There may be troubles ahead: England selection issues.

[Arthur Crabtree]

We'd have had a better chance of predicting the squad if we'd not read any press!

[Arthur Crabtree]

From memory, Joe's average at five is much better than that at four, though there may be other reasons for that.

Good test for GB. If he gets runs against Pakistan he'll deserve a run in the side. My guess is he won't though. A surprising pick. He's not having a good season.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Might only be in for one Test, of course, if Stokes is fit for the second Test. Although he could put pressure on Vince.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Root's averages.
Opener- 38 (5 games)
Three- 29 (5)
Four- 50 (13)
Five- 73 (17)
Six- 40 (6)

[Slipstream]

Think Roland-Jones will play. It's his home ground and can bat, average 22.96 and has a 100. For Root it will be like opening as I don't expect Cook and Hales to last long.

[Arthur Crabtree]

For Ball I presume?

[Aidan11]

Surprised at the recall of Ballance.

His technique wasn't right last time he played test cricket. Could be sorted out I suppose.

[Slipstream]

For Ball I presume?

Yes.

F/c bowling averages at Lords

TRJ - 109 at 23.93
SF - 157 at 25.84
CW - 4 at 28.50
SB - 67 at 29.56
JB - 4 at 33.75

[hopeforthebest]

Picking Balance ahead of Borthwick is odd as Borthwick could have slotted in to the number three spot leaving the rest of the order unchanged. I'm not against the selection of Ballance and putting him at 5 makes better sense than 3 but Root is where he doesn't want to bat and is Vince good enough to bat at 4. Roland-Jones is a good choice but if form is the key both he and Ball should play ahead of Steven Finn. Finn is either out of form or luckless whichever condition it is he would be better off sorting it out with Middlesex rather than England.

[Aidan11]

Borthwick suffered a blip in form at just the wrong time.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Finn was surprisingly left out of the ODI side. Maybe the same could happen in the Tests. Not that he really deserves it on results.

[Slipstream]

That would be funny. Woakes with 8 Tests and the other two on debut. Ali with 5 wickets in his last 6 Tests.
Looking at the squad of 12 I think England will be looking to pick up their points in white ball cricket. We are definitely better than Pakistan in those formats.

[Arthur Crabtree]

They've picked two uncapped players in the squad, plus Woakes, given Finn is a slight injury doubt. So it's conceivable.

[hopeforthebest]

They've picked two uncapped players in the squad, plus Woakes, given Finn is a slight injury doubt. So it's conceivable.

There's two of them and Woakes, reminiscent of a line frequently used by George Smiley in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. There's three of them and Alleline, not intended to be complimentary to Alleline.

[hopeforthebest]

Interesting paragraph from a piece by the Telegraph.

"Jake Ball will have to make his Test debut in front of a full house at Lord’s instead of being bedded in gradually against Sri Lanka. It was by picking Compton that the selectors created a problem, which then had to be solved by selecting Chris Woakes to bolster the batting."

So the writer doesn't see the selection of Woakes as a like for like player for Stokes but is there because the selectors had little faith in Compton. That's a twist no one else has come up with.