There may be troubles ahead: England selection issues.

[Durhamfootman]

I know its all too easy to be negative about England, and I am as guilty of that as anyone, but looking at the current world cup squad and the lions squad in SA there has to be reason to be optimistic about our batting at least

hales, roy, lees, ballance, stokes, root, taylor, buttler, bairstow, billings and vince all 25 or younger

obviously not all of them will make it, there aren't spots for all of them, but that's a pretty good depth of talent at least

agree with that

just need one of them to have a cricketing brain, and we'll be okay

does one of them have a cricketing brain?

I can only speak for Stokes, and I know he doesn't, because his locker said so

[rich1uk]

taylor and vince already have captaincy experience and root seems to be being groomed as the heir apparent so not bad on that score DFM

[Durhamfootman]

I'll keep my fingers crossed

[KipperJohn]

The question one has to ask is will any of them end up with Test records as good as the likes of Cook, KP and Bell, all of whom have had a rough ride on here many times but are amongst the top ten (statistically) of all time English batsmen. Their current records will be hard to beat and Cook and Bell are still going (for the time being at least).

Root and Ballance have done pretty well so far and with experience already under their belt look the most likely.

[rich1uk]

I think that you could add buttler to those 2 , the progress he has made with the gloves and how well he seems to handle pressure to go along with the raw talent he has is a good combination , and he is still only 24 as well

[Arthur Crabtree]

James Taylor is the one that has done well at each level but found no preferment along the way. He's unkindly been used as a bargaining chip in the war on and by Pietersen. And mostly responded with dignity. He's outperformed his contemporaries for England Lions and had to watch them get all the chances. As I often say, runs scored last summer look a little cheap after the humiliation of the winter. So I'll wait to see what Root and Ballance do next summer. Even if only to give me a happy ending, i hope Taylor is a key player in England's future.

[rich1uk]

James Taylor is the one that has done well at each level but found no preferment along the way. He's unkindly been used as a bargaining chip in the war on and by Pietersen. And mostly responded with dignity. He's outperformed his contemporaries for England Lions and had to watch them get all the chances. As I often say, runs scored last summer look a little cheap after the humiliation of the winter. So I'll wait to see what Root and Ballance do next summer. Even if only to give me a happy ending, i hope Taylor is a key player in England's future.

I agree with all of that

I was just adding buttler to the group of guys who already appear to be regulars

gonna be tough to find spots for everyone

[Arthur Crabtree]

True. Hopefully Stokes will be an option as a top six bat too. The year ahead will change the team somewhat. Not all who are ahead now, will be after playing NZ, Aus, SA, Pakistan away. More will be known of newer players. It'd be interesting to see what the team is in a year. Cook, and Bell won't definitely survive either.

[Arthur Crabtree]

But if these players do survive the next year, England will have a new successful team.

I'm not sure i can see Moores in charge of a successful team.

[rich1uk]

just a pity that root didn't have the same impact as an opener as he has had at #5 , that would make things a lot easier fitting people in and balancing the side

[Arthur Crabtree]

He'd probably succeed against some attacks. No reason why he couldn't have opened against SL and India. You could take it as a positive that he didn't open well, because he scored so heavily at five, and he plays spin well. He's got a good game head and he batted to good effect with the tail. I think England would be crazy to put him at the top of the order again.

But I was a bit alarmed to see him getting out to shots that were a flashback to last winter, in the ODI tri-series against the Australians. Maybe only the greats don't have an identifiable discomfort zone. But Root seems to have one.

[rich1uk]

don't think it is realistic to expect him to open now , just wishful thinking as I cant see any other way to get taylor and stokes into the side in the short term

imagine a top 8 of cook, root, ballance, bell, taylor, moeen, stokes, buttler

solid all the way down to 8 and allows for 5 genuine bowling options

[Arthur Crabtree]

Unfortunately, the one out of that lot who looks most insecure is Cook, who has batted really badly for a couple of years. Well, badly for a couple of years and really badly for a year. I really hope England take the captaincy off him, and simplify the way ahead for him and the team.

[rich1uk]

even as someone who was pretty critical of cook this year I think he has still got what it takes for tests , I do agree it might be better for him if someone else was made captain and he was able to just concentrate on his batting

[Arthur Crabtree]

Dunno. His game seems to have disintegrated. He just scored 20 runs for every dropped catch and lucky lbw decision last summer. As some said, his luck just exposed how badly he was playing.

Anyway, just from a feelgood point of view, I want England to move forward and leave the remains of a pretty grim three years behind. I suppose Cook being out of the media and not hearing his embarrassing press interview anymore might do a little to that end.