The second part of the England men’s test summer gets underway on Wednesday at Old Trafford, against Sri Lanka. The England XI for that game has just been announced and this post looks at the selections.
THE XI
Here, courtesy of cricinfo is the XI:
COMMENTS ON THE XI
There are no absolute bolts from the blue here, which is a good thing. With Crawley and Stokes injured there had to be at least two changes. Having opted for Lawrence, although he has never done the job in red ball cricket before playing him as an opener was the least disruptive thing that England could have done in the circumstances. Some might notice that there is less batting depth than against the West indies, but I personally applaud the selections of Smith at six (he bats at number four for Surrey, so this no real gamble) and Woakes at seven, which gives the side five front line bowlers. With Potts, Woakes and Bashir there the two gun speedsters, Wood and Atkinson, can be used in short spells as would be preferable. Potts has a first class century to his name, and Atkinson can also handle a bat. Additionally, the Sri Lankan bowling attack is not exactly fearsome, and to win test matches one generally has to take 20 wickets, so again with Stokes’ absence forcing a decision between being light on bowling or somewhat lacking in batting depth it was better to go for the former. Although he would not have been my first choice pick for the role at the start of the season I am pleased to see Shoaib Bashir being given an extended run as first choice spinner – as someone who first started following England in the second half of the 1980s and witnessed the whole of the 1990s in their (in)glory I have developed a major dislike of ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ selections.
I think the selectors have done the best job possible in difficult circumstances, and I expect this side to fare well against Sri Lanka.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
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