2nd Tour Match: St Kitts Invitational XI v England XI at Basseterre

Well a much better batting display from the St Kitts team in this match. I hope the West Indies players and managers are paying attention to this game and making plans as to how to bowl to the English batsmen.

rowe,

its the english bats that made the runs for St/Kitts with exception of a 50 .

Disappointingly, Lyth was out for 23. I was hoping he would put some runs on the board to put some pressure on the selectors to start him in the first Test. Given that Trott already had the edge and scored a ton in the first match, you have to imagine he will be chosen to open with Cook in the first Test.

My XI would be: Cook, Trott, Ballance, Bell, Root, Buttler, Rashid, Stokes, Jordan, Broad, Anderson

Although Ballance has been out of form and was mistakenly shoehorned into the ODI team, he has performed admirably in his 8 Tests so far. I'd stick with him at 3.

If England opt to play a second spinner, I'd swap in Tredders for either Stokes or Jordan.

As for Cook's opening partner, I would really like to see what Lyth has to offer at the Test level but I can also understand the thought process of opting to go with Trott, who does have a long standing history of success, albeit batting at 3. Finding an opening pair is paramount to the teams success this summer.

when are they naming the wi squad ?