Sunday 14 August 2016 17:49, UK
Nasser Hussain says he'd stick with Alex Hales but believes neither the opener, James Vince nor Gary Ballance could have any complaints if they were dropped for England's winter tours of Bangladesh and India.
The trio averaged 18.12, 22.57 and 27.85 respectively across the drawn series with Pakistan, which concluded with a 10-wicket victory for the tourists in the fourth and final Test.
The defeat scuppered any short-term aspirations England had of climbing to the top of the ICC Test rankings - an outcome that also required other results around the world to go in their favour - and former England captain Hussain said Alastair Cook's side is not yet the finished article.
"The spine of the team - Cook, Root, Bairstow, Anderson - is still very, very strong; but there are other areas that can be improved," Hussain said. "I don't think Hales, Ballance or Vince can have a problem if they are left out this winter but having said that, I would probably stick with Hales because he got runs against Sri Lanka and runs with Cook in that second innings at Edgbaston.
"England have gone through eight openers since Andrew Strauss retired and eventually you've got to take a bit of a punt and say 'we're going to stick with this lad for a little bit longer' because he has got a few runs."
Hales was fined 15 per cent of his fee by match referee Richie Richardson - estimated at around £1,500 - after querying his first-innings dismissal with third umpire Joel Wilson and then making "inappropriate comments" as he left.
"It has been a tough Test match for Hales," said Hussain. "He chipped one to square leg and subsequently fell out with the opposition.
"He had a go at Yasir and then the next day drops a catch and gets fined 15 per cent of his match fee for going into the match referee's office.
"If you do all that, you need to let your bat do the talking but it didn't. He went into his bunker in the second innings and got out."
Meanwhile, Vince faces an uncertain future after scoring just 158 runs in the series.
"He frustrates me more than Hales because I think that somewhere in there is a Test match cricketer - he has the ability and the shots," Hussain added. "But the most important thing in a Test cricketer is how much there is between the ears.
"That's why I describe him as 'dopey' - he's giving his wicket away and he's not learning. You want to shake him a little bit!"
Ballance, for his part, was recalled to the England Test team at the start of the series having not played international cricket since the 2015 Ashes.
The left-hander scored just one fifty in seven innings - chalking up 195 runs in total - and Hussain said the selectors now face a long-term dilemma about his place in the side.
"Ballance looks better at number five; he's played OK in the series. He would have liked to have got more runs," Hussain said. "He plays spin OK so he should be fine in India but how far forward do you look because the next tour is the Ashes, where there will be extra pace and bounce. But short term I think Ballance will survive at number five."
Watch highlights of day four of the fourth Test between England and Pakistan live on Sky Sports 2 then stay tuned for The Verdict, on the same channel at 9pm.
