such as those.
Unless people average 50 and above for a sustained period that is.
