Perhaps Ed Smith has lost his touch. Almost for the first time since he became England’s national selector in May he has announced a Test squad without surprises. Generally this is a good thing, suggesting stability, the ship on a steady course and sailing smoothly towards its destination with the usual, reliable crew. But that is not quite the case at the moment.
Great sides have a rock solid opening pair and, whoever Smith and his fellow selectors picked on Friday, that was not going to be the case for England this autumn when they play three Tests in Sri Lanka in November.
Surrey’s Rory Burns always looked as if he would be going and, after some gentle steering, Kent’s Joe Denly was no surprise – two batsmen uncapped at Test level, both of whom can open, though Denly has not done so for a long time. They are joined by Keaton Jennings, who bears the unfortunate tag of being one of the most unsuccessful openers in England’s history: no opening batsman has played as many as 18 innings without scoring a half-century.
The selectors may well have considered the possibility of gambling with Jason Roy rather than Jennings but maybe Smith had used up his quota of wildcards when summoning Jos Buttler and Adil Rashid this summer.
Like Roy, this pair of erstwhile white-ball specialists has barely been sighted in County Championship cricket over the past two years. So picking Roy might have been a punt too far, though in his solitary red-ball appearance of the 2018 season, at Taunton this past week, he batted at No 3 for Surrey, much higher than in the past.
This hints that England are interested in Roy up the order; moreover anyone with Test ambitions can see where the vacancies lie. It is just possible that, if Roy bats like a minor deity in the ODI matches in Sri Lanka next month, he might be invited to stay on in this new flexible era.
However, commenting on the uncapped players in the squad Smith was understandably eager to note their championship credentials: this summer Burns has 1,319 runs, far more than anyone else, at an average of 69; Olly Stone, the Warwickshire fast bowler, has 37 wickets at 12 apiece; and Smith described Denly as “one of the leading players in county cricket”.
Denly’s figures are not that compelling. He has 798 runs at an average of 36 in Division Two but, to put that in context, Kent have had an abnormal number of low-scoring matches and they have won the vast majority of them. Also intriguing is that Denly has taken 20 first-class wickets this summer at 18 apiece with his leg-breaks. It is unlikely that these will have a major impact in Sri Lanka but his wrist-spinners can be expected to be better than Dawid Malan’s. Joe Root and Trevor Bayliss would be daft not to have him bowling in the nets at every available opportunity in Sri Lanka to see whether he might be an occasional asset in a Test (it is permissible to clutch at such straws seven weeks before the first Test starts).
Choosing this squad is an easier undertaking than picking England’s best XI when they get to Galle, which is traditionally a haven for Sri Lanka spinners – Muttiah Muralitharan took 111 of his 800 wickets there at 18 apiece in 15 matches and Rangana Herath has already taken 99, with more on the horizon in November. But the alternatives available to Root and Bayliss may now be anticipated.
It is probable that Burns will play and they will have to choose between Jennings and Denly as his partner, with Moeen Ali pencilled in to bat at No 3. Down the order, if they are minded to play all three spinners in Galle, it will probably be a choice between Sam Curran and Chris Woakes.
Playing three spinners will be a serious option. If the ball turns from the start, then the contribution of the finger-spinners becomes decisive. In recent times the match-winners for Sri Lanka in Galle have been the ageless Herath and their off-spinner, Dilruwan Perera, rather than any wrist-spinner. When the ball is turning the extra pace and accuracy anticipated from the finger spinner tends to be more effective than wrist spin. Hence Somerset’s Jack Leach is just as likely to play in Galle as Rashid.
There had been the suggestion that Stuart Broad would not be selected, an unnecessary flyer which has not come to pass. Neither Broad nor Jimmy Anderson, to their credit, has been keen on the notion of resting and rotation. A player cannot know what might happen in his absence and, at their age, it sometimes helps just to keep bowling. The great West Indian Courtney Walsh, when coming towards the end of his career, never wanted to stop just in case he could not get started again. However, there must be a strong chance that Broad will not make the final XI in Galle. Instead, Anderson, England’s superlative bowler – he has the most wickets, he is the most accurate and the most skilful – may be supported by two of the pace-bowling all-rounders.
Meanwhile, the two Ollies, Stone and Pope, are likely to be looking and learning in Galle but that can quickly change in Sri Lanka, an enchanting island but an extremely challenging one for visiting cricketers.
Age Caps
Joe Root (Yorks, capt) 27 74
Moeen Ali (Worcs) 31 52
Jimmy Anderson (Lancs) 36 143
Jonny Bairstow (Yorks) 28 59
Rory Burns (Surrey) 28 0
Stuart Broad (Notts) 32 123
Jos Buttler (Lancs) 28 25
Sam Curran (Surrey) 20 5
Joe Denly (Kent) 32 0
Keaton Jennings (Lancs) 26 12
Jack Leach (Somerset) 27 1
Ollie Pope (Surrey) 20 2
Adil Rashid (Yorks) 30 15
Ben Stokes (Durham) 27 46
Olly Stone (Warks) 24 0
Chris Woakes (Warks) 29 26
