Agree with all of that

I think Leach is probably still the best bet out of those available. He's a good bowler, but I don't think that Root really knows how to captain spin bowling to best effect.

Lawrence looked good with the bat and handy with the ball.

I'd not have played parkinson instead of Leach, but picking which of fisher/mahmood/woakes he should have replaced would have been tricky. (I like/rate Woakes, but he's not been at his best this tour.).

The trickiest bit to balance, as you say, is really around the batting and all rounders. I really think we need to get better at managing Stokes bowling workload - I do not think Root and Lawrence should be bowling lots and lots and lots of overs.

Foakes is worth a run in the side, though it does seem a luxury when Bairstow is there too.

Soooo, yeah, probably Woakes to make way - though I reckon Livingstone is probably the best bet for replacing Moeen and adding balance to our side (hard to know how parkinson would do too tho not wildly convinced that he'd be able to transfer his county form onto the international stage).

Main thing the first two tests have suggested to me is that we really do need to plan around improving the captaincy /coaching - whether the newbies establish themselves or fall away will have as much to do with Root and the backroom staff as it does with their ability (they've all shown enough to suggest that they could be handy, we need a chunk of them to settle and establish, if we fall away them we're back to square one)

Posted By: Cardiff Canary on March 21st 2022 at 11:32:38

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