Who is England's number 3 batsman?

On 5^th December, England and Australia will battle it out in the second test of the ongoing Ashes series. After being comprehensively outplayed in the first Test at the Gabba, England will look to bounce back with a win and keep their chances of winning the series alive. Meanwhile, Australia will look to take a 2-0 lead in the series and prove that the win in Brisbane was not a fluke.

England may have lost the test by 381 runs, but its impact has been so profound that it has led to some serious consequences. Star batsman Jonathan Trott withdrawn has from the tour, after the first match, to recover from his publicly admitted depression. Andy Flower will be taking a good hard look at his team’s batting technique after the batsmen couldn’t handle a fiery Mitchell Johnson. He will also have the difficult task of replacing Trott in the batting line-up. Trott has been a solid performer for England at the number 3 position since 2009. Replacing him will not be easy for England.

The main question that everyone seems to be asking is, who will replace Trott in the team? Who will bat at number three for England for the rest of the series? And with England choosing not to call in an extra player to take Trott’s place in the squad, three names come up as the most likely candidates to replace Trott. Jonny Bairstow, Gary Ballance and Ben Stokes will be vying for the vacant spot in the team. Bairstow’s chances look the best as he has been with the England team for a while now and has already played an Ashes match. He will know the pressure that the players experience in the middle in such a series. Ballance could be in with a chance due to the fact that he has made the ashes squad on the back of some fine domestic performances. Stokes looks the most unlikely to make it into the team due to the fact that he is primarily an all-rounder. After their batting performance in Brisbane, England look unlikely to play an all-rounder in place of a specialist batsman.

While Bairstow and Ballance look the most likely to fill the vacant spot, it is unlikely that they will directly replace Trott at number three. Most probably, either Ian Bell or Joe Root will be pushed up the order to bat at 3. Bell has been batting at number 5 for some time and has experience at the number 3 position having batted there in the past. Root in all likeliness will remain at number six or be pushed up to number five. It would make no sense if he were to be placed at number three after having been pushed down the order after opening the batting in the previous series. Yet England might decide not to tinker around with their batting order and might put Trott’s replacement directly at one down and hope that he’s up to it. But that would be risky as both Bairstow and Ballance don’t have experience in batting at that position. To throw either one of them at no 3 and hope that they come up with a Trottesque performance, especially in an Ashes match where the pressure felt by players is immense, would be unfair to them.

Should the no.3 batsman come good in the second test at Adelaide, it will serve as inspiration for the team to draw the series level. However, should he fail, the middle order will be burdened will additional pressure and England will probably be staring at 2-0 scoreline at the end of the Test and be looking at the very real possibility of a 5-0 whitewash.