New cricket thread for the Windies tour

[Cheshire East Baggie]

I'm encouraged by Andrew Strauss' comments as well as his selection. Some key points for me:

A proper wicketkeeper in the squad (although they could still bottle it and give the gloves to Bairstow or Pope).

Bowlers to "show leadership in the absence of Anderson and Broad", although he denies that they have "been intimidating" to younger bowlers and the captain.

Root to bat at three "because he wants to". Or has been told that he needs to, more likely.

We haven't had this kind of leadership since, well, Strauss stood down from the captaincy. Too many legends playing for their legacy, too many icons getting picked regardless of form. This is a crucial time of rebuild. I expect a new captain will emerge within 12 months. Then it's up to Joe to decide whether he wants to continue being the world's best batter instead of a bang average captain.

[Ted Maul]

Dropping your best two bowlers because the batsmen haven't scored enough runs seems odd. I can get the logic behind maybe leaving Anderson at home but Broad still has a few years left, whereas Anderson is 40 this year and I'd imagine this will be his last home summer.

Good to see some faith shown in Jack Leach, he is our best spin bowler along with Parkinson and hopefully the two of them can raise each others games. Pitches in the Caribbean are not what they used to be so I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them both in the XI at some stage. Mahmood has been knocking on the door for a while, good pace and will be exciting to see how he goes alongside Wood. Woakes you know what you're getting and Robinson has had a good start to his test career.

Pleased to see Foakes get the gloves, he's the best keeper in the county circuit with a better batting average than Buttler to boot. Slightly harsh on Billings but I feel he may go down as one of those selections that only happens due to the fact he was in Australia at the time. I can't profess to knowing too much about the rest of the batsmen, although I would hope there is someone who can open (Lees) and someone who can come in and bat three in time (Bohannon perhaps), as Root is wasted anywhere but number four. Time for Ollie Pope to step up, bat five and score some runs. My worry is we will see Stokes at four and he's just not equipped to bat there in test cricket.

Will be a tough series, we went out there three years back and lost with a better side than this one. Happy for Paul Collingwood getting a chance to lead the side, if nothing else he might be able to improve their fielding.

For the first test I would go with something like - Lees, Crawley, Lawrence, Root, Pope, Stokes, Foakes (wk), Wood, Robinson, Leach, Mahmood

[wba13]

Agree with some of what,s been said but I also can se that the 2 elder statesmen in Anderson and Broad could be a bit intimidating for younger players so can see why they have been omitted. I agree with most of that side except Root will bat at 3 I expect Pope to bat 4 and would like to see Woakes given a proper run.

[Cuzer]

I'm pretty sure Broad & Anderson will feature heavily this summer, no issue leaving them out for this tour personally, though understand they are far from happy, yet to do it without Archer/Stone available is a tad risky IMO

Cuzer

[MancBaggie]

Windies have been a poor Test side for a generation - since the Aussies displaced them in the late 90s.  Dont think England have won there since 2004, mind

[ChamonixBaggie]

Woakes should never be picked on account of being an enormous seal but aside from that I'm cautiously optimistic and this selection. Even if we lose its a breath of semi-fresh air and we had to get used to life without brandseron at some point

[rsbaggy2]

A restart for English cricket after the dismal showing down under. A very capable wicket keeper who is no mug with the bat and a bowler who was overdue a pick. Other than that though nothing much to excite. Still the level of opposition should provide some boost to faltering confidence.