Brooks and county stars come out to defend Hales and Rashid

Prominent county players have broken ranks on Twitter to defend the decision by Alex Hales and Adil Rashid to reject the red ball as the England Lions struggle to make Test cases to fill the breach

^{Jack Brooks has voiced his opinion about white-ball contracts}

Prominent county players have broken ranks on Twitter to defend the decision by Alex Hales and Adil Rashid to reject the red ball in favour of the white this summer.

Rashid says he may review the decision ahead of 2019, with Hales’ moratorium on four-day cricket lasting the duration of his new one-day contract at Trent Bridge, which last two years.

Rashid’s team-mate, the likeable Jack Brooks, is an articulate and fair-minded commentator on the game.

“Was only a matter of time!” he tweeted. “Less time-consuming games, less workloads on body, more cash, bigger crowds, modern society. Frustrating from a team-mates’ view not to have them available but respect the decision.”

He was replying to Nottinghamshire’s former England one-day bowler Harry Gurney, who tweeted: “The decisions of @alexhales1 and Rash recently are brave and just the tip of the iceberg. Many more will follow them in the next few years. Red-ball cricket is an endangered species whether we like it or not. And those who berate them are the reason for it.”

^{Alex Hales has chosen a white-ball only contract}

It was a view shared by Northamptonshire’s captain, Alex Wakely, who said: “I fully understand why players are opting to become white-ball specialists. Why wouldn’t they? It’s not this generation it will affect, it is the next as they look to follow. The game has changed. Dangerous times for the structure of domestic cricket.”

We were not entirely sure if Wakely's team-mate Josh Cobb was being serious, though, when he tweeted: “So many guys turning their backs on red-ball cricket. Real shame to see. #takingtheeasyoption #nograft #sloggers #takingthefunroute  #manymoretocome”.

With all this going on at home, it has been interesting to watch the England Lions struggle in the West Indies.

The home spinners have had the tourists on the ropes, going 2-0 up with one ‘Test’ to play after the matches at Trelawny and Kingston, both in Jamaica.

The main five batters have all had starts but have failed to convert.

The seamers have understandably struggled on low, spinning surfaces, as has Mason Crane, who made his Test debut at the SCG this winter.

Only Somerset’s slow left-armer Jack Leach has made a clear case for a Test call-up this summer, with series figures of 14 for 248.

ENGLAND PROSPECTS IN LIONS' CLASH WITH WEST INDIES A

BATSMEN

Keaton Jennings 49, 0; 28, 20

Haseeb Hameed 13, 39, 23, 18

Nick Gubbins 50 20, 0, 22

Joe Clarke 1, 31, 56, 6

Liam Livingstone 21, 1, 0, 48

BOWLERS 

Jamie Porter 2-47, 0-11; 0-51

Toby Roland-Jones 1-48, 2-55; 1-42

Jack Leach 3-84, 5-26; 6-138

Mason Crane 0-43, 1-13; 0-59