Totally agree with this. I don't think we could have asked much from any of our rookies over the summer, we've had big contributions from at least one of them every test.
Cook, Bell, Prior have let us down in the batting and lets be honest Broad and Jimmy have not delivered either with the ball when we've needed it.
If we go onto to lose this test then the England management need to make a big statement to these players. Prior is done, I love the man and really hoped he would bounce back this summer but he's finished. As for Cook, man it's a dilemma but I think he needs some time away from the game. People keep saying send him back to Essex to get some runs but I don't subscribe to that really, he's done that and scored big and it has done nothing for him as a test cricketer. There is too much of a gulf between Div 2 attacks and test bowling lineups, even supposedly poor ones like Sri Lanka and India.
I think he needs to go back to the farm for a few weeks and clear his head. Maybe finish the season with Essex then join England in the winter as a batsmen only.
NFI who should be captain though.
Yup. Given what we've seen from the newcomers or relative newcomers with the bat, we should be feeling a lot better about life, but you're dead right that the established guys have let the side down again.
I'd like to see Cook given time in the side without the captaincy. A guy with a couple of dozen test hundreds should have something to offer with the bat, and maybe just concentrating on that would see a return to form.
As for the captaincy, I don't see Root being our Graeme Smith, and I wouldn't want him messed around with the captaincy at this stage.
Bell just annoys me. How can he lead the side when he repeatedly gives it away with half-****ed dismissals? Unless he bucks his ideas up with the bat, I wouldn't want him to be an automatic pick because he's the one tossing the coin.
I can only repeat what a few of us have said previously about bringing in Foster or Read as a short-term appointment as keeper and captain, probably until the end of next summer's Ashes. Sorts out the keeping, would be OK at 8 behind Stokes. And both captain their county sides.
Much as I love the idea of Butler as the new Gilchrist, I couldn't cope with having an even worse keeper than Prior.