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I'd guess he's behind Bairstow, Livingstone and Jacks. One of the quietly pleasing aspects of the past 12 months has been Pope's development - with him and Root now you feel that the batting line-up is more balanced than it has been for a while. Bowling strength also looking healthy with Broad, Archer (?), Potts etc waiting to come back into the mix...
owl-
Yeah I was thinking about Potts the other day. When Robinson was out it felt like Potts could take his spot, but he's come back even better. Guess it's just biding his time until Broad/Anderson final bid farewell.
Is Woakes totally out of the picture now?Kinda forgotten about Archer but he would be useful against the Aussies. Wood has really stepped up in his absence but you can't see him playing a whole 5 tests.
Pope has really started to get settled but it probably helps take the pressure off when you've got Brook coming in behind you.
Bainbridge
Especially if you look at the Australian attack, they aren't used to being attacked - it's not so easy to bowl consistently good balls if you're getting carted for 8 an over. It put the pressure on the bowlers to come up with alternative plans, rather than the batters trying not to nick off to good deliveries the whole time.
Talking of nicking off, any chance of a James Vince recall? Can't see where he would fit in at the moment but I reckon he would enjoy the positive approach.