I doubt Rashid is a serious contender anymore. Moeen was clearly being lined up as England's spin option, but sadly he forgot how to bat and bowl.
At the moment, I'd say Archer, Wood and Broad are first pick and the others are scrabbling for the other slot. That may change in a year, though, of course.
They're going to take Woakes, though. They just will. It's what England selectors do. They'll use phrases like 'He can do a job for us' and 'Look at the summer he's just had' and he'll end up bowling gun-barrel straight all series and taking about seven wickets at 40-odd. :-(
Agreed. I'm not convinced by the 5-over thing with Archer, though. He takes three or four to hit his rhythm and coming off after five clearly seems to frustrate him. There's a balance to be found between overbowling him as Root did in NZ and underbowling him as he did in this test.
I'd say Broad and Stokes as stock bowlers plus whatever excuse for a 'spinner' we take should be sufficient to accommodate the quicks, though.
Archer needs to bowl with pace. He did in the first innings of this game, at times. But on many other occasions he was the 'slowest' of England's seamers. He seems to bring everything in to the right hander (seam rather than swing) so either needs to ensure his pace is strong or find a way to nibble it away off the seam as well.
I'm a big fan of Broad's 'celebrappeal' where he wraps the batsman on the pads and runs of celebrating to the slips rather than bother to check with the umpire for his decision.
I agree that someone needs to tell him that we don't have any shortage of blokes who can bowl at 84-85mph (indeed, you couldn't throw a dart in most county dressing rooms without hitting one) and that isn't why he's in the side.
I like Broad's appeal, too. Although it does look bad when it gets turned down.
Due to his superhuman fitness, Stokes seems quire happy to bowl long spells - even when bowling short stuff.
Agree about a Giles-type figure. That's the advantage a left-armer has, of course. If all else fails they can just bowl at the rough outside leg and prevent scoring.
You've reminded me about Curran, which has distressed me. They're going to take him and Woakes to Australia, aren't they? :cry: