Bairstow has phenomenal ODI stats now. Shame he couldn't make it to 50 here. 42 off 24 balls is good going. His average is almost identical to Root's, but with a far superior strike rate. I am a big fan of getting off to a flier in ODIs. Bairstow seems to be able to do that and maintain a huge average.
That's 20 games now as opener. 1021 runs @ 51.05 average and 112 strike rate. Very good from Bairstow.
Roy going along well.
Yeah, he's been exceptional for England, and those are real runs in that average where its not padded with not outs. But he needs to maintain it for England to and past this time next year.
Root is going fine too, the issue for me in the A team is Morgan.
1 Bairstow
2 Roy (hit and miss but does his role)
3 Root anchor
4 Morgan -???
5 Stokes (hit and miss but does his role)
6 Buttler
7 Ali
8 Woakes
9 Willey
10 Rashid
11 Plunkett
Also - you guys do not have suitable replacements for Stokes and Woakes when they miss games, and probably not Ali either.
Wood is terrible as a replacement for Plunkett or Woakes or Willey.
Stokes missing out and being replaced by Hales weakens the bowling depth.
Woakes is just irreplaceable given his batting form in recent past.
I think the top England XI is very good despite Morgan, but the likes of Billings (for Root, Bairstow or Morgan) and Hales (for Stokes) are questionable to depth as replacements. Same goes for Mark Wood. And often a World Cup campaign will test depth. The one place England clearly have depth is wicket keeper, with Billings, Bairstow and Buttler all able to keep at a highish level.
