Congratulations Tom Westley

[Blocky]

Called up for England

[afinetickletoleg]

Good Luck fella.

[pieinthesky]

Good for Tom, Disaster for our CC hopes though. we could have absorbed cook going not westley too.

Cook and Westley gone from the top 3. its wishful thinking to hope he fails in the test and is back for yorks game. they will give him a few tests at least.

Personally i think there are other who should have been picked ahead of him. Stoneman whos been doing it in div 1 consistently for a few seasons should play. its inexplicable hes overlooked again.

worst case he misses 4 games?

[nat]

Firstly congratulations to TW and I hope he is successful.

Why is it assumed he will miss the more than the Yorks game? He should be available for at least some of the Sept CC games.

[JasonP]

Good for Tom, Disaster for our CC hopes though. we could have absorbed cook going not westley too.

Cook and Westley gone from the top 3. its wishful thinking to hope he fails in the test and is back for yorks game. they will give him a few tests at least.

Personally i think there are other who should have been picked ahead of him. Stoneman whos been doing it in div 1 consistently for a few seasons should play. its inexplicable hes overlooked again.

worst case he misses 4 games?

Runs for England Lions have done him a lot of good.  He did well in the winter and also the 100 against SA a couple of weeks ago.  There's also a theory that Philander and Morkel bowl well at left handers and so perhaps having the top 3 as left handers as they have done in the first couple of tests was a mistake.  Stoneman would give three left handers in the top 3 plus Stokes and Ali at 5 and 7.  If they play Malan for Dawson that would be another.

[pieinthesky]

Firstly congratulations to TW and I hope he is successful.

Why is it assumed he will miss the more than the Yorks game? He should be available for at least some of the Sept CC games.

because england dont do one cap wonders anymore. who will come in for him? after this test if you think he will only get 1 game

[JasonP]

Firstly congratulations to TW and I hope he is successful.

Why is it assumed he will miss the more than the Yorks game? He should be available for at least some of the Sept CC games.

because england dont do one cap wonders anymore. who will come in for him? after this test if you think he will only get 1 game

I agree with you.  I think he'll get a run but on the other hand he's only playing because Ballance, who Root wanted in the team, is injured.  If Ballance gets fit for the 4th Test perhaps they'll want him back in?

[pieinthesky]

Firstly congratulations to TW and I hope he is successful.

Why is it assumed he will miss the more than the Yorks game? He should be available for at least some of the Sept CC games.

because england dont do one cap wonders anymore. who will come in for him? after this test if you think he will only get 1 game

I agree with you.  I think he'll get a run but on the other hand he's only playing because Ballance, who Root wanted in the team, is injured.  If Ballance gets fit for the 4th Test perhaps they'll want him back in?

fingers crossed

[SirChef26]

Congrats Tom. They had to pick him to justify that their investment in the lions system was working because he's been scoring runs for the lions for a while. God help us in the Championship though, for months we've been worrying about the bowling, now it's the batting where we're struggling. Huge pressure on the likes of Browne and Bopara who are probably our most in form batsman. No doubt Ballance will have magically recovered to take his place in the Yorkshire team at Scarbados!

[bwildered]

Will be missed in the Championship, but his good fortune gives a opportunity to another. Like Cook has, make the county proud in your selection, we wish you well .

[IlfordEagle]

Well done Tom & hope you do very well (would prefer you to play for us though!!), I thought Stoneman would get the nod but seeing as Morkel & Philander seem to prefer bowling to left handers I can understand his selection. I hope that when he comes in to bat Ally is still in as he will undoubtedly help to settle him down.

[Stringbok]

Like most, I guess, i have  very mixed feelings about this.  Thrilled for Tom but worried about our Championship run-in.

Whilst England don't normally do one cap wonders anymore they do seem committed to giving Ballance (yet another) extended chance.  I read that his finger may be healed in time for the fourth test.  So best case from an Essex point of view is that Tom only misses a bit of Crash Bang Wallop. However I wish Tom well and hope he gives the selectors a selection headache should Ballance recover. 

Assuming he is away with England how should we fill the gap ?

I'd move Ravi to three and play Wheater at five. Not sure there are any other options other than moving Lawrence instead of Ravi.

[LeedsExile]

Tom can now look forward to having his character and technique minutely dissected by "experts" who mostly have never seen him play before. I am sure no one on TMS ever watches a championship match.

[Slogger]

Tom can now look forward to having his character and technique minutely dissected by "experts" who mostly have never seen him play before. I am sure no one on TMS ever watches a championship match.

I reckon you're right, however, I suspect Vic Marks does watch Somerset and Boycott might occasionally watch Yorkshire. I think Chris Martin-Jenkins did watch county championship cricket but I'm pretty sure Agnew never does.

[nat]

Tom can now look forward to having his character and technique minutely dissected by "experts" who mostly have never seen him play before. I am sure no one on TMS ever watches a championship match.

I reckon you're right, however, I suspect Vic Marks does watch Somerset and Boycott might occasionally watch Yorkshire. I think Chris Martin-Jenkins did watch county championship cricket but I'm pretty sure Agnew never does.

Same as the selectors then. Bayliss and Gibson have admitted to not watching any CC.