Image courtesy- BBC.com
Well as per England Cricket Board (ECB) new rule they need to have a large group of players to draw on, but why are they making lots of changes in their squad?. The reason is that in late last year, England’s selectors and management sat down to plan how they would handle the upcoming tours to Sri Lanka and India. By the end of March, England was to play six Tests, three ODIs and five T20Is, all while being packed in bio-secure bubbles of one sort or another. It was hectic to ask players to play all of it is clearly not a realistic prospect.
Ed Smith who is the national selector stood on a principle that England’s multi-format players would all be rested for one part of winter. The six tests would be broken up into three blocks of two games where each with impacted players rested for one of those blocks. The plan and the reasons were communicated to the players in advance which Ed Smith said was received well.
Smith further added that they are being pragmatic and if the board keep people in a bubble for three months such as January, February and March along with that expects players to play all formats, they won’t be able to perform their best and England will be damaged as result. They feel that rotation policy is for players benefit as well as England’s benefit.