There is life in the old dog yet. That much was clear as Jimmy Anderson tuned up for his Test swansong next week by picking up six wickets in an epic 10-over spell, his first of the season for Lancashire.
You do not need to be a county number one to be England’s first choice. This, perhaps, is the theme of the first Test squad of the summer, detectable both in England’s preference of Jamie Smith to Ben Foakes as wicketkeeper and their endorsement of Shoaib Bashir, rather than Jack Leach, as spin bowler.
WITH England’s dismal performances in the recent World Cup, question marks are already been sent in the direction of skipper Jos Buttler and coach Matthew Mott and, although I have always had reservations about Mott, the same surely can't be said of Buttler.