We look at the decisions England's new coach will need to make in order to revitalise their Test match fortunes.
England need a rethink
As Sir Ian Botham sat in the studio for the last time on Sunday, wearing a pair of shorts and with a glass of his own brand of white wine in hand, you could imagine the Sky Sports producers counting down the minutes until they could safely come off air.
Botham is popular, but a loose cannon. You’re never sure what’s going to happen next.
Sky have therefore decided to remove him from their coverage in favour of some younger, more dependable talent. England must be just as ruthless with their Test team.
Joe Root’s side are a liability. Nearly really good, but actually quite bad. Full of talent, but lacking the mindset and application to stick it out and show patience, particularly with the bat.
On the rare occasions that they have managed to do so, they generally let themselves down again soon afterwards – much like Botham when, having made an insightful tactical point, he quickly brings the conversation round to a recent round of golf and the wine in the clubhouse afterwards.
England’s new coach must tighten things up. Here are a few pointers to give him a headstart…
Accept Joe Denly has a Test future
Denly stumbled into the Test team by accident last winter, and nobody seemed to notice that he was still hanging around for the Ireland match at the start of the summer.
But it felt inevitable that he would be dropped as soon as the Ashes started and somebody important realised: ‘What? Joe Denly is *still* playing?’.
Yet the 33-year-old, who averages 36.53 in first-class cricket and should have spent the summer churning out runs on the county circuit for Kent, has somehow battled his way into England’s long-term plans.
So many of England’s batsmen leave you wanting more, but you can’t say that of Denly. He has ridden his luck but also maximised himself, ending the Ashes with half-centuries in the second innings in each of the last three Test matches.
It would still seem strange if Denly is selected for the winter tour to New Zealand, but now – absurdly – harsh if he isn’t.
Give Jonny Bairstow the boot
Bairstow has been tolerated for a long time in England’s Test team, but that patience must now be wearing thin.
The Yorkshireman has been adamant that he wants to keep wicket and bat at seven, much lower than somebody of his ability should be.
Yet, since the start of the 2018 summer, he has averaged just 24.23 in Test cricket. This stand-off has gone on so long that his batting has been reduced to the level expected of a lower-order chancer rather than a high-class batsman.
Now, the argument to drop him entirely carries more weight than the argument just to give somebody else the gloves.
If England’s new coach wants to make a statement that signals a new way forward for England’s Test team, dropping Bairstow for Ben Foakes could be the easiest way to do it.
Solve the Stokes/Curran conundrum
Ben Stokes: The icon of English cricket. World Cup hero, Ashes saviour, and the figure England must build their team around.
Sam Curran: The fearless youngster, whose performance in the fifth Test left everybody wondering where on earth he had been all this time. A wicket-taker with the ball and a game-changer with the bat.
The problem? It is difficult to see how two fourth seamers with heaps of batting ability can both fit into a balanced England Test team.
That’s harsh on Curran, who would be the man to miss out. But he is not yet good enough to be relied upon as the first-change fast bowler, and England have enough middle-order batsmen without Curran further fudging the issue.
The job for a new coach must be to work out whether Stokes should operate exclusively as a batsman, or how to improve Curran so that he and Stokes are good enough to take up two of the four bowling slots.
Find a place for Jimmy Anderson
Bar four overs before injury struck, Anderson played no part in an Ashes series for the first time since 2005. But, after he revealed last week that he is hoping to play for several more years yet, it would be a surprise if this turns out to be the end of Anderson’s Test career.
Yet, like so many of England’s other selection quandaries, his return does little to help the balance of the team.
A bowling attack featuring Anderson, Stuart Broad, Jofra Archer and Jack Leach is exciting, but leaves a team that prides itself on batting deep desperately short of runs from 8-11.
Of course, this would be less of an issue if England’s top seven could be trusted to score good runs consistently. That is what needs fixing the most.
But, with Root’s side likely to be scrabbling around for the right formula throughout the winter, a tough decision might have to be made on which of those four miss out for a bowling all-rounder, like Chris Woakes or Moeen Ali. If Anderson is in contention, then Leach should be the man to make way.
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