After conducting a never ending search for a partner to Alastair Cook, England now require an entirely new partnership. There are several candidates in the mix, ranging from the standout men in the championship to the most recent opener occupants
Will Rory Burns (left), Joe Denly or Nick Gubbins (right) replace Alastair Cook?
How do you replace the irreplaceable? After the announcement of Alastair Cook’s England retirement following the fifth Test against India at The Oval, the England selectors must cast their minds to the impossible: replacing the legendary England opener. They must do so quickly, too, with tricky tours to Sri Lanka and West Indies on the horizon this winter.
The Essex batsman, with 12,254 Test runs and 32 Test centuries, has been criticised for his poor form over the last couple of years but we are all about to discover just how much we took his stability and calmness at the top of the order, perhaps almost as significant as his runs, for granted. You don’t know what you had until it’s gone, after all.
After conducting a never ending search for a partner to Alastair Cook, England now require an entirely new partnership. Who could fill these two spots then? There are several candidates in the mix, ranging from the standout men in the championship to the most recent occupants at the top of the order.
The options
Keaton Jennings
The man in possession, albeit with very little favour remaining in the bank. After decent, but certainly not stellar, returns in his opening stint that tailed off after a Test century on debut in Mumbai, Jennings has regressed to the mean experience of all hopefuls that have tried to fill the role of Alastair Cook’s opening partner since the retirement of Andrew Strauss in 2012.
With his Test average now standing at a lowly 22.65, and with only one hundred and a single fifty to his name from 20 innings, Jennings footwork has become static and his mind, as his first innings dismissal in Southampton attested to, scrambled. For continuity and to avoid throwing in two newcomers in Sri Lanka, Jennings stands a good chance of at least making the squad.
Keaton Jennings has struggled in his second stint in the England side but may get the nod for Sri Lanka
Rory Burns
The country’s leading run scorer, Rory Burns is a leading candidate to replace Cook at the top of the order. With a composed technique, despite the moving parts, and solidity to his game, Burns fits the Essex man’s mould while his average of over 60 and scoring of over 1,000 runs in first-class cricket in 2018 makes him by far the most complete option.
In fact, Burns has scored over 1,000 runs in his last five championship seasons and he possess a handy first-class career average of 43.92. It is likely that he will make the squad for Sri Lanka.
Joe Denly
Left-field choice but the whispers grow ever louder for Denly to make his first Test appearance in Sri Lanka, eight years after his short limited overs tenure in the England side. Denly is right-handed, a big plus as Ed Smith and co search for more right-handers to compliment a ‘lefty’ heavy batting line-up while he has 10,812 career first-class runs at an average of 36.
Denly has three centuries and two fifties to his name in the red ball game in 2018, albeit in division two, however he has caught the eye of England selectors because of the strides they believe he has made to his game under the pressure of T20 leagues across the world.
The thirty-two-year-old also has one of the best weighted averages, a metric that England’s selectors use which takes into account a variety of factors when assessing a batsman’s statistics and he is edging his way towards the head of the contending pack.
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Nick Gubbins
Left-handed Middlesex opener Nick Gubbins is another on England’s radar after a few outstanding years with the bat. Gubbins is averaging 40 in division two this season but his favour is believed to be on the wane a little due to an inability to convert starts into major scores.
The twenty-four-year-old has time on his side but the fact he is a left-hander, with other left-handers ahead of him in the pecking order, makes him a less likely choice.
Mark Stoneman
Surrey opener Mark Stoneman is the most recent partner to Cook before Jennings and he is an outside choice to fill the void. Stoneman made five fifties in his 20 Test innings for England at an average of 27.68 but struggled on tricky away tours to Australia and New Zealand.
Stoneman has also had a poor 2018 season, dropped from England after failing in the first Test of the summer against Pakistan before struggling for Surrey up until scoring his first century of the season against Nottinghamshire last time out. If England are looking for Test experience then he is in with a chance but Stoneman is an unlikely pick.
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James Vince
James Vince is England’s nearly man. Where would his career be now if he had converted his 83 against Australia in the first Test down under last winter? This is all if’s, buts and maybes of course but could Vince, who was called up as injury cover for Jonny Bairstow ahead of the fourth Test against India, be an option to open?
While Vince bats at three for Hampshire, he is right-handed and one of the championships outstanding performers this season with 877 runs at an average of 51. There is also an argument that he has enjoyed a rather unlucky time for England so far and that he deserves more time.
Moeen Ali
England head to Sri Lanka this winter where spin will play a huge part. Ali, who has opened for the national side in the subcontinent before, is an option to resume that role. After moving to number three during England’s second innings at the Ageas Bowl, Ali made it clear that he is willing to put the team above himself, indeed he has batted in every position between one and seven in his time in the Test side.
Ali, though, does not help the left-hander issue nor does he help the problem of England having too many stroke players and not enough grinders, for want of a better term.
Daryl Mitchell would be a left-field choice for the England opener spot
Daryl Mitchell
The biggest left-field selection option doing the rounds is perhaps that of veteran opener Daryl Mitchell. The thirty-four-year-old has 750 runs at an average of 41.60 in first-class cricket this season while he also possesses 12,300 career red ball runs at an average of 40.72.
Alongside those decent stats, Mitchell is right-handed and brings much needed solidity and experience to the table. Mitchell’s name has been thrown around for a number of years now in opener debates so who knows?