England mulling 'senior player' at No. 3

The perennial debate about where Joe Root should bat in England's Test line-up is set to continue with head coach Trevor Bayliss suggesting a move back to number three for the Ashes will be considered.

Bayliss has long thought that the team's best player should bat at first wicket down and after England had wrapped up victory against Ireland at Lord's, he confirmed once again that he thinks Root's best position is at three despite England's captain preferring to bat at number four.

Root has batted at three before, of course. He did it for a period last summer but the experiment was abandoned midway through the fourth Test against India in Southampton and he has remained at four ever since. However, given England's continued batting woes, reconfirmed with two more collapses against Ireland, the issue of who bats where lingers on.

In a bid to solve the problem, Bayliss confirmed that England would consider a senior player at number three which, given the squad named on Saturday, would mean either Root or potentially Ben Stokes doing the job. "Look, Joe's the captain," Bayliss said. "He'll make the final decision, as he did when he went back to four. He knows how I feel. Whether he goes in at 1 for 20 or 2 for 20, he can still cop a good one."

If the order is rejigged, Joe Denly would be likely to open with Rory Burns and Jason Roy, who made his debut against Ireland as an opener, would move to number four or five, a position closer to the one he occupies for Surrey in Championship cricket. Wherever Roy bats, though, the long-term challenge is whether he can successfully adapt his belligerent white-ball style to the more nuanced demands of the Test game.

"We want him to go out and play his natural game but in red-ball cricket you have to be a little more selective," Bayliss said. "You have to make sure the ball is underneath your eyes or it really is a true half-volley, especially on a wicket that's doing a bit. You've got to make a conscious effort to say to yourself 'right, I'm not going to go for the big cover drive on the up until I'm really settled, the wicket is flat or the ball's not doing as much.

"Like any debutant, he looked nervous but to score 70-odd in your first Test was a good effort. There was a bit more in those wickets than he's been used to in white-ball cricket over the last few years but runs are runs. He wouldn't be the first player to look scratchy and eek out runs. In fact, that's a good sign."

There weren't too many other positive signs on the batting front over the seven sessions of play against Ireland although the match may have at least focused minds back onto business after the highs of the World Cup. "It certainly gives us a little bit to think about, probably more so from not a negative point of view but areas we've got to be careful of an areas we've got to get better at," said Bayliss.

"That's more to do with the approach to our batting. I don't think we'll have any problems getting up for the hype that's around The Ashes. We've played a lot against the Australians and the bowlers they've got. One of the good things about playing an extra game before The Ashes is that it gets you back into that mindset that the red ball can be a little bit more dangerous than the white ball."

Fatigue - both mental and physical - is a concern for England, however, given the effort and energy which went into their World Cup campaign. After the Ireland game, Root admitted to feeling tired and with five Ashes Tests in seven weeks to come, the toll on England's players will not get any lighter.

The likes of Root and Jonny Bairstow could have been rested for the Ireland game, as Jos Buttler and Stokes were, but preparations for the Ashes had to be factored in too. At least the three-day victory over the Irish has given them an extra day-off but England's World Cup winners have had hardly any time to enjoy their success. "It would have been nice to have another week to let it all soak in and take stock of it all," Bayliss said.

England have named their squad for the first Test at Edgbaston and Jofra Archer, one of the stars of the World Cup campaign, is included and could be set for a Test debut. However, England are wary of rushing him back after a side injury and given he has not played a first-class game since last September, it may be that he receives his first Test cap later in the series.

"He's come back from Barbados saying he's fine," Bayliss said. "It's something we'll have to discuss between now and the final selection of the XI - whether he's bowled enough overs. We've got a duty of care to him and not necessarily bowl him into the ground when he hasn't played a red-ball game for 12 months."

As well as announcing Archer's inclusion in the 14-man squad for the first Ashes Test, the ECB also confirmed that Ben Stokes has been named as Root's vice-captain in Test cricket for the first time since he lost the role in the aftermath of the Bristol nightclub incident in September 2017.

"Ben is highly respected within the team environment," Ashley Giles, Managing Director of England Men's Cricket, said. "He is a natural leader and has a great understanding of the game. He will offer tremendous support to Joe Root as part of the senior playing group. Over the past 18 months, he has come a long way and has shown a great degree of maturity on and off the field."