Nasser Hussain, Mark Butcher and Steve Harmison joined host Rob Key for the latest edition of the Sky Sports Ashes Podcast
Tuesday 2 January 2018 12:30, UK
Where should Jonny Bairstow bat in England's batting line-up? Nasser Hussain, Rob Key, Mark Butcher and Steve Harmison discuss on the second edition of the Sky Sports Ashes Podcast...
Bairstow has hit the headlines this week over the 'headbutt' incident involving Australia opener Cameron Bancroft, but on the latest edition of the Sky Sports Ashes Podcast it's the England wicket-keeper's batting position which is up for discussion.
Should the 28-year-old bat higher than seven? Should he still keep wicket? Former England stars Key, Hussain, Butcher and Harmison have their say!
The pundits also look at how should England approach playing Nathan Lyon in Adelaide before assessing Joe Root's side's chances of victory in Adelaide.
Read their views below...
HARMY: I think he should be batting at five and I said that at the start of the series. We talk about guiding the tail, forget the tail. In Australia, numbers one to six have to get 350 runs minimum between them. And then for the other five anything over 75 is a bonus to get you close to a total of 425 to 450. You've got to have your best players up the order and Bairstow is one of our best batsmen. For me, he should bat at five, Malan at six and Ali at seven.
BUTCH: This is a hobby horse of mine. Bairstow is in the best five or six batsmen in the country. I would have him at five but he wouldn't keep wicket. It's not that his wicket-keeping hasn't been any good, it's been excellent, but if he is going to score the amount of runs he is capable of doing at number five you don't want him spending a day and a half having kept wicket. It diminishes his ability to score the runs his ability says he can score. I would have done that a year ago.
NAS: It might be a nice vote of confidence for him after what's happened this week off the field. Jonny's going to be feeling a bit down. There are rumours now because of the incident. There's going to be curfews imposed and things like that and some of the players will not be happy with it. If Root knocks on his door and tells him he's going up to five it will be a great vote of confidence.
KEY: I wouldn't have Bairstow keeping. It's not U10s cricket where someone has to keep wicket in order not to upset them. For the better of the team he should bat at five then you've got Alastair Cook, Root and Bairstow as your best three batsmen. The problem with all of this is he wants to keep. I don't think he wants to bat at five, I think he's happy at seven.
NAS: As the series progresses and the way we've seen the three pacemen coming in hard at the tail and blowing it away, they've got to think about going after Lyon and forcing Steve Smith to go back to the quicks, who could then snap by mid-series.
BUTCH: England will have to work out a strategy where they will run Lyon around a little bit. For me, going after him doesn't give the guy much respect. I was out in India last season and Lyon was taking 12, 13 wicket hauls against some of the best players of spin in the world. This guy can bowl.
He's not Shane Warne but he's a really good bowler. They've got to be able to score three runs an over off him and then on a good day they can take him down, but this guy can bowl. To think you can just take advantage of him and make Cummins and co bowl lots more overs is wrong. You are not going to just slog him out of the attack. He's not mentally weak like that. However, they can't go at two runs an over against him, that's the key.
HARMY: The longer the batsmen stay in, the better they will play Lyon. England need a team plan. The seven batsmen need to go out there, and not be reckless against him, but go on the front foot and have the confidence to go and do that. If someone runs past one, miss one or picks out a fielder trying to be aggressive then that was the team plan and there's no need to get too down about it. In 2005, we got hammered at Lord's but we came back and our plan was that Warne has to go at three-and-a-half runs an over. If he doesn't, we are not winning.
KEY: The big difference in 2005 was the fact Michael Vaughan turned around and said, as great a bowler as Warne is, we have to get the seamers bowling more by taking Warne on. At Edgbaston, England got 400 on day one so it can be done and it can be done against Warne.
If I'm Trevor Bayliss, it's the one thing I'm telling my side. Lyon bowled 36 overs and went at 2.1 runs an over. We're saying they need to go at three runs an over which is not a lot different, it's just being a bit more proactive. In the second innings he went at 2.7 runs an over but that was when Moeen Ali and Jonny Bairstow actually started to go a little bit harder at him. Still, he's going under three an over and that would be the thing, as a coach, I would say: "We have to go harder at Lyon. We have to put him under pressure and exploit that three-man seam attack."
HARMY: It's a must win because five days of Test cricket doesn't usually happen anymore, unless it rains. There's going to be a result in this game and England desperately need to win.
BUTCH: We have to win because we always lose in Perth.
NAS: I've read a lot that this is England's best chance but you can't put all your eggs in that basket. If you think it's going to move around for James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes, it's going to move around for Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins as well. Also, don't just presume you are going to be bowling with a new ball under lights. You might lose the toss on the first day and be bowling in the blistering heat of Adelaide with the ball not moving around.
Listen to the Sky Sports Ashes Podcast NOW and make sure to tune into the show throughout the series as the Sky Cricket experts dissect the latest news and headlines from England's tour Down Under.
