Well, it looks like the England cricket selectors might just read this column after all.
Surrey’s Jason Roy is being lined up to open the batting for England in the Ashes this coming summer. And given how bad Keaton Jennings is, how much worse can Roy actually be?
Granted, he may need to reign it in once in a while as it’s just not cricket to smack every ball for a boundary in red ball cricket. But I am genuinely excited about seeing this guy at the top of the order.
Now, if we could just find a number three between now and then I’d be a very happy man. I can’t see Joe Denly really being the answer for such a big home series.
For Ashley Giles, Mark Ramprakash wasn’t the batting coach to take England forwards either. Ramps, who it has to be said has probably done more as a coach than he ever did as a Test bat, has been told his contract will not be renewed after the Windies tour. Graham Thorpe will be taking over.
There’s plenty of white ball cricket to play before the Aussies bring their new cricketing culture to Blighty. Although England now return home from the Caribbean after series T20 triumph.
England won the first one by four wickets with seven balls remaining after Tom Curran managed to slow down the Windies first innings charge. Jonny Bairstow led England’s chase. Hitting 68 off 40 in a case of a man needing any kind of runs before the World Cup in the summer.
Chris Jordan was the star man in the second match. Taking 4/6 in eight balls after 50s from Joe Root and Sam Billings had put England’s total on the board. Jordan is the forgotten man of the 50 over game so it is unlikely that this magical spell will nudge him up the World Cup squad list. Especially after Jofra Archer gets his chance to prove his worth in the early season.
The third match, yet another Caribbean dead rubber, meant absolutely nothing to anyone. But, it still went ahead as these things do. England won it by 8 wickets completing their quickest ever run chase in T20 cricket, chasing down their target of 72 with 58 balls remaining. 3-0 England, then.
Let’s just move on to the World Cup preparation now, please.
