England “agonised” about dropping Ben Foakes for next month’s one-off Test against Ireland before concluding the wicketkeeper giving way for the returning Jonny Bairstow was the only logical option.
Despite being regarded as one of the world’s best glovemen and averaging a respectable 38.9 with the bat in nine Tests under Ben Stokes’ leadership, Foakes has been jettisoned in favour of Bairstow in a 15-strong squad for the Lord’s contest that serves as England’s only tune-up ahead of the Ashes series.
Bairstow’s six hundreds in 2022, before breaking his leg in three places in August, meant he was a shoo-in to reclaim his spot but how England would accommodate the Yorkshireman was left open to debate.
His county colleague Harry Brook registered four centuries over the winter, making the number five spot his own, after replacing Bairstow, while there was a suggestion of Stokes opening to free up a middle-order space.
But Rob Key insisted any funky rejig of the batting order was never on the cards and the irresistible form of Bairstow, who has kept twice for Yorkshire this season and in 49 of his 89 Tests, under Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum meant he was given the nod over Foakes.
“It is something we agonised over for quite some time,” said Key, the England and Wales Cricket Board director of men’s cricket.
“You’ve got two very good cricketers: Ben Foakes who has just done absolutely everything that has been asked of him and you’ve also got Jonny Bairstow who was one of the best batsmen in the world last year.
“It’s then how do you fit them both in? We couldn’t find a way to do that so we’ve ended up with Jonny keeping and batting at number seven.
“We didn’t think about square pegs in round holes. As hard as it is on Ben Foakes, you look at the potential line-up and you think it looks a very, very good side with Jonny in there.”
With a month to go until the start of the Ashes there remain concerns over Stokes’ longstanding left knee injury while Stephen Fleming, his head coach at Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League, said recently the all-rounder’s ability to bowl remains “a bit of a challenge”.
Ollie Pope’s unveiling as vice-captain on Tuesday provided a hint of intrigue ahead of the visit of Ireland from June 1-4, having stood in for Stokes in England’s warm-up matches over the winter.
However, Key does not expect Pope to fulfil captaincy duties at the home of cricket and is, for now, happy that Stokes will be able to perform to his usual standard ahead of a bumper summer.
“At the moment I have no concerns about that,” said Key of Stokes, who has not featured in the IPL since early April.
“I think Ben’s actually been probably getting more rest than he would have done had he been doing anything else.
“Even though he’s out at the IPL, every time I speak to him and communicate in whatever way, all he’s thinking about really is the Ashes.
“Sometimes you can never be 100 per cent sure what Stokesy does. His instincts are generally very good on those things but at this point in time, I don’t see him (missing the Ireland Test).”
As expected, James Anderson keeps his place in the squad despite suffering a mild strain to his right groin last week. England will continue to monitor Anderson and a decision about whether to field their record wicket-taker in the summer’s curtain-raiser will be made nearer to the time.
“I’ve had the odd WhatsApp with Jimmy – he’s not concerned which is a good thing really because we want to see Jimmy Anderson for as much as we can,” added Key.
England have been hit with further injuries to Jofra Archer and Olly Stone, leaving Mark Wood as their only express pace option but fellow fast bowler Chris Woakes, who has taken 94 wickets at 22.63 in home conditions and 27 at 11.33 at Lord’s, is brought back in for the first time since March last year.
Stuart Broad, Ollie Robinson and the recalled Matthew Potts provide the other specialist seam options, with Jack Leach as the frontline spinner. Dan Lawrence provides batting cover.
England men’s Test squad to face Ireland at Lord’s from June 1-4: B Stokes (captain), J Anderson, J Bairstow, S Broad, H Brook, Z Crawley, B Duckett, D Lawrence, J Leach, O Pope, M Potts, O Robinson, J Root, C Woakes, M Wood.
IPL: Mumbai Indians condemned to last-place finish after 18-run defeat to Super Giants
Rohit Sharma's half-century was not enough for Mumbai Indians as they slipped to an 18-run defeat to Lucknow Super Giants at Wankhede Stadium.
The defeat consigned Mumbai to bottom place in the Indian Premier League for the second time in the space of three seasons, after losing 10 matches this year.
LSG were also left to lament their misfortune, as despite reaching 14 points, they did not qualify for the play-offs.
KL Rahul's 55 got the ball rolling for Lucknow, but their innings was ebbing out until Nicholas Pooran's dazzling 29-ball 75 took them to 214-6, despite the efforts of Nuwan Thushara (3-28) and Piyush Chawla (3-29), who stepped up in Jasprit Bumrah's absence.
Rohit's 38-ball 68 set the tone for what looked set to be a promising Mumbai chase, as he struck 13 boundaries around a short rain delay.
However, Mumbai went from 88 without loss to 120-5 in the space of six overs, leaving the tail with too much of a mountain to climb.
Data Debrief: Lucknow miss out
While Mumbai sit bottom of the pile yet again, it is a case of what might have been for LSG, who for the first time in their three-season history, failed to make the top four.
Fourteen points is often enough to get over the line and into the play-offs, but their poor net run rate of -0.667 means they miss out.
Tape ball programme can help England find unorthodox talent – Richard Gould
The England and Wales Cricket Board hopes to unearth a new seam of talent beyond the game’s traditional league structure with a national tape ball scheme that allows players to thrive without “whites, willow and leather”.
The practice of using a soft ball wrapped in electrical tape to aid swing and variable bounce is a common one in Asia, where it has helped produce express pace bowlers like Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi and spinners such as Rashid Khan and Shakib-al-Hasan, but has been slow to enter the mainstream conversation in the United Kingdom.
The Chance to Shine charity has long pioneered tape ball cricket as part of its engagement hubs and now, with the ECB keen to live up to its lofty aspiration of becoming the most inclusive team sport in the country, it is at the heart of a new core cities programme designed to engage ‘diverse communities in urban areas’.
Speaking at a launch event where games were hosted in a warehouse space in Birmingham, ECB chief executive Richard Gould was optimistic about reaching out to those with an interest in cricket but limited access to the pavilions and prepared pitches in the club setup.
“We talk about clubs with picket fences around them. In the past that has been seen as the preserve of the ECB. We’ve missed a complete trick on that,” he said.
“When we talk about the recreational game we’re not just talking about Premier League clubs and village cricket clubs now. We’re talking about all forms of cricket that take place.
“You can play the game anywhere, any time, with anybody, in any environment you want. You don’t have to have whites, willow and leather to do it. You can just pick up a bat and a ball and have some fun.”
As well as fulfilling its remit of reaching out to all comers at a grassroots level, Gould also believes there are benefits to finding cricketers with different styles who have learned the game outside the traditional, private-school heavy pathways.
“Without doubt there are,” he said. “We have to get out and try to find the talent. More to the point, we have to try and find talent in areas that we haven’t normally looked for it.
“I do think county pathways will be looking to make sure they don’t miss out on this talent. It’s just about punching through all of our normal procedures and finding ways to both get people in the game and unearthing that talent which may be unorthodox and great.”
Meg Lanning: Exercise obsession and not enough fuel led to Australia retirement
Former Australia captain Meg Lanning revealed her “obsession” with exercise and not eating enough precipitated her surprise international retirement late last year.
Lanning was at the helm of one of the most dominant eras the sport has ever seen but she missed last year’s Ashes for medical reasons and pulled the plug on her Australia career in November.
She opened up about her hidden health issues on the Howie Games podcast, explaining that running up to 90 kilometres a week coupled with eating two small meals a day led to her dropping from 64kg to 57kg.
View this post on Instagram“I was over-exercising and under-fuelling,” the 32-year-old said. “It wasn’t a physical thing. I’ve always been really physically active and liked that side of it, but it became a bit of an obsession.
“I’d maybe eat a couple of meals a day if I was lucky but they weren’t significant. Initially it didn’t start off as a deliberate thing, it just became a bit of a new normal.
“But it slowly crept into conscious decisions because essentially I felt good.
“I wasn’t getting injured like everybody was telling me I was going to do. It sort of just spiralled and I was in denial, even though everybody kept telling me something wasn’t quite right.
“I was not in a place to be able to go on tour and play cricket and give the commitment levels that were required for that Ashes series, mentally and physically.”
Lanning, who led Australia to five World Cup titles in total and Commonwealth Games glory in 2022, said her struggle was not officially diagnosed as an eating disorder.
“It wasn’t labelled as that but I was exercising a lot and I wasn’t eating enough to fuel that – it was a bit out of whack,” Lanning said.
“It was a bit of control because I felt very out of control with what my future looked like. I felt like I was in control of that and that made me feel better.”
Lanning sought help from medical professionals after also struggling with insomnia and continues to play domestically, while she has been signed for London Spirit for The Hundred this year.
“I dreaded night time because I knew I would go to bed and not be able to sleep,” she said. “That would make me so mad. I would just get more angry with myself. If you can’t sleep, you can’t do anything.
“I feel like I’m in a good spot now. Cricket is still part of what I do. But I wasn’t cut out for the international touring schedule and what came with all of that.”
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