It’s that time again. Just before a Cricket World Cup. English cricket’s silly season.
In 2003, it was the – admittedly serious – Zimbabwe issue, where England’s administrators hummed and hawed about whether or not they should tour, then left it to the players to decide anyway, and they opted out.
Four years later, Andrew Flintoff felt like he might make a suitable captain for a late-night pedalo expedition in St Lucia. He went overboard, and it was promptly decided he perhaps was not fit to vice-captain the national cricket team, after all.
Most recently, it was the decision to bin Alastair Cook as captain in 2015, and from the squad altogether in fact, right at the last minute.
Four years of “planning” thrown out the window more or less just as they were boarding the plane for Australia and New Zealand. No wonder that did not end well.
And no wonder England have never won the World Cup. Or even made a final since 1992. There is something about World Cups that makes them go all giddy, and lose their grip just as it heaves into view.
The 2019 vintage had looked like being above all that. Marching on more or less serenely – the odd bar fight here and there, notwithstanding – under the leadership of a canny and calculating captain, they looked to be eyeing up their home event with justifiable reason for optimism.
And then Alex Hales happened. Hales was deselected on April 29, after English cricket’s powers-that-be decided that he might provide an unwanted distraction from the task in hand. What with him having just served a suspension for recreational drug use and that.
Whatever the whys and wherefores, or right and wrongs of the decision to jettison Hales, it did leave enough time for all that noise to pass before the competition starts.
He was only going to be back up for the starting XI anyway. A world-class substitute, right enough. One who could cover pretty much any position in the batting order. And one with a list of England’s individual batting records to his name.
But he still might only have played if someone else needed a rest in a tournament for which just looking at the fixtures schedule is exhausting.
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So far, so fair. Ditch Hales, OK. But England’s biggest decision is still yet to be made.
If they opt to fill that vacant 15th place in their squad with anybody but Jofra Archer when the final list is sent to the ICC on May 23, then it really is the silly season.
Archer’s late run for selection had apparently troubled some of the present incumbents. Chris Woakes, the fast-bowler who would be, when fit, one of the first choice players in the starting XI, put the conundrum succinctly.
“It probably wouldn't be fair, morally, but at the same time it's the nature of international sport,” Woakes was quoted as saying by the BBC.
Who should replace Alex Hales?
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Opener Alex Hales was withdrawn from all England squads, which means he won't be involved in the World Cup. Who will replace him? Ed Sykes / Reuters -
Jofra Archer, right, is not a like-for-like replacement nor has he played any international cricket. But the 24-year-old all-rounder is considered one for the future and, even though he is not in the preliminary World Cup squad, he will be involved in the home ODI series against Pakistan. Bikas Das / AP Photo -
Hampshire batsman James Vince offers flexibility to the team in that he can open as well as play in the middle-order. He is not in any of England's squads at the moment, but the national selectors will have sit up and take notice of his 190 in a One-Day Cup match against Gloucestershire. He also has international experience, having represented England in 13 Tests, six ODIs and seven T20Is. Harry Trump / Getty Images -
At 31, Dawid Malan is considered a veteran, at least in English county cricket. He did well in the Pakistan Super League when it was held in the UAE and, even though he did not play a single game on England's tour of the West Indies recently, it is clear he is in the mix. The left-hander also made an unbeaten 160 in Middlesex's County Championship season opener. Chris Whiteoak / The National -
Ben Duckett has already been asked to join England's ODI squad for Friday's match against Ireland and a T20 clash with Pakistan on Sunday. The 24-year-old played the last of his three ODIs in 2016, but he top-scored with 86 for Nottinghamshire in a One-Day Cup match against Leicestershire last week. Pawan Singh / The National -
Surrey batsman Ben Foakes sparkled in his debut Test series in Sri Lanka, so he is not short on confidence. The thing that might go against him is the fact England already have two wicketkeepers in their squad in Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow. But Foakes has already been roped in as a replacement for Sam Billings ahead of the Ireland tour and, if he does well, he could be picked purely as a batsman. Stu Forster / Getty Images -
Another player who won't be a like-for-like replacement for Hales, Sam Curran is a young but tried-and-tested all-rounder whose brilliance with bat and ball was one of the reasons why England beat India in their home Test series last summer. Like Archer, he could be an unlikely game-changer in the 50-over game as well. Mike Hewitt / Getty Images -
Liam Livingstone has played just two T20Is, but he has gained notoriety for his six-hitting abilities. The 25-year-old shone during the Pakistan Super League in the UAE this season, and he has used the long handle for Rajasthan Royals in the ongoing Indian Premier League competition. Vishal Bhatnagar / AP Photo
But that moral maze has surely been bypassed by the withdrawal of Hales. It is an open goal. There is one spot left fill. And world cricket’s most exciting emerging talent is sat there saying: "I'm here if you need me."
Surely there is only one answer? So what if he is not a batsman, like Hales.
Of the 15 players England provisionally named there were, it’s fair to say, two spare batsmen – Hales and Joe Denly – and two spare bowlers – two from Tom Curran, David Willey, Liam Plunkett and Mark Wood, depending on what XI they wanted to name.
Bringing Archer in would put the onus entirely onto Denly to fill the void if any batsmen lost form across the duration of the competition, with no other batting reserves.
James Vince, or perhaps Ben Duckett or Ben Foakes, might be a like for like substitute for Hales.
But Archer now has a series of matches starting against Pakistan on Wednesday, to prove – were it not already clear – that that space should be his.
