England start their summer with a loss, but no need to panic

Yep,We all love minnows

The only reason why England need not panic is, they get to have a go at Indian team 5 times next month.

I highly doubt that either Smith or Warner will be dropped for the World Cup - irrespective of whether they have practice or not. They will play assorted T20 tournaments to prove their form but I strongly suspect that they will be back in the side even if they spend the next 10 months twiddling their thumbs.

the penalties are way longer than a season for Smith & Warner, given the cricket that's scheduled as soon as their bans are finished. The bans finish in March and the World Cup starts in June. Neither guy should be picked as there would be no form guide to choose them. There's an Ashes series as well which they'll struggle to make, so 12 months suddenly becomes 18 months.

It's a whole home season for Smith and Warner, and half a one for Bancroft. Not exactly a slap on the wrist. Some intense working of the glass half full perspective by Saurabh here. Another perspective would be that the batting is relying on a fading Cook, and on Root and Bairstow being pushed up higher than they like; of the other 3 batsmen, one is now dropped after a lot of opportunities, the second (who to be fair was pretty good in the Ashes) has the reputation of not being good in his home conditions (and batted that way here) and the third having failed as a keeper batsman, and having the reputation of being too flashy to survive test bowling, is now being tried as a specialist no 7 batsman. Traditional team makeups are being further disregarded by insisting on making the keeper bat at 5 and still picking an attack of 3 bowlers and by the looks of it 2 batting all-rounders. And that's before pointing out that 2 of the 3 bowlers are getting well on in their careers and the 3rd is very injury prone. But no, just a glitch at Lords.

Spot on. I'd also add they have a very green captain.

Be quiet DaveJ. Stokes beat the crap out of an ex-squaddie, who along with his cowardly thug mates had been abusing gay guys in the bars and streets of Bristol that night, who later then threatened Alex Hales with a bottle outside one of the bars, before swinging the same bottle at another guy, at which point Stokes steps in and beats the crap out of him and his mate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvXDg4IcYiw I'd give him an MBE.

He's pretty decent, shame he's out.

Hmm...Australia plays nearly no games for 6 of those 12 months. So the 9month ban is in effect a 3month ban and the 12month ban is in effect a 6 month ban. I think the ban from domestic cricket is hurting them more since it does not allow them to be ready to make an international comeback once their bans are done.

Still has a court date does Mr Stokes and I suspect his ban might be a tad longer than 12 months if found guilty, especially if he's not making runs or taking wickets for England.

I thought the same Burgy but it's now clear that Bairstow is not a top 5 batsman, he needs to be played in his best position at 6/7. In 22 Test innings batting in the top five Bairstow has averaged just 27. Whereas he averages 42 when batting at 6/7 (from 70 innings).

“No need to panic”. Don’t worry, I’m not. In fact, the care factor is quite low. But seriously, don’t you love the fact that Steve Smith gets a one year ban for “misleading the umpires” over ball tampering, and Ben Stokes was only out half that time and a few matches after bashing the crap out of someone in the street?

I used to think Bairstow should shift up the order but he seems to lose the plot every time they bat him higher than 6.

Very rightly said, exactly to the point. On the contrary they have chosen to bat after winning the toss in a green-top pitch out of over confidence.

The lack of players coming through below that would be test standard is arguably their biggest issue right now. Why is Bairstow at five when this was meant to push him towards the top order, couldn't he fulfill this best at four, with Malan at five where he scored 383 runs in the Ashes series? This would mean Buttler taking the gloves at seven though perhaps? Bairstow is clearly the preferred and superior keeper. Even though his last dozen or so tests Cook has been either rocks or diamonds, I can't see them doing away with him until either he looks completely finished - ie. like Ponting in his last few tests, or there is a worthwhile replacement at the top, and right now the cupboard is a bit bare. The catching behind the wicket at Lord's crucified them too as others have rightly mentioned

It's going to be a rough next five years for England. They have some ok batting prospects but their bowling looks atrocious. We might finally be in with a shot over there next year if Smith returns in something close to good form.

I thought Babar was their biggest hope of beating England.. and they still smashed them without him!

England have now gone 8 Tests on the trot without a win. They're in a complete mess - their batting is dysfunctional and their bowling attack is very poor.

Sad that Pakistan has lost one of their best bats for the remainder of the series. I agree with you, if this isn't time to panic for England, when is? They've dropped Stoneman to bring back a guy who was previously part of the worst opening batting line up ever (until Stoneman and Cook proved worse). I really can't see why they're persisting with Cook. If you're going to be a losing team, may as well bring through some fresh blood. As for Malan, if he's the answer, I'm not sure what the question is. I also disagree with the author that Anderson is like a fine wine... He's not getting better with age, he's just returned to his native habitat and is therefore fixing that average again. Still England seem in major trouble once he's gone...