More to come from England?

Compton, Hales and Taylor will no doubt all be in the team for the next Test and we'll see how they go. Taylor at least should surely be given more chances beyond that if necessary.

As for Ballance his more recent Test appearances have not been as impressive as his earlier ones but he shouldn't be written off either.

Chopping and changing can be damaging.

True, Blue Heaven - just very unconvinced by Hales, his technique seems to have more faults (to me anyway) than Ballance. I think we have five WORLD CLASS players - thats Cook, Root, Anderson, Broad and Stokes. Bairstow and Moeen getting there along with Finn. So I'd say we ARE making huge strides but this opener situation is continually finding us out!

I don't think hales will ever make a test match opener. it was a poor selection IMO and if the ECB hadn't backed itself into a corner they would have simply recalled Compton to open and left Ballance at 3.

sadly I suspect hales will deliver the occasional big bash innings that will get T20 pundits frothing about his potential, and help him retain his place for a few series, whilst he averages around 25-30.

I tthink Compton shud open & Ballance shud come back into No.3 slot.

Bairstow has cemented his palce in the team. His batting has improved remarkably well.

Hales shud stick to being T20 & ODI player.

I think Trevor Bayliss has done really well with England.
he is a fantastic appointment. A much more experienced and shrewd coach than "our" Yorkie convert Jason "Dizzy" Gillespie.

Jimmy Anderson has probably 1-2 more years left of international Test cricket. His age is catching up on him and also injury are necoming mroe frequent.
Its a challenge for him mentally.

1. Cook
2. Compton
3. Root
4. Hales
Etc

Switch the top four into batting positions their skill sets match and suddenly the top order looks pretty decent. Saying that, I'm not convinced by Hales either, but we've got a whole load more promising young bats who could come in at 4-5 than we have coming in at 2 or 3.