mal wrote:Are England a properly balanced team away from sub cont series?
England playing 2 spinners is always risky if the opposition bats first
But that gives them 5 bowlers and variation, so ?
The problem is the batting depth
Joe Root is the only decent batsman
Currently there are 3 players in this team v WI who are also keepers
Bairstow, Butler, Foakes
Its like Australia playing Carey, Wade and Paine in the same team
WI 289
EG 77
WI 6/127
I've been thinking similarly about England. Root is class and they're filling their batting line up with 3 keepers and 2 allrounders like you said because the batsman they have tried since Root debuted haven't been up to it.
You have-
Gary Ballance
Sam Robson
Adam Lyth
Alex Hales
James Vince
Haseeb Hameed
Dawid Malan
Tom Westley
Mark Stoneman
Ollie Pope
Rory Burns
Nick Compton debuted in the same series as Root, India in India 2012/13, while James Taylor (now retired) was before Compton and Bairstow before Taylor.