capt_Luffy
Cricketer Of The Year
Barrington wasn't "too much defensive". His SR was perfectly fine. Imo, Cook is fine if you don't want to overload the openers too defensively and want a lefty, but Gower are KP aren't making it ahead of Compton, May and Barrington.why do you want to overload the team with old players. Cook is a fine opener and avoided taking players who were too much defensive like Boycott and Barrington.
And to answer your question, the English team has been shut for the majority of 90s, improved partially in the 2000s and was great for a brief window in the late 00s early 10s and has been alright for awhile now, but overall, they have deteriorated from the 60s. It's like how in an ATG WI team, you can't put any player to debut post 2000s.