Scotty 1978
Striker
Left out of England ashes warm up match against Essex, Joe Root to open the batting with Cook. Looks like Compton has had his chance.
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Would keep Root in the middle and give Compton another chance personally but it doesn't surprise me in the slightest that they've dropped him.
Maybe he wasn't 'dropped'.
Lets not got ahead of ourselves. The management said weeks ago - before the Durham match - that they wanted Compton to find some form for his county and Somerset have elevated him to opener (perhaps on England's say so). This Wednesday Sometset face Australia - if that isn't a good place to stake a claim then I don't know what is.
Add to that, he could potentially be on the field at 6pm on Saturday and England v Essex begins on Sunday - it may well be that the selectors want him to bat against the Aussies over batting against Division Two bowlers at Essex.
He is gone. I think it's the wrong decision, sets Root up to fail. And if he does it becomes a big issue. Who opens?
He is gone. I think it's the wrong decision, sets Root up to fail. And if he does it becomes a big issue. Who opens?
On the face of it, with KP coming back in, they had to choose between Compton and Bairstow for the last batting position. They obvioulsy think that Bairstow is a better prospect, and with Root's ability to open they can bring KP back and retain Bairstow without messing about too much with the batting order.
Team for first test (IMHO)
Cook (c)
Root
Trott
Pietersen
Bell
Bairstow
Prior (wk)
Broad
Swann
Anderson
Finn
With Compton, Bopara/Morgan, Onions, Treadwell and Bresnan as backup. Looks a decent squad
They've messed Bairstow around
He was in great touch for Yorkshire but he's just been carrying drinks for the first half of the season, what benefit is that to a developing player? Same happened in the winter.
He will desperately need time in the middle now like
Arguably our best ODI/20/20 keeper batsman and a solid no.6 test match batsman, I think he should be playing all forms.
(Buttler's one innings wonder against NZ was exactly that it seems)