All hail the new English* hope!
Just what we needed after Hameed looked so good, competition for opening batsman!
This is encouraging
First ball after tea - 4.
Daft game cricket, innit. Especially if you’re a batsman. Jennings dropped on 0, now has 100 on debut, who knows how his future might have panned out had it been caught. * Puts Sliding Doors on *
WOOHOO! 
That’s more like it lads
Ball. Of course. I completely forgot about Ball. Excellent selection.
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IF these two can stick around until the close, won’t have been a disastrous day for England, and potential for either/both of them to take it to India tomorrow morning. Anything north of 350 (especially 400+) would at the very least give England a chance to get their spinners stuck in. A way to go for that though.
It’s only one innings, but if Jennings and Hameed both look good, shouldn’t be a huge problem fitting them both in. Hameed is definitely an opener from what I’ve seen, whereas Jennings can probably fit in either side of Root at 3 or 4, then drop Ali down a bit, Stokes at 6, 'keeper at 7, 4 bowlers of whatever kind (or 3 if a greentop, and slot in another batsman, probably the other ‘wicketkeeper’)
Yeah, Hameed at 2 then Jennings at 3, moving Root back to his preferred 4 and Mo back to his more appropriate, somewhere lower.
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Strange how things turnout given a few injuries and players being out of form. This side has been trying to find the right balance for a while.
Fully fit side for first test of summer is looking something like this right now:
Cook
Hameed
Jennings
Root
Stokes
Bairstow
Woakes
Broad
Jimmy
2 spots up for grabs I’d say?
Moeen walks in to any England team. Then pick one of ball wood and rashid on form, fitness and pitch
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I like Moeen would be good to see him score plenty and cement spot at 5
I think he’s definitely in our best xi. Best spinner on a flat pitch, one of our most consistent batsmen. Only question is where he bats. I’d probably have him below bairstow at 7 personally
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We almost have to many options in that 5-8 area. If Rashid continues to improve he could be the go to spin option?
Then you have the keeper issue, do you want Bairstow batting at 5 and keeping? Not to mention Butler who is too good to not make an impression again in tests
Would genuinely be surprised to see Jennings regularly in our standard 11. He’s only played one innings! Having said that, that place at 3/4 does look like the one up for grabs, so Jennings has as good a chance as anyone at the moment. Duckett will get another go too, and I do think we’ll want to get Buttler in the test team for the long term. Tom Curran will be demanding a place before long too, probably Anderson’s long term replacement. Plus Finn has some sort of legal right to be in the squad somehow.
Cook
Hameed
Root
? Jennings or Buttler or Duckett, Buttler obviously not at 4
Bairstow
Stokes
Moeen
Woakes
Rashid/Ball/Wood
Broad
Anderson
The_excession makes snap judgements on the current England Lions, for no reason other than I’m too awake to go to bed.
N Gubbins - Crap. Never going anywhere with the name Gubbins, let’s face facts.
K Jennings - still feel he’s a one season wonder, but prepared to be wrong.
T Alsop - Dunno. Possibly owns a butcher’s shop in 1930.
D Bell-Drummond - could well be the one who steps up next
T Westley - seems like he should be shit, but does score a lot of runs and takes the occasional wicket
J Clarke - serious talent. Unlikely to be at Worcester for long
L Livingstone - slogger, will disappear
B Foakes - OK, plays for Surrey though so will no doubt appear for England
L Dawson - fine, unspectacular
O Rayner - will go back to county cricket where he will be in and out of the Middlesex side next year
Jack Leach - Dunno. Would have liked to see him in India, can’t actually recall ever seeing him play.
S Curran, T Curran - going to be big news for England over the next ten years, maybe not yet though
T Roland-Jones - pretty consistent performer, probably about number 7 or 8 in the England rankings
J Ball - looks good, above Roly-Jo in the rankings
J Fuller - injury prone, thought he was a New Zealander? Guess that never stopped us
C Overton - feisty, career could go any direction
S Meaker - injury prone, properly fast, never going to string enough matches together to really succeed.
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Excellent work, look forward to seeing how some of these turn out
Ben’s Foakes and Stokes together is going to be the real gold potentially here
was just thinking, we could really do with getting Rahul out here, then hero Mo delivers. Nice one, Hero Mo.
I thought Rayner was a regular fixture for Middlesex? He certainly causes seems to cause mayhem whenever Surrey play him.
Foakes is a great prospect. I’m no expert but people really rate his glove work and his batting kept Surrey competitive last year.
The Curran’s are very exciting. I’d been watching Sam from behind the arm last summer and it was only after I joined a friend sitting square that I really got how fast he is. Could be England’s best left-armer since Underwood. Tom, by comparison, is the consistent one - that’s both his bowling action and his fitness. I think he played every game for Surrey last summer. Oh, and they both bat.
As to Meaker, yeah, it’s a shame but he is almost a perma-crock. Will be a great asset for a county as rich as Surrey that can afford to keep a genuinely quick bowler playing only a third of the season but I doubt he’ll make it to England.