There may be troubles ahead: England selection issues.

[ianp1970]

Maybe depends how much England want to play Livingstone. If he's in, one of Haseeb and Jennings might not get in.

Something like this?

Cook
Hameed
Root
Jennings
Bairstow
Stokes
Livingstone
Moeen
Woakes (Wood?)
Broad
Anderson (Ball?)

[Arthur Crabtree]

I was thinking it might be

Cook
Haseeb/Jennings
Root
Livingstone/Jennings
Moeen
Stokes
Bairstow

The main decision is whether Moeen stays on at five or goes back to the lower order.

[ianp1970]

If he's the only spinner, then number 7 for me. If we play 2 spinners (maybe the Oval and Old Trafford?), then I can see a need to play him at 5.

[Arthur Crabtree]

If he's the only spinner he'll go back to 8 I would have thought, with the keeper at seven. If Bairstow's at five and Mo at seven they end up with a batter at eight or five seamers.

[Arthur Crabtree]

So the first decision has to be whether a new spinner comes in and Mo stays in the top five, or he bats lower down. If he does the latter, Livingstone, Haseeb and Jennings can all play.

[ianp1970]

I even have him at 8 in my list!

[ianp1970]

So newbies at 2, 4 and 6 surrounded by Cook, Root, Stokes and Bairstow might be more sensible.

[Arthur Crabtree]

That could be a reason to maintain Mo in the top order. They can't bring back Bell. Ballance has been dropped yet again. Apart from picking Bairstow (which he's rather not) as a top order specialist, they have to pick three new batters unless Mo bats at five.

[m@tt]

Thanks to injuries and loss of form, the XI is looking suddenly threadbare.

If you take those who are fit, in form, and long-term players, you've got:

01 Cook // 02 ???? // 03 ???? // 04 Root // 05 Ali // 06 Stokes // 07 Bairstow // 08 ???? // 09 ???? // 10 Broad // 11 ????

Root could go #3 or #4. Ali #5 or #8.

Ideally, both Jenning and Hameed would have the runs behind them to go at #2 and #3. If neither has runs, then Stoneman has a lot of runs, though his career record is poor.

Ball and Wood could be the other quicks. England may be tempted to look at Footitt. Could Plunkett be a Test option again? Do Finn or Roland-Jones push for a place?

#8 is still up in the air. England could retain one of Buttler (to extend the batting), Rashid or Dawson (extra bowling options). Or they could call up Livingstone (who has some Championship runs but not a huge amount) and either bat him at #4 (move Root up) or #5 (move Ali down).

From the left-field, Northeast is having another good season and will have impressed during the north/south game, whilst Westley seems to be adapting to Div 1 well (better than teammate Browne).

[Arthur Crabtree]

Is Woakes out of the Tests?

[alfie]

Is Woakes out of the Tests?

I understood he was certainly out of the first one at least ? Also not yet sure on Anderson's progress although I heard he was pretty hopeful of playing for Lancashire before the Test.

Fortunately there do seem to be a few fast bowling options around at the moment.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Thanks. Anderson at least allow filling out Matt's XI.

Maybe the best way is picking the strongest XI and then working out the order afterwards. But still you have to know Moeen's role. Spinner or top order bat or top order bat/spinner.

[rich1uk]

i still think ballance will come back in

i argued last year he didn't justify a recall based on his county form but he is averaging over 100 in first class cricket this year

if we are basing it on form then hameed cant be included, yeah he impressed last winter but he's averaging under 20 in county cricket, we have to ask whether last year was just a blip when you are talking about aguy who has played so little first class cricket

[Making_Splinters]

I said plenty of times last year, Hameed hadn't the track record to be thrown into international cricket, and, he's put the ECB in a very difficult position with his truly dreadful season thus far. Yes he had a good first stint, but any player in form can look good.

Seems as if Triple L is the next great hope, too soon and he needs to be given a chance in the ODI side before playing Test cricket.

I'd keep Ali up the order and bring in Rashid as a front line spinner. Ali could become a very good Test batsman if he's allowed to focus solely on his batting.

[ianp1970]

Hameed and Jennings both in the Lions squad. Stoneman also in, but no Livingstone.