Jamie's a good bowler but I'm not convinced he'd do well in the Windies. Look how Sam Curran is struggling to make an impact; Jamie's a little faster but no more. Is he really a better bowler than Woakes? And he's nowhere near as good a bat as Woakes or Curran. True, Jason Holder isn't that much faster than Curran but at 6'7" he has other strengths.
Jamie may well have dodged a bullet missing this winter's tours, though IMHO he's got a good chance of making the Test team next summer if there are some seamer-friendly conditions and/or some oldie fitness issues, or the selectors feel experimental against Ireland. . Jimmy can't go on for ever, a lot of punters see Jamie as his successor.
re the pace issue, not all seamers have to be express pace, but, outside the Indian subcontinent, without some real pace in the attack you're gonna struggle bowling out top Test teams. Nasser put it very well on Sky when he talked about the need for a class "X-factor" bowler, a leggie or paceman, in the attack, and pointed out how hard it was to know who was up to it until you gave candidates a decent crack in the Test arena - he pointed out the slating the selectors got for persisting with Steve Harmison and Simon Jones years back; I'll confess that after he'd played a few Tests, I gave my opinion that Harmy was the worst fast bowler ever to play for England, not even that good for Durham, and should be dumped immediately. (I was reminded of this numerous times when Harmy was number one in the world rankings)
I'd have liked to seen Ollie Stone given a chance, as part of a 4-man seam attack, although I've only seen a little of him. He looked pretty scary.
