Quote Originally Posted by Luis Anaconda View Post
Sorry - didn't see your reply about the Times interview. Having a look. Don't disbelieve you - just think it is strange that he would makes such a request, particularly after getting the vice-captaincy back
I well remember it cos a couple of people I'd been chatting with on both Times and Graun had (before that interview came out) agreed that we all thought Stokes should either bat at 3/4 or even open, as he was the only player who could play a forward defensive.

And the interview put paid to our hopes. This was before Rory Burns had scored his ton, so the theory was that if the top 3 were gonna be out for single figures each, we might as well try Stokes and bring in Curran or Archer on the grounds that if Ali and YJB actually fired, Woakes and Curran meant we weren't short of people batting 6-8/9 who could counter attack.

But that's the issue. We have loads of people who can bat like that. But we don't have any Che Pujaras. Bats who want to bat long and slowly as opposed to slog their way to T20 contracts.