It is time a new regime took over. The last one placed its eggs in one basket, expecting James Anderson and Stuart Broad to carry England through Australia, and on reaching Brisbane the basket was found to contain none.
Fresher faces and younger, perhaps keener cricketers are taking over, among them Alex Lees, the left-handed opener who moved from Yorkshire to Durham, led England A in Australia last winter and is 28. Opening the batting for England may yet again prove to be a poisoned chalice, as it has been for all who have tried since Sirs Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss; but everything about Lees suggests he has the fibre to make the most of what he has.
It is amazing how many opening batsmen have sipped from the chalice, briefly prospered, then succumbed. Nick Compton had 16 Tests, scored a couple of centuries in New Zealand, and departed with an average of 28; Alex Hales, in 11 Tests, averaged 27; Lees’s opening partner at Yorkshire, Adam Lyth, had seven Tests and averaged 20; Sam Robson had seven Tests at 30; Mark Stoneman 11 at 27; Keaton Jennings 17 at 25; Dom Sibley 18 at 30, with a couple of hundreds like Jennings; then Burns and Hameed sipped, and have gone, Burns having played 32 Tests at 30, Hameed ten at 24.
Lees has always been mature beyond his years, a little like England’s answer to Graeme Smith, or indeed to Cook and Strauss, by combining left-handed opening with captaincy in every age-group. He grew up batting against his father’s bowling in the garden of his house outside Halifax, captained the Yorkshire academy, at 20 became the youngest batsman to make a championship double-century for the county, then was appointed Yorkshire’s youngest captain aged 22.
This was a mistake. Well-intentioned but a mistake nonetheless by Yorkshire’s coach Jason Gillespie. In 2016 Lees was made the white-ball captain – in 20 and 50 overs – when he was still learning the red-ball ropes and had enough on his plate. Gillespie was excellent at creating an inclusive environment, and Lees deserved a vote of confidence, but not in this form.
