Young blood

We are looking more towards trying to build a team for the 20 over and 50 over world cups happening this and next year. Payne is someone England have had on their radar for a while and is ready to come into this squad for these respective world cups.

What a bizarre post this is. If England were a poor side I would sort of understand it but this is pure nonsense.

Having checked out the ages of the players in all of the countries' test teams I have to agree that my comment was ill-informed nonsense. Players under 30 years old are by far the minority. I must admit I am surprised by that. I am only 65 and will be available in October/November so maybe there's hope for me yet. Maybe a team-mate might take a ricochet catch off my zimmer.

Test cricketers tend to get to their peak at that sort of 27-33 phase with exceptional cases of players being top class before or after that age range.

It feels like a good age to start picking players so even as a 31 year old you can probably have 2 or 3 years to contribute on the international scene.

International cricket is not a place to blood youngsters unless they're already good enough.