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Who knows, if you pick Tres then Trott might feel better about himself and, hey presto, you've got a top three.

Good choice, provided you're prepared to park the plane to South Africa outside his house and connect a slide to his bedroom window.

My bad - I realised that 10 minutes later! The situation is so desperate that if Kevin Pietersen announced he was sorry for everything that had gone before but offered to step into the breach as emergency opener then I'd be tempted to take that. I fancy he would have got a damn sight more than...

Compton had the misfortune of having to replace Andrew Strauss in the line-up, and that brought big pressure. The expectation on him this time would be significantly decreased. He is also older and wiser. He also broke his finger in the 1st Test vs NZ in 2013 and damaged his ribs at the start...

I fancy Nick Compton would be ahead of him in the pecking order. The fact Compton was born in South Africa and started playing there, his father and uncle both playing for Natal, makes this a good fit.

The way I see that situation is as follows: 1. The following openers have already been picked ahead of him for the test team (and forgive me if I've missed anyone out but the list is getting longer with every series): Compton, Root, Carberry, Robson, Lyth, Ali. This implies he is not that...

I really do admire your optimism.

Indeed! 84 runs in the series at an average of 14. Hafeez farts out more runs than that after a strong curry.

Cook's career 4th innings average is 35.6.

Good start? Moeen Ali is averaging 12.80 in this series and there is immense pressure on both him and Cook. Bell has no tons, one fifty in 5 knocks this series as well as a hatful of dropped catches. After Root we have a rookie in Taylor, and Stokes is hors de combat. If England pull this...

I think you're being a tad generous by saying "deserved" - after all, Pakistan got 523/8 dec in their 1st innings. Granted, Rashid had his one good day of bowling on the tour on Day 5 - it's been tits up for him since then.

The writing's on the wall. 2-0 more likely than 1-1 now. The individual performances of Cook, Root, Anderson and Broad in this series have papered over the cracks. Simply woeful performances with the bat thus far, and Pakistan have out-gunned us 5 centuries to 1, fed by our inept spin bowling...

No chance whatsoever of taking a wicket with spin twin dullards Slingit Patel and Adil Gashid serving up this kind of pie.

Wow, full marks to the boy Taylor for this knock - ably supported by Bairstow. It is surprising that having lost Trott and Pietersen, and not having had a decent opening partner for Cook, Taylor hasn't featured at all at test level in the last 3 years. How the hell did that happen?