Time For Likely Lads To Demand Test Call

Chris Stocks on the problems that England have and how a bright start to the season could secure selection

- Chris Stocks

This terrible Test winter is a sure sign England are going backwards. If home losses to South Africa at Trent Bridge and West Indies at Headingley last summer were warning signs then the five defeats in seven Tests in Australia and New Zealand over the past five months are proof positive that something is fundamentally wrong with this England team.

Even victory in Christchurch this week, which England were perhaps unlucky not to achieve, wouldn’t have papered over the cracks.

The truth is that only four players – captain Joe Root, wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow, James Anderson and Stuart Broad – can be assured of their places ahead of the Test summer.

Root, who now selects every XI, at least showed a ruthless streak in dropping Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes for the Christchurch Test.

Plenty more could follow that pair over the course of the series against Pakistan and India this summer.

The three with most to worry about are Mark Stoneman, James Vince and Dawid Malan.

Stoneman has scored five half-centuries since making his debut last summer but has not got past 60 in any of those innings. He is a fighter but looks as though he is operating at the very limit of his capabilities.

England need an opener who can score Test hundreds on a regular basis, especially with Alastair Cook so badly out of form.

Vince is a beautiful player when in full flow but is undermined by a tendency to self destruct that appears borne of mental frailty when tested at the very highest level.

The 76 he scored in his final innings of the winter in Christchurch may give him a stay of execution for the two Tests against Pakistan starting next month. But after 13 Tests he is still without a century and averages 23.90, which is nowhere near good enough for a No.3.