With the skipper injured, JB is back on the field. Can't have had much of a rest

I wouldn't be surprised if the usual suspects came on calling for Vince to be dropped too. Certainly not for me. Far too early

yeah he should really get at least one more series

Surely the point of a team game is that when one of the team is going through a bad run then the other players carry the performance over. All players go through bad runs. I think that a lot of the calls for dropping players are media driven.

We talk about dropping the likes of Compton or Vince but who is there to replace them?

To put this into context my football team, AFC Wimbledon, after losing to 2-1 to Stevenage and going eight games without a win and sitting lower mid table had some of our fans calling for our manager's head. We kept him on, had a good second half of a season and got promoted.

They should give him another go, but there's no wrong in saying he's been hugely disappointing.

The difference for Vince was that he was not even in form when picked.
So there is likely a certain determination by selectors to stick with him.

Me, I am as ever bemused how he even got in the side, the glimmering of international standard being ever so faint.

compton has looked unconvincing for almost all his england career , even when he got the back to back hundreds against NZ they were pretty scrappy

i would counter your opening point by saying that surely its the responsibility of the selectors and coaches to put the best XI possible on the pitch and not just keep picking someone who is underperforming

lastly, a manager is very different to a player

If you look at the England football team we are starting with Kane and Rooney. But if they fail then we have Vardy, Sturridge and Rashford to step in.

I am not too clued up on the county scene outside Surrey so who do we have waiting in the wings to replace the likes of Compton and Vince. It is one thing to say drop them but who can we replace them with who will be demonstratively better?

Compton has failed to get a 50 in his last 18 Innings.
He has shown no form at all this season, and I think the problem is in his head.
Never rated him and he has lived up to my expectations.

I would be surprised if he plays another Test this summer.

Vince deserves longer as he can be a decent batsman, and has a better temperament.

Westley from Essex would be worth a try, to replace Compton.

scott borthwick who scored almost 1300 runs in the county championship last year at #3 and is averaging over 70 this year in first class cricket

james hildreth who scored almost 1400 runs in the county championship last year and is averaging over 60 in first class cricket this year

you have the option of promoting bairstow and bringing back buttler to keep

mark stoneman is having a decent year and was meant to be on the fringes last year, and you have a young guy like bell-drummond who is having a great year even tho i think its too early for him

edit : just to add that since compton was recalled he is averaging under 25 with just one fifty, i dont think it would be too hard to be "demonstratively better" than that

Continuity is fine, and it's much better than the way we used to chop and change, but there has to come a time when you say enough-is-enough. Compton doesn't average over 30 in 16 Tests now, that's a good run of Tests, and a poor run of results.

Scott Borthwick has scored tons of runs for Durham at 3, also gives us a bit of a leg-spin option (yet TBH that shouldn't really be much of a factor, he's just done better with the bat then everyone else at 3). In the end where does it stop being "fair" to carry on with Compo, and unfair to not give people like Robson and Borthwick who are churning out the runs in the Championship.

Sam Robson was only giving 7 matches, but his record is better than Straigtouttas, he clearly wasn't shown the loyalty. Should be said though, 7 isn't a bad run either. Ballance's record is infinitely better, but he seems to have forgotten how to cricket.

You've said a lot of what I've said afterwards. On Bell-Drummond, I think he will play for England many times, but this is his first break-out season, I wouldn't mind him getting a run-out in limited-overs, but not Tests against the likes of Amir.

There are a few encouraging youngsters around, Joe Clarke, Kohler-Cadmore from Worcs, Burnham from Durham are very good too.

Oh, and I've given up on my HildyforEngland stance, it's been almost a decade of hitting my head against a brick wall, which is probably why my posting is so crap.

i haven't seen alot of him but what i have seen of bell-drummond he looks like a real talent, spoken of fairly highly by a few pundits as well. he is probably at least a year away from playing test cricket and whilst i agree maybe introducing him via one-dayers would be a good move its probably harder to get a spot as a batsman in the one day team than the test team atm

Yeah, good point about the one-dayers, I keep forgetting we're kinda good at them nowadays, after so many years

Wasn't particularly worried about Cook's absence but Pradeep has just bowled his 3rd victim

Hales , not for the first time this summer, holding things together

Finn comes out as nightwatchman to protect Moeen

i'm hoping that with the weather forecast for the next couple of days and the signs of uneven bounce that we might already have enough, would like at least another 100 tho

and now Hales is dropped and the next ball bisects the keeper and the slips

Well the nightwatchman makes sense, because Cook can come in fall of next wicket.

Good thinking, hadn't thought of that

Yep, but England would have probably gone for Finn anywy. It's really the one thing I don't like about this "new England" their slavish devotion to boring night-watchmen.

Mind you it probably put's Broad in the position he deserves.

Pradeep can be pretty sharp can't he?

i'm not a fan of the night-watchman either but i think in this situation it was probably the right call

wonder how long nasser has been waiting to use that line today

"cook's gone from the CBE this morning to the A&E this afternoon"

Oh yeah agree as I mentioned before, just wanted a whinge about it always being done.

I think there are select times when it's very advantageous to have one, but not every bloody time a wicket falls close to the end.

Vince has a first class average of 40.... That's not good enough

Bit harsh. Its not like there were many other candidates and Eng had to pick someone new, unless they went back to Bell (gulp). Vince averages 40 in first class cricket, is averaging 40 in 2016 County Div1 too, has done reasonably well with Eng Lions on a number of tours. Unless they want to stick two fingers up to their own set-up I couldnt see Eng picking anyone else. Bell-Drummond a little too soon, esp playing so much Div2 county cricket. Borthwick a possibility. No-one else in the frame is there.