Ed Smith: England Chief National Selector Watch

[mak36]

It's early days but Ed Smith seems to have brought a fresh approach to selection, showing a willingness to think outside the box, pick on form not reputation, invest in youth and has a keenness to select cricketers who have "character."

Dom Bess, Sam Curran and now Ollie Pope to name a few of his recent selections.

All of this would suggest England have finally caught on to the mantra "if he's good enough, he's old enough."

Another thing he is doing is adopting a "horses for courses" approach to selection. Given England's failure to develop "all conditions" players, he is doing the next best thing and picking players based on conditions and factoring in whether it is a home or away tour (hinted at in his comments re Dawid Malan).

Only time will tell whether the chosen players sink or swim, but his commitment to youth is to be commended.

 

[mak36]

Two things stand out:

(i) England changing a winning side/squad would have been unthinkable not that long ago.

(ii) England debuting a 20 year to bat at 4 would have been even more unthinkable a few years ago.

 

[Markhor]

Didn't think Dom Bess justified selection - looked a better batsman than a bowler despite being picked as a specialist spinner.

Still remains to be seen if Buttler, Rashid and Jennings are worthy of their recalls. Whether Curran has the skill set to succeed outside England also remains to be seen.

Pope's an interesting one though.

 

[Deewana Mastana]

He's a risk taker it's as simple as that.

His selections are questionable and have raised a lot of debate too but most of them have worked which has been great for England.

The selections he's made of Butler, Sam Curran, Adil Rashid have done well so far.

 

[Robert]

Should think outside the box by dropping Cook and pushing Bairstow up to open.

 

[KyoOne]

Very impressive with his bold selections, and it is paying immediate dividends.

Something Pakistani selectors should take a cue from

 

[hadi123]

Should think outside the box by dropping Cook and pushing Bairstow up to open.

Doubt Bairstow would ever open in a Test match.

 

[mak36]

Looks like it'll be 4-1 to England vs India- he'll be a happy man.

Buttler has been excellent.

Now just need to find two openers.

 

[Hasan123]

Done a decent job so far. Willing to give young players a chance but the test is to come now. How does he replace Cook? How does he get the balance of the team right with so many all rounders?

 

[introvert]

Great job so far but real test starts now.
I hope he sticks to his bold selections & horses for courses policy.

choices to be made for fast bowlers, openers , spinners selection for upcoming subcontinent & overseas tours.