With Jonathan Trott’s retirement, will England finally select proper opening partner for Alastair Cook in Tests?

England have not been able to get their opening combination right since Alastair Cook-Nick Compton.

It was good to see Jonathan Trott return to international cricket after he left Ashes 2013-14 midway due to psychological issues and fatigue. However,  persisting with Trott at the top with Alastair Cook might have cost England a lot of nerves. Sudatta Mukherjee feels, with Trott’s retirement, England should finally select a proper opening partner for Cook.

Fatigue is no stranger to cricketers whose lives revolve around the 22-yard strip. In the winter of 2013-14, when England toured Australia for the Ashes Down Under, hardly anyone thought Jonathan Trott would suffer from mental illness and head home. However, this is not something one should be surprised about. Depression and fatigue can bring even the bravest of souls down. A professional athlete is no different, with the unending media attention and pressure to perform at the highest. READ: Jonathan Trott pulls out of Ashes 2013-14 due to stress

When Jonathan Trott was drafted back into the England squad for Test series against West Indies, it was one of the most heartening scenes in English cricket in recent past. Having seen and heard and read about John Mooney’s fight against depression and alcoholism, it was heartwarming to see Trott return after all that talks about leaving the Ashes Down Under midway.

However, at what cost? Trott’s scores from the three-match Test series read 0, 4, 59, 0, 0 and 9. Trott has essentially been a No. 3 batsman for England. He has played 46 Tests, batting at No. 3, having scored over 3,000 runs at 45.72. If he has done so well at No. 3, why experiment and spoil his return to international cricket, especially when he needed a big score to strengthen his belief that his career for England is not over?

Alastair Cook, who has been the beacon at top for England, has had unsuccessful opening partnerships since the time Nick Compton had been mysteriously dropped. Let us see what does Cook and Trott’s three Tests partnership reads.

With Trott calling it a day on Monday, England should concentrate on finding a proper opening partner for skipper Cook. In the last five years, Cook has had seven different opening partners. After Andrew Strauss’ retirement in 2012, Compton was recruited to be Cook’s opening partner. They played 17 innings together and till now, have been the most successful average-wise. The others (till Trott) have been Kevin Pietersen, Joe Root, Michael Carberry and Sam Robson.

Why were Compton and Robson dropped? Let us presume that England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) were not happy with the way the two Middlesex players performed to their desires. Numbers did not matter to them.

Robson recently scored 178 in the ongoing County Championship against Durham. Compton made 74 against Yorkshire playing for MCC, 85 for Middlesex against Nottinghamshire and 50 in the same match where Robson scored 178.

This is Compton’s first season for Middlesex. He has been amazing while playing for his old team Somerset till last season. From 67 matches, he has scored 5,140 runs (this included a 254 not out) at an average of 55.86.

Of seven opening partners Cook has had in the past five years (of course, Strauss is not around anymore) Compton has had the best average after Root and Trott (remember that neither is a specialist opener) in County Championship 2014. READ: Mediocre England have a plenty to worry about

England’s problem in West Indies has been that their top-order, especially the opening pair, has not been able to provide the start which could inspire the team. England could have taken inspiration from Kraigg Brathwaite and Shai Hope, who fought and survived the crucial initial overs of James Anderson in the fourth innings at Kensington Oval. There are times when the number of balls you face or the duration you bat for turn out to be as important as the runs you score.

If England have to prosper in the long upcoming summer, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) need to get their most successful opening pair back, rather than experiment and worsen things for them, especially with The Ashes almost around the corner.

(Sudatta Mukherjee is a reporter with CricketCountry. Other than writing on cricket, she spends penning random thoughts on her blog. When she is not writing, you will catch her at a movie theatre or watching some English television show on her laptop. Her Twitter handle is @blackrosegal)