England team is more concerned with quantity, not quality: Aakash Chopra
Former Indian national team rookie Akash Chopra believes that Joe Root is the only quality player that England has at the moment, and the rest are just adding up the numbers.
In his latest YouTube video, Chopra said: “There are so many options, but this English team is more about quantity, not about quality. The quality is there in just one player, among the batsmen, and he is Joe Root. The rest of them in Test-match cricket, they are just adding up the numbers at this point in time against India’s fantastic bowling attack.”
After a dismal showing in the first two Tests, England dropped opener Dom Sibley. Sibley has been dropped, having managed to pass 35 just once in his last 15 Test innings. He is averaging 19.77 in 10 Tests this year.
Sibley has been replaced by Dawid Malan, who is set to make his comeback after the gap of three years.
“Sibley and Crawley, both have been dropped. Dawid Malan and Saqib Mahmood have been called back into the team. Saqib did really well against Pakistan. He was a part of the squad for the second match, he was then released but now because of Wood’s injury, he has been called. There is a possibility, the match is in Headingley, you might want to just spruce up your fast-bowling reserves,” said Chopra.
Malan has only played one first-class match this season – he scored 199 in his only innings – he has shown an ability to thrive on the international stage over the last couple of years, notably rising to become the top-ranked T20 batter in the world.
“Malan, yes he is a T20 champion. Malan’s story is that Dom Sibley has been struggling. It seems Haseeb Hameed will open and in the middle, you can play Malan or Ollie Pope, you can also send Bairstow at No.3,” he said.
