Jonny Bairstow

Sadly, you're right.

He looks technically, mentally and probably even physically, out of shape.

Yes amazing how one man in cricket can be so uselss that it literally is difference between sides. Needs dropping.

plenty of justification for debating his spot as keeper but considering he made four hundreds last summer and was England's stand out with the bat it's a bit fickle to be looking to drop him when only recently back from a serious leg break....

Issues with the gloves must have an affect, at the very least, on his confidence.

Take the gloves away, free him up and see if he can rediscover last summer's verve.

He would terrify any lineup batting at his best.

effect*

His issues could also be having an impact among his compatriots in the field, too.

Unlikely they're sympathy drops at first but crazier things have happened.

Aren't we on 15 missed chances in five innings?!? Diabolical. (And some no-ball wickets, to boot)

No-brainer for me, getting Foakes back in.

could well do though pretty much means they have to go 4 seamers with Root as the spinner..Moen not good enough to be the spinner in a 4 man attack and Foakes not a number 6 by any stretch...

other knock on is that then Wood's workload would have to be more...not disputing the view but I think it's a difficult selection in the context of Leach missing and Stokes physical limitations...

Yup, agree with all of that.

Stokes and Leach injuries have shot any semblance of balance in our eleven.

Wood definitely can't up his load, he's essentially also been unavailable 'til now. It's forced our hand with Jimmy and/or Broad, too - further hampering things.

Crawley
Duckett
Stokes
Root
Brook
Bairstow
Foakes
Robinson
Wood
Broad
Anderson

Root as the spinner feels the least evil compromise.

Tongue and Woakes in for whoever needs resting, or is unfit, in that bowling selection.

Looks a very long tail, without Woakes, but again it's the compromise of playing Stokes *and* JB as batters.

I dunno

Bairstow is no keeper .. that is all

Please bring Foakes in and drop Crawley, stick Bairstow in to open we might as well at this point

Agree last year when Bairstow was brilliant pretty sure he was in as a specialist batsmen and not keeping. Seems strange to not do that again and why flakes isn't keeping.

anyone with half a brain knows that he is not good enough behind the stumps in  fact he is an embarrassment.

shocking decision to pick him as the keeper for the ashes and has cost us dearly already.

not convinced he is a test batsman either but that's open to debate.

poor selection and poor batting decision's has cost us this series already, the spinner position is also very poor judgement

all in all outstanding by stokes and some good bowling performances have kept us in with chances but we just dont seem to be able to see them off

5-0 could be on the cards

I don't think he is that bad a keeper to be fair. Problem is he isn't top notch.

People know this and it puts unfair pressure on him when asked to keep for England as No 1 keeper. When he was just in the squad as a batsman him and root were by far and away the best batsmen last year and took games away from sides.
Having Foakes in, would be a major plus for the side in terms of keeping and also might help steady the ship with the batting as there are plenty of bat's who swing the bat and score runs quickly in the side. If Foakes could hold one end up whilst the other lads have a swing it might work really well.


What's peoples view on brook in at 3 being so aggressive? Think it's fine if the openers have put on a decent opening stand and he was coming in at 100-1 or so but more often then not he is going to be going out facing a relatively new ball. Think it's wrong to ask him to change his game so not sure he works at 3? As if you end up 20-2 it puts a lot of pressure on.

That's the salient point, Theoneandonly...

He was not made to keep last summer and he had a party with the bat.

Granted, it's a fairly small sample (three matches), but all aspects of his game seem off right now.

Hell, we even selected Sam Billings as WK rather than stick JB behind the stumps!

I guess this selection muddle is all because of Stokes not being available to balance the side with his bowling (which only goes to show 1) the luxury of a class all-rounder and 2) the value of a quality wickie) but I really do hope they now see that this compromise is not the one to make...

Moen bowling well yesterday makes him  tough drop for Old Trafford...pretty much need a front line spinner there anyway unless you leave loads of grass on it...

Of the current line up would be tempted to bat moeen at 3 and would be inclined tell Woakes to bat a lot more sensibly. I've said for about 5 years technique wise he's o e of our best and from yesterday highlights he looked like a cat on a hot tin roof . We've got enough at the bottom of the order who can close their eyes and swing the bat. We needed someone to stay with Stokes yesterday. on the who keeps wicket would have Foakes in the team every day of the week. His batting is good enough and he doesn't try to review everything like Bairstow and Broad.

always a big ask to keep wicket with virtually no practice after such a serious injury think it was broken in 3 places ? as others have said when he was going ballistic last year foakes was keeping. very strange to give bairstow back the gloves just to avoid dropping a non performing batsman in crawley

no ideal solution but neutering the strength of bairstow at 5 and foakes behind the timbers to cover up a weakness was madness

What is being overlooked is the side is not balanced if Stokes cannot bowl.

We need 4 seamers and a spinner and without Stokes that leaves the tail far too long.

Johnny has been half decent before but this series he has been truly awful. His footwork was poor and some of his glove work shambolic.

The whole situation is really unfortunate but after the first Test they should have done something about it. He us not functioning as a batsman either and we have almost lost the Ashes already when we could be 2 Tests up.

I don’t think we have the right answers to balance the side currently but they must bite the bullet and reinstate Foakes. Anderson  for Robinson at Old Trafford and then decide which batsman to leave out. There has a chance Stokes himself may be unavailable, if he is he should bat 3 or as some day throw Foakes in at 3. Technically he is excellent and if they want to smash a new ball into the ground to get his wicket let them. Moen is better at 8.

Easy to have a go a Johnny but he is not the decision maker. Somebody else should take the rap for this.

not good enough to have the gloves in tests & it seems to be affecting his batting
however I agree its on the selectors for not picking a specialist keeper

They must have heard you King screwed.

another braindead shot

loosing count now.

hard to think it won't affect your batting if you're shelling chances left right and centre. a simply awful decision to give him back the gloves

Bairstow has to go, he's not scoring runs and not going for catches either, Brook took another catch, which was an absolute lollipop catch, for the keeper and then chases after a catch that was a very comfortable catch for fine leg to take, but anything but, for the keeper. He has little confidence with the bat either and the wicketkeeper, is the most important position on the field. Ben Foakes is our best keeper and should be in the side for the final 2 Test Matches. He is the best wicketkeeper we have, has never let England down and just as importantly he is in good form with the bat, having scored 436 runs this season at an average of 43.60. The slip cordon then may become more efficient as well, because they will have more confidence in where Foakes may stand and we have seen a number of chances falling just short of the slip fielders in this series. The only change that will be made is Jimmy Anderson who will come in for Ollie Robinson and hope that he can find his way back into the wickets. If we do keep jonny bairstow in the side then I think we are blowing any hope of us winning 2 games on the trot, against a very good Australian side.

the no3 spot is the problem.to put someone in there means dropping someone other than bairstow.i personally think putting moen in there worked even though he only got 5.it brought valuable time and balls until the likes of brooks and stokes were exposed.keep moen there with the remit of batting for time and wearing down the bowlers and ball.

Absolutely right nineteen although my candidate was Woakes. I said years ago he should bat higher up and get used to pace as a side with Anderson, Broad, Archer and Stokes had no place for him. At the time we had no candidates for 3. We also had Curran who can still do a job for England. I am not sure how effective Woakes is on a flat pitch well though he did here.

The problem England have is how to maintain a 5 man attack without Stokes. Woakes has strengthened the tail.

The other problem is Bairstow is not functioning as a keeper or batsman. Foakes must come in but who to leave out?

Anderson comes in at Old Trafford for Robinson.  Foakes comes in for? I cannot see Bazball picking him and that has already nearly cost us The Ashes.

he has to be dropped ..end of . the other positions are up for debate but a decent keeper is not

this is test cricket we need a test quality keeper and it aint jhonny

curran could be a call if it looks like hooping around then could drop bairstow for foulkes.

England have named an unchanged 14-player squad for the fourth Ashes Test at Old Trafford.

It means there is no place for Surrey wicketkeeper Ben Foakes, with Jonny Bairstow set to retain the gloves.

Its on the selectors now if Bairstow costs England the series!

If?

stubborn handjobs..can't be seen to be changing their 'philosophy'..stick to the old boys network..fk the fans

was a huge ask to win 2 more..more or less ensuring we don't now..hope springs eternal and all that but don't hold your breath

hard to come to any other conclusion. making it almost impossible to win 2 more back to back if we have to create 50-60 chances to take 40 wickets. got away it this time but unlikely to continue

First name on the sheet

Deserves a place now. Nowhere near fit enough for keeping in the first couple of tests and it showed.

Been a lot better last two Tests but his early drops contributed hugely to us being 2-0 down. I don’t blame him. Stokes wounded knee and selectors to blame but I am not calling for change just for them to think about what they are doing.