Squad goals
Sir Gubby Allen was not, in the delicate phrase of one of his biographers, a “naturally penitent man”. Allen, England captain and MCC president, was also the chair of selectors between 1955 and 1962. It was Allen who persuaded Peter May to recall Cyril Washbrook to play against Australia at Headingley in 1956. Washbrook was 41, and hadn’t played a Test in so long that he was serving as one of the selectors himself. “The press went to town,” Allen wrote, but Washbrook made 98, and England won. As Allen recalled it, the spectators raised three cheers for the chair of selectors after the match. Which must be one of the few recorded instances of a public display of gratitude for men who work one of the more thankless jobs in cricket.
Allen’s successors have been at work on their own Ashes squad. It’s a task aptly captured by Vic Marks, who described it as being something like trying to finish a jigsaw that is missing a few key pieces. The large part is in place. There’s an opener, in Alastair Cook, a middle-order batsman in Joe Root, two all-rounders in Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali, a wicketkeeper, Jonny Bairstow, and two opening bowlers, James Anderson and Stuart Broad. Add in Mark Stoneman and Dawid Malan, on the grounds that both did just enough this summer, and that leaves two spots in the XI, one up top and another down bottom.
It looks as though England are going to be casting those two roles during their three tour warm-up matches, which is a little close to opening night to be running auditions. But then, they’ve spent a lot of time in the last four years trying to press various different players into these positions. Since they first picked Moeen back in June 2014, they’ve given debuts to 18 players, 10 batsmen, four quicks, three spinners and a ‘keeper. But the only ones who are still in the team are the last three to be picked, Tom Westley, Malan and Stoneman. It seems unlikely that they’ll all still be there come Brisbane.
Since 2014, Moeen is the only debutant who has managed to hold down a place in the XI. And he’s been the team factotum, filling every position in the batting order from opener down to No9. This cuts two ways. Either the selectors are at fault for giving the opportunities, or the players are for failing to take them. Blame apart, there does seem to be a flaw in the system that is making it too hard for players to take the step up into Test cricket. Which isn’t a problem anyone is going to solve over the course of a single meeting at Lord’s, but does explain why the squad selection suddenly seems so tricky.
The selectors apparently imagined they’d fixed the most difficult problem back at the start of the summer, when they had Joe Root pencilled in to play at No3, which would allow them to fit their new batsmen in down the order. Root has the technique to deal with the new ball, the temperament to cope with the uncertainty over when he will come in, and the talent to dictate the course of a day’s play when he does. Everything, in short, a batsman needs to play at No3, except for the inclination, since he is dead set against the idea. And good as his record is at No3, where he averages 45 in 16 Tests, it is better again at No4, where he averages 54 in 20, and No5, 73 in 17.
There are two schools of thought. Either, the captain should be allowed to do exactly as he wants, or he should be persuaded to do what the team needs. England decided that Root shouldn’t have to compromise. And the upshot was that they finished the season with their most vulnerable batsman, Westley, in the slot that, custom dictates, is supposed to be filled by their best. Westley wouldn’t have looked any more exposed if he’d come in to bat without his trousers. Gary Ballance hardly looked any more comfortable earlier in the summer. Picking either at No3 for the Ashes looks the short route to 20 for two.
At the same time, England have so many all-rounders stuffed into their middle order that they ended up with Moeen Ali coming in at No8, which seems at least one place too late. The simple fix would be to shuffle everyone up a place, starting with Root at No3. Which creates a space down the order. Earlier in the summer England had Liam Dawson there, which meant they had one spinner who could turn the ball in and another who could turn it out. But that left them with six bowlers. Which seemed like overkill. And tempting as it is to think about picking a legspinner, Adil Rashid, say, or even Mason Crane, it’s easy to imagine them ambling around the outfield, all but unused.
Another option, then, would be to bring in a wicketkeeper, Ben Foakes, perhaps, at No8 and ask Bairstow to play as a specialist batsman. Except Bairstow is no more keen to do that than Root is to move up. Reject that, and you come all the way back to the beginning, with one of those novice batsmen back in at No3. Even Allen would struggle to unravel this knot. “The selector’s lot,” he wrote, “is not a happy one.” It is a remarkably easy job, until you actually have to sit down and do it. Which is why, Don Bradman wrote, it’s “a job which some people dodge because they know it brings much criticism and many heartaches but few rewards”. The most useful advice, at this point, is the bit offered by Allen’s predecessor, Walter Robbins. Wait till it’s late, Robbins said, then slip out the side gate.
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