England Squad for 2nd test

2nd Investec Test: England v Pakistan at Manchester

Jul 22-26, 2016 (11:00 local | 10:00 GMT | 11:00 IST)

In my views, England and Trevor should consider batting James as opener. Bring Joe back to familiar 2nd down, where he is most successful and more importantly comfortable. Straight swap between Adil and Moeen. Play Alex at first drop. I wanted another batsmen instead of Gary and Alex, especially Gary but as no spare batsmen available in XIV, will have to stick to these 2 guys.

So my final XI would be :
1. Alastair Cook, 2. James Vince, 3. Alex Hales, 4. Joe Root, 5. Jonny Bairstow, 6. Gary Ballance, 7. Ben Stokes, 8. Chris Woakes, 9. Adil Rasheed, 10. Stuart Broad, 11. James Anderson

I know its not gonna happen.
But if you see we have 7 pure batsmen (including Ben, he is no less). 4 quality seamers (including Ben again) including in form Chris and one leg-spinner who could bat as well. May be, we are past prime of Stuart's (batting) but he has few good days left. Only James is a specialist no 11. All others can bat. We could get few partnership-breadking overs from Joe and James. Personally, I would like to have see a better wicket-keeper. Nonetheless Jonny would have kept his place a specialist batter. He has shown enough. In that case, straight swap for Gary to Wicket-keeper. And my XI would have looked like :


1. Alastair Cook, 2. James Vince, 3. Alex Hales, 4. Joe Root, 5. Jonny Bairstow, 6. Ben Stokes, 7. Chris Woakes, 8. Wicket-keeper 9. Adil Rasheed, 10. Stuart Broad, 11. James Anderson

England and Trevor should think about it.