Richard Gould’s statement this week made clear that England’s Test cricket was subject to an extensive review. Well, the first thing I would insist upon is players going back into county cricket to prove they are good enough to face New Zealand at Lord’s in June.
That would be my message to everyone in the selection mix, to be honest: score big runs, take wickets, get into good rhythm, earn your stripes to be in that first Test XI of 2026.
Yes, it’s slightly old school, and definitely goes against the grain of how Rob Key and Brendon McCullum, the team director and head coach, have distanced themselves from the County Championship.
But after such a disappointing Ashes series, it should be the way forward for the ECB.
We have reached the point at which things need doing differently and it’s time that they put faith in it with some proper investment.
The governing body have spent the last few years putting all their efforts into the Hundred, and growing that, but now they’ve made their money out of it, I’d like to see some of it put back into the domestic game, because we can’t keep hoping that there’s a Jacob Bethell type about to pop up in some form of cricket that is able to hold his own at No 3 in the Test team.
After a disappointing Ashes series under Ben Stokes, the first thing England’s players need to do is go back to county cricket to prove they are good enough to face New Zealand in June
The ECB must pump more investment into the county game – we can’t keep hoping that there’s a Jacob Bethell type about to pop up in some form of cricket
County cricket has got to be a feeder system for England’s Test and white-ball teams, and the only way to do that is to invest in it.
At the moment, the prize money of £600,000 for the winners is rubbish, the schedule’s jam-packed and players are not incentivised to play.
A young cricketer now is asking himself whether he really wants to put himself through that grind or alternatively play Twenty20, the Hundred and a few franchise gigs over the winter, taking home a much bigger pay packet for considerably less effort.
Playing domestic cricket in April and May would also help solve a serious issue across this current England side, which features multiple players that don’t fulfil their Test roles at county level: Jamie Smith doesn’t keep wicket for Surrey, Shoaib Bashir doesn’t get picked by Somerset, Brydon Carse doesn’t open the bowling for Durham, Jacob Bethell doesn’t bat No3 for Warwickshire and Surrey don’t always consider Gus Atkinson to be in their strongest bowling attack.
Having played last year, in Division Two not One, I genuinely thought the standard was very good. It is home to some very talented players, like Glamorgan’s Asa Tribe. There’s some good overseas players in there that will help develop younger players, too.
It just needs to be backed and used properly like the Sheffield Shield is in Australia.
Yes, Michael Neser is 35, experienced, and has played county cricket, but he has primarily developed in the competitive environment of the Shield and performed brilliantly when called up to Australia’s Test team.
As part of the review that the ECB chief executive Gould referenced, I’d like it to include the science and medicine people at Loughborough, because I do not believe you can go into big Test series with such little red-ball cricket as people like Mark Wood and Jofra Archer did.
Josh Tongue has earned the right to take the new ball and should be given that role
England’s bowling attack has undergone a mass overhaul in recent years – Jofra Archer (second right) can now step up and become the leader after experiencing the Ashes abroad
Speaking from experience of 21 years playing for England, I would want a plan formulating for all viable candidates to face New Zealand drawing up now, five months in advance.
Using myself as an example, I would play the opening round of Championship fixtures, have a week off, maybe play back-to-back games, rest again for a week and then choose whether to play one more match before the Test summer begins.
When Peter Moores was appointed head coach of Lancashire after his first stint with England, he said that I hit my straps in my fourth game of the season, and so I would want that to precede or coincide with the first Test.
Everyone’s different, of course, and Stuart Broad is not a great example of what I am saying, because he was someone who thrived on the pressure and atmosphere of international cricket, and so playing in front of 300 people on a cold afternoon in April wouldn’t do it for him, so he wanted less time on the park than me.
If I was picking an England attack right now for the start of the New Zealand series, I would have Ben Stokes as the all-rounder, Rehan Ahmed as the spinner batting at No 8, Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue taking the new ball, and Brydon Carse bowling first change.
Why Ahmed? Because I just like everything about him. The way he batted at No 3 for Leicestershire last year, for example. He’s a cricketer desperate to be involved. Every England tour I’ve been on with him, he’s wanted to learn, thinks about the game, and is constantly improving because of his strong work ethic.
And if England are pressing pause on Shoaib Bashir, maybe Ahmed’s the next best thing. The most consistent spinner in county cricket is probably Jack Leach but I don’t think the selectors will go back to him now and so although it might seem a bit of a left-field pick, so was Will Jacks for the Ashes, a player who is not a regular bowler in four-day cricket.
Archer didn’t have a lot of red-ball cricket heading into the Ashes, but he bowled well in the first innings at Perth, fast in the second innings when the game was gone at Brisbane and well at Adelaide, so I would hand him the new ball, but I wouldn’t play him alongside Wood if the latter plays for England again.
Rehan Ahmed has something special – with bat and ball – and he is desperate to learn. He should be given the chance to be England’s No 1 red-ball spinner in the future
Brydon Carse, who opened the bowling in Australia, should bowl first change from now on
I say if, because although Wood, who turns 36 on Sunday, is contracted to October, he’s been through so many rehabs, there’s surely only so much someone can take.
But if he did come back again, someone that bowls 93mph and swings the ball would have to be picked. One hundred per cent.
Wood is so good when he gets it right, but like the others, I would want him to earn his place.
When I set out on my international career, the new ball was something you had to earn and I feel like Josh Tongue has done so with his performances in Australia.
Brydon Carse doesn’t open the bowling for Durham, and yet he was asked to take on the role in the Ashes. To my mind, that was probably because of Tongue’s excellent record against Steve Smith, with Stokes wanting him to be fresh against Smith, Australia’s best player, in the middle order.
Carse would bowl first change for me going forward, because although he obviously took 22 Australian wickets, he wasn’t consistent enough – an average above 30 meaning he also went for a lot of runs.
Carse is someone that could improve. How? By working on that consistency, bowling in Championship matches, becoming more accurate for longer periods of time, because he has decent pace, good fitness and has that habit of producing wicket-taking balls.
My selections would leave Gus Atkinson and Matthew Potts on the outer, but I would throw down the same challenge to them as to everyone else on England’s bowling radar: take early season wickets and show you merit your place in a Test match attack.