Balance of squads

[Slogger]

A thought strikes me. Since Strauss put white ball cricket on the same level as the longer form (mistakenly in my view) results have improved in one and declined in the other. Maybe time to go back to giving test cricket primacy? Happy Christmas everyone

[JasonP]

All the spinners we have are pretty much rubbish.  I don't think it would have made much difference at all which spinners we played under which captain.  Rashid barely takes top order wickets for Yorkshire.  Their seam attack get the batsmen out and most wickets he gets are tailenders who can't pick him.

Is Leach ('the saviour of England spin' according to some) rubbish? The 'spin' over the latter's action has more revs than any spinner used in Bangladesh or India this Autumn!

Certainly, if he wasn't an ECCC product, we'd all be slating Chef much more, but what do you expect of a Posh Boy who learnt 'tactics' under GG?

I've not seen that much of him but the fact that Zafar Ansari was picked ahead of him reflects pretty poorly on him.  Neither Trescothick or his captain last year, Chris Rogers, thought he was ready for Test cricket.

[IlfordEagle]

I would be reluctant to give VC to Stokes as he has enough on his plate already as our main all rounder, it should probably go to a batsman, not sure who or maybe Jonny Bairstow.
Re Tom Westley - would love to see him in an England shirt but he is a natural no 3 not a no 5, mind you Ravi was seldom played in his rightful position for England especially under Collingwood (& seldom used as a bowler either!!)

[Daren Mootoo]

With the spinners and that bowling attack in Indian conditions I don't think Brearley, Fletcher, Vaughan or any other captain would have made much difference.
Would Root be any better?

We were well beaten by the best team in the world in those conditions, but get the Indians back in the UK and we would beat them.
Cook isn't the most innovative captain but he is fairly decent, and with no spinner capable of keeping an end tight he was fighting a lost cause.

Note when we needed to attack in the field with the new ball in the last test Cook scattered the field.  Similarly, note when Cook went off Root immediately brought himself on and got a couple of wickets - might have been lucky, but you make your luck often. There is a huge difference between stepping in occasionally as skipper and taking the job full time, however, and I know that Root has minimal captaincy experience.  But you have to say that the Cook approach is very much like Gooches - not flexible at all. There's rumours flying around that certain players were enforced upon the skipper, but I guess that'll come out in his next autobiography.

What we have to do is either install Root (or AN Other) as Test skipper before July or stick with Cook until after the Ashes.  My suspicion is that the latter route will be taken - although I can see Cook being pushed out if we struggle against the Saffers.

I much prefer AN Cook to AN Other...