Joe Denly’s England Test career looks to be over ahead of West Indies clash

Joe Denly has almost certainly played his last Test match as England look for a combination capable of winning back the Wisden Trophy in Manchester.

The second Test – and the first of two at Emirates Old Trafford – starts on Thursday, with Joe Root, back from paternity leave, hoping not to become the first England captain to lose at home to West Indies since 1988. 

That summer, English cricket was so shambolic that Mike Gatting, John Emburey, Chris Cowdrey and Graham Gooch all had a crack at the top job – and the West Indians won 4-0.

Joe Denly looks to have played his final England Test match after frustrating the selectors 

Zak Crawley is set to move up to No 3 after scoring a 76 in the first Test against West Indies

But, barring a late change of heart, the 34-year-old Denly is unlikely to be given the chance to help stage a comeback after the selectors lost patience with his inability to convert his many starts into a match-defining innings. 

Zak Crawley, 12 years his junior, is set to move up to No 3 after making a classy 76 at Southampton, while Root will slot back in at No 4.

England will choose a 13-man squad on Wednesday, and must still resolve the Stuart Broad conundrum that proved a distraction during their four-wicket defeat at the Ageas Bowl. Unfortunately for Denly, however, the batting unit now takes care of itself.

Denly is not seen as a player who is capable of changing gears and his time is surely up 

Ever since he made a surprise return to international cricket in Sri Lanka in late 2018 after an absence of more than eight and a half years, he has looked what many thought he was all along: a solid operator whose natural level was county, not international, cricket, and who was more at home trying to blunt attacks rather than butcher them.

The final confirmation came on the fourth day of the first Test, where Denly had ground his way to 29 – matching his Test average – before chipping an innocuous off-break from Roston Chase to short midwicket. 

In 24 of his 28 innings, he reached double figures. But only six half-centuries, and a best of 94 against Australia at The Oval last summer, spoke of a lack of ruthlessness. His time is surely up.

It means Crawley will get the chance to build on an increasingly impressive start to his Test career, even if he will be batting in his fourth different position in nine innings. But England see him as a player capable of changing gears in a way Denly could not – an important consideration behind a pair of steady openers in Rory Burns and Dom Sibley.

Stuart Broad is eager to show that dropping him for the first Test was a huge mistake

As for Broad, he is itching for the chance to prove that his dropping from a home Test for the first time in eight years was a blunder, though he was not helped when Tuesday’s practice session at Emirates Old Trafford was disrupted by an uneven surface in one of the net lanes.

Jofra Archer sent down only half a dozen deliveries before getting one to rear dangerously at Ben Stokes, at which point some of the batsmen retreated to the indoor school, while some of the bowlers were put through their paces out in the middle instead.

Broad bowled with rhythm, purpose and a point to prove, but Mark Wood – who got through 34 overs in Southampton – will need to prove his fitness in a proper spell on Wednesday morning if he is to be considered for selection.

Manchester is traditionally regarded as one of England’s truest tracks, but concerns over playing both Archer and Wood in back-to-back Tests, especially after so long without a competitive match, may persuade Root and coach Chris Silverwood to return to the tried-and-tested new-ball pairing of Broad and Jimmy Anderson.

Dom Bess says England should take inspiration from their previous turnaround in South Africa

Both have good records in Manchester, where Anderson has taken 28 wickets at 21, and Broad 18 at 28. Chris Woakes and Sam Curran remain in the mix too.

Meanwhile, off-spinner Dom Bess has urged England to put their experience in South Africa – where they won 3-1 after losing the first Test – to good use.

‘We didn’t get off to the greatest start out there, and we turned that round pretty quickly,’ he said. ‘That was something we were reminded of, and there is no reason why we can’t do it here.’

That, though, overlooks the fact that England also lost the first Test of each of their three previous series too. Of those, they ended up losing in the Caribbean and New Zealand, while a 2-2 draw with Australia was not enough to regain the urn.