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Aggressive fast bowler Craig Overton, 20-year-old leg spinner Mason Crane and tried-and-failed batsman James Vince were the shock selections in England’s Ashes squad announced yesterday.
The names of Overton and Vince rarely had been mentioned by English pundits attempting to predict this 16-man squad in recent weeks, while Crane would be one of the youngest players to debut for England in Test history.
The other faces in the England squad who would be relatively unfamiliar to Australian fans include back-up wicketkeeper Ben Foakes, paceman Jake Ball, and incumbent Test batsmen Mark Stoneman and Dawid Malan.
Here are my assessments of these seven lesser-known players in the England squad.
Ben Foakes (24 years old) – 3882 runs at 43 in first-class cricket
Foakes is a gun and would walk into either the Australian Test or ODI teams. He should be in England’s Ashes XI but he won’t be. At just 24 years of age, Foakes has a better batting record than batsmen Dawid Malan, James Vince or Mark Stoneman, with almost 4,000 runs at an average of 43, and is averaging 42 in county cricket this season.
Most significantly, he is not a batsman-first keeper-second – Foakes is renowned in England as a superb gloveman. To my mind, England should give Foakes the gloves and play Jonny Bairstow as a specialist batsman at four, with Joe Root at three. This would give them a far stronger top order to counter the new ball threat of Australia’s brilliant pace attack.
But this seems unlikely to happen because Root does not want to move up from four to three and Bairstow apparently is loath to give up the gloves. As a result, the prodigiously-talented Foakes will probably sit on the sidelines, only making an appearance if there is an injury or if England have already lost the Ashes.
(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Mark Stoneman (30 years old) – 120 runs at 30 from three Tests
Stoneman is the latest in a long line of batsman to be trialled as Alastair Cook’s opening partner, with 12 different players getting a crack at that spot since Andrew Strauss retired five years ago.
The left hander was given the easiest possible introduction – a three-Test series at home against the feeble bowling attack of the West Indies.
Even still, Stoneman laboured, with only 80 runs from his first four innings, before saving his place with a knock of 40 not out in England’s final innings of that series. Stoneman came into Test cricket with a reputation as an assertive opening batsman who liked to take on the new ball. That aggression has yet to be sighted at Test level.
Batting with a heavy bottom-hand, Stoneman loves to whip or muscle the ball through the leg side, or slice it away square of the wicket on the offside, but is not particularly strong down the ground. Mitchell Starc’s full out swingers will present Stoneman with a difficult task.
Craig Overton (23 years old) – 186 wickets at 26 in first-class cricket
This 196cm-tall right armer is arguably the most intimidating bowler in English cricket, capable of earning steepling bounce and having been clocked at up to 150kmh. It is for this reason that he has been chosen in the Ashes squad. England’s first-choice pace attack of Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Chris Woakes and Ben Stokes lacks variety, with all four men bowling in the 130-140kmh bracket.
Overton will not usurp any of those bowlers to make the team for the first Test, and is also unlikely to feature in the second Test at Adelaide, with the pitch for this day-night match likely to favour accurate medium-fast bowlers.
The youngster will only come into calculations over the course of the final three Tests, particularly if England’s pace attack struggles for penetration at Brisbane and Adelaide.
Mason Crane (20 years old) – 70 wickets at 42 in first-class cricket
Crane’s inclusion was the most baffling selection by England. It is almost as if their selectors did not notice the massacre last summer of the world’s best leg spinner, Yasir Shah.
Shah is leagues ahead of Crane as a bowler, as evidenced by his Test average of 29 compared to Crane’s first-class mark of 42.
Yet even Yasir was butchered by the Australian batsmen last summer, averaging 84 across the three-Test series while conceding an incredible 4.53 runs per over.
Crane doesn’t even have good form behind him this county season, having averaged 44 with the ball from seven matches.
If England were desperate to include a leg spinner they should have picked the vastly more-experienced Adil Rashid. Not only does Rashid have almost 500 first-class wickets to his name, but he’s also troubled the Australians in recent ODI encounters, having taken 11 wickets at 25 from his past six matches against them.
Crane is a wonderful young talent and may one day become a fine Test spinner, but he is not even close to being ready for an Ashes series on the spinner-killing pitches of Australia.
Realistically, though, we are unlikely to see him on the field unless England find themselves in a desperate or hopeless situation.
James Vince (26 years old) – 212 runs at 19 from seven Tests
England fans were left scratching their noggins yesterday when Vince was bizarrely included in this squad despite a dire first Test stint and being in poor form in county cricket this season. During his time in Test cricket Vince became known as a batsman who made pretty starts – he is an elegant batsman – but consistently wasted them.
Across seven consecutive Tests against Sri Lanka and Pakistan the last English summer, Vince never passed 42. His weakness was linked to his strength – Vince is a delightful timer of the ball through the offside from the front or back foot, but too often flashes at deliveries better left alone.
Given that English captain Joe Root refuses to take on the troublesome first drop spot, it appears Vince may well bat at three in the first Test. The only other options to take first drop are Gary Ballance and Dawid Malan. Ballance was dropped after failing in that position in his recent Test stint and seems far more likely to bat in the middle order if picked. Malan, meanwhile, is a middle order batsman – he has batted at five for England so far in his Test career and is positioned at four for his county team.
Dawid Malan (30 years old) – 189 runs at 23 from five Tests
This journeyman batsman has had a scratchy start to his Test career, being dismissed cheaply in six out of eight innings. His two half-centuries came against the awfully-weak attack of the West Indies. Faced with the far superior bowlers of South Africa, Malan floundered, making scores of 1, 10, 18 and 6 from his two Tests against the Proteas.
Malan was a surprise selection to make his Test debut this July, having been regarded as more of a limited overs batsman. Many England fans at the time speculated that his eye-catching knock of 78 on T20 debut for England in late June was a contributing factor in Malan getting picked in the Test team just weeks later.
Opposed to Malan, South Africa’s quicks exposed the same weakness that Vince possessed in Tests – poor shot selection outside off stump. Malan is a batsman who loves to feel bat on ball, which is not surprising for a player whose strength has been short form cricket. The unrelenting accuracy of Josh Hazlewood will severely test Malan’s patience.
Jake Ball (26 years old) – two wickets at 114 from three Tests
Among the England bowlers, Ball is most similar in style to Stuart Broad. Like Broad, he is a beanpole (197cm tall) seamer who does not swing the ball or have unsettling pace, but rather tends to angle his deliveries in towards right handers seeking to get the ball to nip off the pitch in either direction.
For such a subtle method to be successful, accuracy is paramount. Broad boasts the required precision, which has helped make him an elite Test bowler, but Ball lacked it during his three-Test stint. Bowling in the 133-140kmh range without swing or tremendous accuracy makes it very difficult for a bowler to flourish at Test level.
Ball has been in great nick in county cricket this season, with 27 wickets at 25 from seven matches. But he is not in the same class as Broad, Anderson or Woakes and, like fellow back-up bowlers Overton and Crane, will likely only play if England find themselves in significant trouble.