The Ashes: Selections for the Oval - Part 1

It has been reported that tomorrow’s England squad for the fifth Ashes test will exclude Ravi Bopara, and include Jonathan Trott, with Ian Bell moving into Bopara’s number 3 spot. Rarely has an England selection been so heavily scrutinised. There is always speculation, but the fact that it is the Ashes, that the series is in the balance, and that there has been a two-week gap between tests, allowing time for debate, has led to especially high levels of interest. The main debate has been over the batting line-up, where apart from Andrew Strauss, none of the batsmen have been in their best form. Excluding the more extreme and fanciful opinions, that saw pundits scrapping much of the top order, there were two heads on the chopping block: Bell and Bopara. Dropping Bopara seems to have been straightforward, his form is woeful, despite a half century for Essex this week, and by all accounts, his mental state has suffered. A talented player, he will get another chance at test cricket, and hopefully he will be able to learn a few lessons and rebound. There was an argument for giving him for one last test, and other players in similar positions have been retained and played their way into form, but those individuals (e.g. Matthew Hayden in 2005) have previously proven their worth, and earned some faith.
The other man under pressure was Bell. Despite a 50 at Edgbaston, and the fact that he was not the only batsman to fail at Headingley, his career record: good, but not as good as it could be, has counted against him. There is little patience for a man who has been around for five years without turning into the pressure performer England needs him to be. Nonetheless, he has not been long back in the side, and with that score at Edgbaston, he kept the selectors interested. This may turn out to be a key moment in his career. A creditable performance now could make the second half of his career. Another failure and although he will probably figure for England again, he may well fade away before the next Ashes series. However, for this game, once the decision to drop Bopara was made, it was unlikely that a second batsman would go. To drop two out of five would be a drastic response, create more uncertainty, and undermine the consistency of selection previously. Meanwhile, the likes of Cook and Collingwood may have been below par, but both have produced scores at key moments in this series, to show that they still belong on this stage.
As for the men vying for selection in Bopara’s place, another post will follow in due course.