I won’t pretend to hide my delight that Giles and Silverwood have departed last week.
No question they are all good men, and they have faced some challenges during the pandemic, but they also have spectacularly failed English test cricket.
I note that many are now softening to the difficulties they faced, and some have even said Giles’ only mistake was sacking Ed Smith. This simply is not true, Giles made a number of mistakes and has been found wanting in that role.
I am equally delighted that Sir Andrew Strauss is back in the Director of Cricket role, I’d like to see the word interim removed, but one step at a time. I trust his judgement and see him now doing for test cricket what he did for white ball cricket in his last stint.
I hope that Alec Stewart and Gary Kirsten can be involved sooner rather that later, those two in harness with Strauss would provide the clear leadership and the mentality required.
The test team needs identity and clear direction, the most pressing issue to address is the batting. Several outlets started their “next cab off the rank” articles to fill space between the end of the Ashes and last week’s announcements. Depending upon which publication you read you will come across a combination of the following as the solution to fill the top 7 (alongside Root, Stokes and Bairstow).
Test match speculation over Harry Brook looks to be wildly optimistic at this stage of his career, Jamie Smith, Tom Haines and Rob Yates look to be head of him in first class substance.
The stand out players for me are Joe Clarke and Ollie Pope. Clarke had well publicised off field issues, he has served his punishment and I think we can’t not afford to pick a player with excellent technique and a knack of scoring 100’s.
Pope is exceptional, but has undoubtably regressed over the last 18 months. Both he and Crawley have demonstrated they can play at test level but they have technical issues and a frenetic approach. I still think with good coaching they can address these issues and forge strong test careers.
The wicket keeping position can revert to the 2 man shoot out it should have been over the last 2 years. Foakes would be my pick, the keeper sets the tone and he is a fine batman. Bairstow is an effective keeper and has an outstanding record as a batsman when keeping in tests (his average of 37 is better than all the English specialist batsmen over that period bar Root).
The seam bowling is in a good place; Mark Wood is an attack leader and whilst he is 32 he has actually not played a lot of cricket (66 career FC matches).
Ollie Robinson, Craig Overton, Olly Stone and Jofra Archer all have something to offer in support of Wood. Mahmood and Garton should be looking to push their way into that stable of bowlers.
Spin, we have a 25 year old leg spinner with 102 first class wickets at 23 runs each striking every 50 balls. Matt Parkinson has earned the opportunity to play, Mason Crane and Dom Bess are both still only 24 and should push him hard.
The raw materials are there, and it will be interesting to see a team develop around Root, Stokes, Bairstow and Mark Wood as the senior players.
Perhaps Ben Foakes and Craig Overton at 7 and 8 will get the opportunity they deserve. Can Kirsten/Stewart/Strauss give Jonny Bairstow a settled role in the team (could he move to the top of the order like Herschelle Gibbs did?). Mark Wood might just get to bowl with a new hard ball and we could have a leg spinner wicket-keeper combination that would be deadly, especially against the tail!