A maxim of selection under Rob Key has been to cross bridges when you reach them, and never before. So, for months, England have wisely and unwaveringly declined to take a position on a burning issue: How exactly do you squeeze eight favourites of the Bazball era into a top seven for the Ashes?
But, three weeks out from the first Test of the summer, the moment for a decision over how to bring Jonny Bairstow back into a batting line-up in which Harry Brook replaced him so brilliantly is looming large. Everyone is fit, and time is running out for statement performances or unfortunate injuries that make the decision for England.
All that came to mind on the first morning at Canterbury. In conditions made for bowling, Kent were put in and Zak Crawley was pinned lbw for seven to become the 500th first-class scalp for Hampshire’s Keith Barker, playing with broken bones in both hands.
This came as part of another dismal day for a well-credentialed but under-performing Kent batting order, as they were bowled out for 95. Hampshire have a high-class four-man seam attack, and conditions were especially difficult when Kent lost their first four wickets before a rain delay. The capitulation after it to James Fuller, who took five for 21, was supine.
Bowlers like Barker – that is to say, highly skilled county seamers operating 15mph below Pat Cummins’ pace – have been Crawley’s kryptonite again this summer. Chris Rushworth got him twice for a total of 12 runs in a day at Edgbaston, while Tim Murtagh dismissed him twice for a total of 11 runs at Lord’s.
This left Crawley averaging 36.7 in a season of highs – an excellent 170 against Essex, when none of his colleagues made fifty, and a fine 91 to set up victory against Northamptonshire – and lows: this was the second time that he has been on a run of three sub-teen scores in a row. Brendon McCullum famously said last summer that Crawley’s “skillset is not to be a consistent cricketer”. This summer, Crawley is proving him right.
And so to England’s choice. That both Brook and Bairstow play should be beyond reproach. The former has been dropped by Sunrisers Hyderabad and the latter is feeling his way back in for Yorkshire (he chopped on for 27 against Durham on Thursday), but their exploits over the last year should guarantee first go.
Between them, since Ben Stokes and McCullum were paired as captain and coach, the two No 5s have played six Tests apiece, scything 1,490 runs from 1,524 balls. That’s an average of 78.4 and a strike-rate of 97.8. Included in there are four hundreds each, all in extraordinary wins.
Which leaves Crawley and Ben Foakes in a tight spot. They could drop Foakes and install Bairstow as their wicketkeeper-batsman. This would be very harsh on Foakes, slightly diminish England’s wicketkeeping (Bairstow is a better gloveman than he gets credit for) and make the batting look a little one-paced. But it would at least be like-for-like.
Dropping Crawley would make more sense on form. He averages 30.3 in first-class cricket, 27.6 in Tests, and 25.9 in the last year. In all three cases, admittedly batting in an easier spot, Foakes has a better average.
Replacing Crawley would require some creative thinking, but another theme of the Key era is to not fear that: It has seen Ollie Pope bed in at No 3 having never batted there in first-class cricket and Will Jacks and Liam Livingstone deployed as Test spinners.
Bairstow or Brook could open, but England are likely to be wary of both. Bairstow has batted No 3 before, and did not look at home. Brook’s progress could be stilted up top.
Which brings us to Stokes himself. Is it really so crazy that he steps up to open? His batting since becoming captain has seen him attempt to set an example. How about a different type of leading from the front, just as McCullum once did when New Zealand needed him to? Technically he is correct, and – as he showed in the 2019 Ashes – possesses first gear as well as sixth.
At this stage, Stokes does not look likely to be bowling a vast volume of overs that would tire him out. A move up the order would also mean – like England’s other left-hander, Ben Duckett – that he is settled by the time Nathan Lyon comes on. Lyon gobbles up lefties, including Stokes, nine times in Test cricket.
England are yet to show their hand, and there is still time for the situation to resolve itself. A tough decision, with an imperfect solution, looms either way.
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