Injuries and IPL

Will Jacks has been ruled out of England's tour of Bangladesh due to a thigh injury and is now flying home. If he is ruled out of the IPL that allows him to claim insurance from the Indians, but that also means he won't be available for us.

We are missing Sam Curran, Reece Topley, and Jacks for the IPL but it does mean we have Jordan, TC, and Roy available, so what do you do with them?

On the subject of the IPL… hilarious to see Ben Stokes complain about the crowded schedule yet he’s hobbling off to the IPL on one knee instead of resting. I wonder why.

RB wrote:Will Jacks has been ruled out of England's tour of Bangladesh due to a thigh injury and is now flying home. If he is ruled out of the IPL that allows him to claim insurance from the Indians, but that also means he won't be available for us.

We are missing Sam Curran, Reece Topley, and Jacks for the IPL but it does mean we have Jordan, TC, and Roy available, so what do you do with them?

I don't believe any of them should be in our 4-day team. Anyway, I thought TC was taking a rest from red ball.
With the squad we've got only Jacks or perhaps Sam will be a loss.

I think I would play Jason Roy, though, if Stewie is good to his word that he is available and wants to play red ball cricket. I’d certainly have him over someone like Steel!

Burns, Sibley, Pope, Geddes/Patel, Roy, Foakes could easily be our top 6 and that’ll do me.

RB are you seriously saying Patel, Geddes and Roy are better championship batters than Smith? Pope will only make guest appearances before the Ashes I'm afraid, though in fairness to him he has always done more than his bit for Surrey when available.

The question you have not tackled is the bowling, I doubt we will play a spinner with Jacks hors de combat or IPL'd, so we may find ourselves with five pacemen - probably Lawes, Clark, Abbott, Worral and Roache. This is a strong lineup considering we are likely to be without quality bowlers such as Curran, Overton and Topley. It also enables us to bat a good way down the order. No doubt injuries are on the way to test our squad depth further.

Sorry, a bit off topic!

offdrive4 wrote:RB are you seriously saying Patel, Geddes and Roy are better championship batters than Smith?  Pope will only make guest appearances before the Ashes I'm afraid, though in fairness to him he has always done more than his bit for Surrey when available.

I can’t imagine the ECB demanding Pope (and Foakes) rest before the six tests (don’t forget Ireland) with the possible exception of the pre-season friendlies. They don’t really need any rest as they are not involved in anything else. The only other batter involved in the Test side and nothing else is Crawley - everyone else is either in the one day team and/or the IPL - and I can’t imagine him resting either.

I’m neither saying or not saying anything about Smith but it was a thought that I thought the three above were ahead of him in the pecking order. He’s certainly in the conversation if we assume Burns, Sibley, Pope, and Foakes are nailed in. However, I would like to see all of the people I mentioned before we see Steel.

In terms of the bowling I imagine Roach, Abbott, and Worrall will lead the attack with able support from others, but without Overton, Topley, Jacks, or the Currans it’s not a hugely strong attack and I would be tempted to play one or both spinners. Could well be we see Jordan Clark or Lawes to “balance” the side at 7 and then play Virdi or Moriarty.

Jason Roy signs for Kolkata, replacing Shakib Al Hasan.

As he is centrally contracted by the ECB they’re allowed to pick up English players as replacements - they aren’t if they’re non-contracted (the one silver lining for counties).