England’s big Ashes gamble: Major team selection call for second Test they cannot afford to lose
England have gambled on Surrey all-rounder Will Jacks for Thursday’s second Ashes Test in Brisbane after deciding against a repeat of the five-man pace attack that blew away Australia’s first innings in Perth.
With Mark Wood missing out because of his troublesome left knee, the selectors have passed over fast bowler Josh Tongue and Jacks’s fellow off-spinner Shoaib Bashir, for a game England cannot afford to lose if they are to stand any realistic chance of regaining the Ashes.
For Bashir, in particular, the choice comes as a blow. Since making his debut in February 24 in India, he has played in 19 of England’s 23 Tests, and been groomed by Ben Stokes as their No 1 slow bowler.
Jacks, by contrast, has not added to the two Test caps he won three years ago in Pakistan, and was the surprise selection when England named their 16-man Ashes squad in September.
In his favour is the greater depth to the batting he will offer from No 8, and the fact that he is a better fielder than Bashir, whose costly economy-rate of 3.78 may have been another factor in a pink-ball game where the spinner may need to keep batsmen quiet in the daylight hours, allowing the seamers to be let loose after dusk.
Will Jacks (above) will come into the England side for the second Ashes Test on Thursday
Shoaib Bashir had been groomed as the No 1 slow bolwer for Bens Stokes but is not picked
Asked before the XI was confirmed whether spin had a role to play at the Gabba, Stokes replied: ‘Definitely. You do try to look at Australia. They play a lot of day/night cricket here, and you look at how they use their spinner as an attacking option, or more to give the bowlers an easier rotation and to get through the overs quicker to have more time with the new ball under lights.
‘We will consider both those elements with how a spinner is to be used in a day/night game.’
The success in pink-ball Tests of Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon, who has 43 wickets in the format at the average of 25, support Stokes’s argument.
Jacks, though, can hardly be described as a frontline spinner.
Despite taking six for 161 on Test debut at Rawalpindi, his overall first-class record is a modest 49 wickets from 57 games at an average of 42.
Even his 50 white-ball internationals have produced only nine wickets.
Plainly, England are having an each-way bet, following their capitulation with the bat in Perth, where they were dismissed twice in a total of 67.3 overs.
Bashir could yet return for the third Test in Adelaide, which is expected to be the flattest pitch of the series, but for now he has been ignored as England go for broke in their bid to square the series.
