I said his glovework was poor earlier this summer but it is clearly improving all the time. A couple of the stunners he took in CT he wouldn't have taken 6-12 months ago. He is better with gloves than Kieswetter already in my opinion. Difficulty of keeping two guys happy with only one slot available.
The way it works at the moment for England is that the nailed on Test certainties automatically get contracts and then, if you play a few limited overs games (or Tests despite not getting a contract), you get automatically upgraded to an incremental contract. The limited overs blokes certainly do end up contracted but they need to actually be selected in the eleven a few times to do it. I don't think it's a bad system. Morgan, as Cabinet said, was the first legitimate exception to that last season when the contracts were announced but he is a bit of a strange case in that he's penned in for literally every limited overs game and is even a captaincy candidate when players are rested. There's also the fact that Morgan was named in the Test squad a few days after the contract list was announced, even though he didn't end up playing.
Now or ever? Because it's not like England have an endless conveyor belt of talented players to call upon. Tough life for Stokes and Woakes at 22 and 24 and never going to make it as test cricketers. Neither are good enough at the moment but plenty worse players have made England squads, even in recent times. It's not like most countries squads are going to be made up off 16 or 17+ players all capable of being good test cricketers at the present moment. Australia the only team in recent memory capable of that accolade probably.
