wpdavid
Hall of Fame Member
Cook is a mid 30's average opener at best now and whoever partners him is worse. Root and Bairstow are great but the rest are untried or very in and out. At least the 90's sides had the excuse of facing far better attacks all over the world.
Bairstow is world class at number 7 but significantly less so in the top 5.
I would say this is a weaker top 5 than most of the 1990s sides, especially, as you say, when you consider the quality of attacks they had to face.