Is it time to for Bell and Trott to swap places in the England battingorder?

Quick single, a photo by Treflyn on Flickr.

The form of England’s opening three batsmen has been particularly worrying so far this summer. At the time of writing (prior to the fifth Ashes test), Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott hold series averages of 27.25 and 24.25 respectively with Joe Root’s average of 37.14 being severely skewed by a fortune filled innings at Lords (which he nevertheless capitalised on very well). Add to that an out-of-form Matt Prior, a Kevin Pietersen who clearly isn’t match sharp, and Jonny Bairstow’s mixed series, and the batting lining up is looking especially fragile right now.

Various commentators and pundits have had their say about who should be dropped and who should be brought in. For me, I’d be reluctant to change the personnel. I think the current batting line-up is actually quite strong and with another Ashes series only a couple of months away, there’s not enough time to blood in new players. Instead, I think a change in the batting order might do the trick and I’d be inclined to swap Bell and Trott round.

The poor starts from the top three have put huge amounts of pressure on Kevin Pietersen. He’s had to play more contained innings than normal and that’s stopped him from imposing himself on the Australian bowlers as much as he normally would do. Besides, KP is a dreadful starter at the best of times so coming in with England say 20-2 can’t help with the nerves, especially when he’s already short of match practice. By putting an in-form Bell in at 3 (where he has had some success before), it will hopefully mean that England have a few more runs on the board before Pietersen comes in. KP will then have more freedom to play his natural game which in turn should help England clock up more runs than they have been doing recently.

However, I also think England could really benefit from having Trott coming in at 5 as well. Since Paul Collingwood’s retirement following the 10/11 Ashes series, the England middle order has been badly lacking in balance. Various players have been tried out in Collingwood’s middle order slot including Eoin Morgan, Ravi Bopara and Jonny Bairstow. Unlike Collingwood, all are predominantly attack-minded batsmen who like to score runs quickly. This isn’t necessarily a problem as long there’s somebody else in the middle order who’s comfortable either occupying the crease or batting out time. The rest of England’s middle order consists of the likes of Pietersen, Bairstow and Prior – players that naturally like to play shots. For that reason I thought Joe Root was the perfect choice at no. 6, able to provide a solid defensive unit as and when required. Indeed, he had shown great form in that position before being promoted up the order.

By putting Jonathan Trott in Bell’s current slot at 5, some kind of balance could be restored to the England middle order once more. Furthermore, it would give Bairstow an experienced player to bat with which obviously wouldn’t be the case if Root was moved back down the order.

Now, hopefully Cook and Trott will score bags of runs at the Oval this week and this discussion will become completely unnecessary. Nevertheless, if their poor runs of form continue, a tweak of the batting order should certainly be considered.