The thing with Sibley, you wouldn't mind his slow scoring rate if he was going on to make game changing scores, averaging 40+, à la peak Jonathan Trott. But he doesn't do that. He's a million miles away from that. All he does is put pressure on other batters to permanently keep things ticking along.
He’s not up to the standard required. I don’t know how long you can persist with the bloke. He’s had a fair crack, and it’s time to give someone else a go.
Like Hameed for example
India 209 to win then. An early couple of wickets makes it interesting, but you'd have to fancy they are strong favourites. Without a proper spinner or a pace merchant to mop up the tail, you always think teams can get a partnership going against us even if we do get a cluster of wickets.
Superb knock from Root. I fear the day when he is going to retire from his bad back from having to carry the side for so long. Also well done Sammy Curran, proper little grafter and shows a lot more guts than many of those batting above him.
I’d also take a Pieterson, Thorpe or Botham!How reliant are England on Joe Root?
We are bereft of batsmen. Long gone Strauss, Cook, Trott, Bell, Vaughan, Trescothick and even Collingwood who you could tell on to grind it out and support the more flamboyant batsmen.
During the course of his magnificent 109 at Trent Bridge - an innings brimming with so much class it would make James Bond think he has to buck his ideas up - Root passed 1,000 Test runs for the year. No other England player has more than 354.