Played at 4 this season domestically, has he opened before? If not, we’re really running the risk of the same issues as we’ve had with Lawrence and Pope (there are some promising top order players around in the CC right now, but they seem a way off, and I think batting, especially at the top of the order, is a bit different to bowling whereby technique is key regardless of your attributes)
He's the exact same height as Anderson....
Omg he looked taller or maybe i should test my eyes
I think it's just that they want to continue with Crawley/Duckett once the former is fit, and aren't really interested in finding a new opener. So they just played a guy who they've had around the squad for a bit who was up for it to temp. Which is fair enough really, because while I don't think Crawley is the greatest or anything this would be a pretty stupid time to drop him.
Good post, except the fact that Crawley is the greatest
Only Atkinson of the seamers has played more than 1 Test this summer, Hull of all people definitely shouldn’t be tired
Woakes has played them all?
He isn't a seamer he is a machine.
Woakes is a batter who bowls now
V good point, and perhaps he should be rested after the oval as they have a load of other seamers in the squad for the odis
I think Cox opened a lot when he was at Kent, but all his success this season is AYS at 4. We seem to have loads of batters who can bat at 4-6 where there is no vacancy, but not many good no3s better than Pope, who i expect is going to stay at least for the pakistan tour. Hope he gets the runs for his own sake and englands.
That's every team, all the time.
We've recently lost 2 stalwarts of the team, Woakes and Wood are also both mid 30's. I think it's right that they look at as many potential replacements as possible, especially with an Ashes Tour next year.
Could well be a bowl first day, especially as Day 2 looks better for batting.