England XI

Michael Henderson's team

Not a lot of difference between us and Michael is probably right about Archer. It was wishful thinking on my part.

Anyway, here is the Henderson selection. Argue with him in the comments. (though he is, of course, largely right).

1 Jonny Bairstow

A faute de mieux selection, because a batsman who is bowled so often is not properly equipped to open the innings in Test cricket. But he will play because he is the regimental goat of the Stokes-McCullum Brigade, so he may as well take the first ball. If it comes off there will be thrills aplenty, and if it doesn’t then let’s not pretend Zac Crawley would have fared better. Crawley has been indulged beyond the bounds of the tolerable. Clearly he is a recipient of a Buttler Scholarship for Distressed Batsmen, and should now take up a Fellowship of All Souls, where he can quaff as much port, and scoff as much Stilton, as he likes.

2 Ben Duckett

Nobody imagines he will prove the master of Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc, but he has earned the chance to start the summer. Sooner or later an opening batsman will throw off the curse hissed upon Adam Lyth, Sam Robson, Mark Stoneman, and the others who failed to take their opportunity. An Ashes series is a good place to start.

3 Ollie Pope

Monarch, or regent? Pope has always looked a batsman of Test class. Yet an average of 32 after 35 Tests, 18 runs lighter than his first-class performance, does not make a strong case. He’s no longer a bairn, as Brian Howard Clough used to say. It’s high time, to borrow a familiar phrase from all decent headmasters, that he pulled his socks up; otherwise he will let the side down. There must be no shilly-shallying, and the hour has long passed when he might expect a sympathetic hug from matron. He’s a big boy now, and has two golden months in which to prove it. Then we can all enjoy a midnight feast.

4 Joe Root

‘On a clear day, rise and look around you…’ If you see this man walking to the crease, you are truly blessed.

5 Harry Brook

Will he become Laurence Rowe, or Viv Richards? Rowe was the Jamaican who took a triple century off England in 1974 before drifting away on a summer breeze. Viv we all know about. One should not normally seek comparisons with the best of the best, but Brook’s introduction to Test cricket has been so sudden, so startling, that it is natural to wonder whether he is bound for greatness.

6 Ben Stokes

A remarkable cricketer, who has excelled in all formats of the game, and a leader who drives his men with a conviction they have come to share. But his gammy knee means he can no longer bowl the overs that enables the new-ballers to get a second wind. It’s a serious setback, and England’s ability to overcome it will determine whether they regain the Ashes. There is no hiding place for bowlers in a series foolishly compressed into six and a half weeks.

7 Ben Foakes

Let’s have no nonsense about giving the gloves to somebody who can bat. Foakes is the best wicketkeeper available to England, and his reliable snaffling will earn hundreds of runs as well as giving the bowlers confidence. He is also a capable batsman. Treated shamefully during the ill-starred Buttler experiment, he ought to be in the XI for the next five years.

8 Ollie Robinson

Now that he no longer raids the larder at midnight, ‘just to see what’s there’, the one-time porker has become a match-winning bowler. No more pies or doughnuts, only wickets in threes, fours and fives. This should be the summer when Prince Hal becomes Henry, and the Aussies should feel ‘a little touch of Harry in the night’. Or better still, on a blazing morning at Lord’s, when the contest is spread out like a cloth of gold.

9 Jack Leach

The best we can do where slow bowling is concerned, so it’s best not to moan. He is a cricketer of character, though, which is just as well. He’s going to do a lot of bowling.

10 Stuart Broad

As one of the great post-war English cricketers approaches the end of his run for the last time, it’s bracing to recall the gangling youth who came into the team 16 years ago. He wasn’t that fast, and neither swung nor seamed the ball significantly. Twenty caps, people said. Yet here he, a grand old man looking forward to a final summer of glory. An astonishing story.

11 James Anderson

‘Oh by the way, this time’s the dream’s on me’.

There is no place for Jofra Archer, who has not featured in first-class cricket for two years. He can play T20 to his heart’s content, and then retire to Barbados. Shed no tears. Mark Wood should play a couple of Tests, at Old Trafford and the Oval, depending on how the series develops. Nobody can rely on Olly Stone to stay fit, and Saqib Mahmood has a lot of catching up to do.