England can't afford to bring in Test rookies for Ashes dead rubbers with Australia scenting blood

Mark Wood is yet to claim a five-wicket haul in Test cricket
AFP/Getty Images
Tom Collomosse19 December 2017

Before England think of making changes to their team for the final two Ashes Tests, they should consider these names: Scott Borthwick and Boyd Rankin.

When an Ashes series is lost, the temptation is always to discard experienced players and bring in new ones. England succumbed to it during the 2013-14 campaign, for the final Test at Sydney, and were thrashed in two and a half days after one of their most embarrassing performances of recent times. Borthwick and Rankin were the surprise picks for that match, in January 2014, and neither has played Test cricket again.

That is why captain Joe Root and coach Trevor Bayliss will surely be careful before they start handing out debuts for one of the toughest challenges in the game — the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne Cricket Ground, in front 90,000, most of whom hope to cheer Australia towards another 5-0 whitewash.

At least one change looks certain: Craig Overton admits that the broken rib he suffered on the second day at Perth, when trying to take a return catch, is likely to rule him out.

Similarly, Stuart Broad is carrying a knee problem that required a scan before he played at the WACA, where he was below his best. Overton has hopes of playing at Sydney but it seems likelier that his next appearance will be in New Zealand, where England play two Tests, five one-dayers and two Twenty20 matches early next year.

If Broad is fit, though, it would be a huge gamble to leave him out. Would Tom Curran, awaiting his first Test cap, or the talented but fragile Mark Wood really do a better job? Wood is yet to claim a five-wicket haul in Test cricket and while Curran has impressed with the white ball for England, a debut at the MCG is not so much the deep end as the Mariana Trench.

Moeen Ali is miles from top form with both bat and ball but would Mason Crane, the only other specialist slow bowler in the squad, really make England stronger? Crane is a highly promising leg-spinner but he has never played Test cricket, and in the tour match at the start of this month, he returned match figures of one for 114, when he was bludgeoned around Perth’s Richardson Park by batsmen nowhere near the Australian Test team.

Even allowing for the short boundaries and the series of declarations in that game, it should have told England that Crane is not yet ready to bowl at Steve Smith and David Warner, and the feeling among some England players is that Crane is too raw to be thrown in just yet.It is a similar story with the batting, where national selector James Whitaker — in Australia with the squad — has questions to answer.

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Whitaker would point to the success of Dawid Malan and Overton and the glimpses of promise shown by James Vince and Mark Stoneman, yet it was foolish not to include another opening batsman in the party.

Alastair Cook is in a wretched run but there is no pressure on his place from within the squad. Gary Ballance, the spare batsman, made his debut in that Sydney Test nearly four years ago but it would be a huge surprise if he were there again in 2018. There is no doubt that Root would have expected more from Cook and Broad (right), though the latter does not deserve some of the criticism aimed his way after he produced skilful, hostile spells for little reward at both Brisbane and Adelaide.

Yet Cook has nearly 12,000 Test runs while Broad is closing on 400 wickets. If either were omitted, it would let Australia know England were panicking — and then Smith and company really would start to fancy their chances of a whitewash.

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