Cook trusts selectors to find him a partner

Cricket365
September 3, 2015

England Test captain Alastair Cook has conceded that Adam Lyth did himself no favours with the bat during the Ashes, and that the selectors now have a tough task of finding a new opening partner for Cook.

Lyth averaged just 12.77 in the Ashes series, playing in all five Tests, and is likely to be dropped. He joins a string of discarded players, from Nick Compton to Same Robson, who have partnered Cook since Andrew Strauss retired in 2012.

The options at the moment are to keep Lyth for the tour to the UAE to face Pakistan, or to shift Moeen Ali up the order, or to bring in uncapped Alex Hales. Less likely is a recall for Compton or Michael Carberry.

After Pakistan, England go to South Africa for the end of year tour, where they will again have to face swing and pace, and Cook says the opener picked needs to do well on both tours, despite the different conditions.

Cook told BBC Radio Five: "That is a really interesting decision the selectors have to make. I think there's a selection meeting in the next 10 days.

"The conditions in Abu Dhabi will be different to what we have just played in here where it nipped all over. I'd love someone to jump out and nail that slot.

"Adam didn't quite score the amount of runs he'd liked to have done (this season) but he played a major part in the side – he was a brilliant catcher.

"He's obviously scored a lot of runs for Yorkshire over the last couple of years and he's gone in his first seven Test matches and found it tough against two very good attacks, and yet he's scored a hundred in one of them (West Indies).

"The selectors have tough calls. They have made some big calls in the summer and were proved right."