For the first time in three years, there's uncertainty over who will open the batting for England in the first Test of the summer.
Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett's opening partnership was a core part of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes' methodology since they first came together in Pakistan in 2022 – hard-hitting, designed to race away early in the day and set up an explosive middle-order. It worked enough to justify sticking with them, but their struggles during the Ashes have changed that.
Previously, it didn't matter how many times Crawley's off stump was cartwheeled in the early Championship rounds, or whether Duckett skipped a few April matches ahead of a busy summer. The exchange for McCullum keeping his job is that some things have to change, even if only slightly, and England's relationship with the counties has to improve. This means, early County Championship returns now matter, at least for some, which was acknowledged by Duckett in his decision to back out of a lucrative IPL deal and forfeit his chance to play in the competition for the next three years.
The irony is, that had Duckett gone to the IPL, his place might have been safe anyway. He averaged 60 last summer, and only Joe Root and Harry Brook have scored more runs for England over the last two years. He didn't play in Nottinghamshire's opening round of the County Championship, and when he does it won't be as an opener – with Haseeb Hameed and Ben Slater in place. Nevertheless, the bar for what Duckett has to do to keep his Test place will be lower than what others have to do to take it off him.
For Crawley, however, the picture looks different. After calls to replace him throughout the last two years, and that Manchester Ashes century drifting further into the distance, Australia was meant to be where it all made sense. Instead, Crawley carried on the same course, showing flashes of why he was backed but never going on to deliver a knock of substance. The optics now, however, might be too much to continue to select Crawley without a solid backdrop of runs in the early season. Crawley is emblematic of England's perceived cliquiness, and picking him in spite of early season failures would signal that little has changed as a result of the winter. Even if that is true, it's a hard sell.
It would also be another jab in the ribs for England's relationship with the counties, especially with other options building their cases. Top of the pile after the first round is Emilio Gay, who scored a century against Kent in the opening round of the Championship. He was prolific for Northants in the early part of last season, before going on loan to Durham ahead of signing a long term deal with the club. While Gay has been spoken of highly since he first broke through, lack of recent Division One cricket might count against him. Nevertheless, his runs last week came in difficult conditions, while the rest of Durham's batting unit struggled.
At the other end of the country, James Rew also put his hand up once again. Rew is an interesting conundrum for England. His rapidly growing pile of first-class centuries is becoming hard to ignore, yet all of his professional career has been played as a middle-order batter – something England aren't looking for. Equally, with Jamie Smith also finding rhythm early, any way in for him with the gloves looks more difficult. England have consistently backed picking the best seven batters in the country, regardless of position, under McCullum. While it's burnt them sometimes, their best example of making it work – Jacob Bethell – has brought them huge reward.
The last of the leading group to take over is Tom Haines. Since his early prolific run-scoring years in the Championship in 2021-2022, Haines has done enough to keep himself in the conversation, but really made ground through Lions performances. He scored 171 against a strong India A attack last summer, and was selected for the Lions squad which toured Australia in the winter. He opened the batting in England's warm-up match with Ben McKinney, who has also been singled out as a future Test opener – although in McKinney's case that call might come further down the line.
The romantics pick would be Haseeb Hameed, who captained Nottinghamshire to County Championship victory last summer. Hameed's story is well told, and perhaps felt at its most finished when he found a home at Trent Bridge. Nevertheless, the accolades Hameed accrued when he first played for England as a teenager still follow him around as a promise which still might be fulfilled. If he was selected now, it would be off the back of the most runs which have ever preceded any of his England selections. However, it would be a complete reversal of the Crawley-Duckett opening stand. Hameed's reserved temperament would likely be too big a deviation from McCullum's principles.
There's also the wildcard pick. Asa Tribe's stock rose quickly over the winter, when he scored a century for the Lions in Australia. That followed a prolific end to the Championship with Glamorgan, which has seen him fly into potential England selection. Nevertheless, it would have to be an extraordinary scenario for Tribe to leapfrog all those ahead of him by the time the first England squad is named in just over a month's time.
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