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England selectors out to solve batting puzzle

England will name their Test squad for the first match against Sri Lanka on Thursday, but first they have a raft of questions to answer

As England’s selectors prepare for Wednesday’s tough selection meeting to decide the Test XI to play Sri Lanka at Headingley next week, experts are split on who will make the cut.

The forced retirement of James Taylor and some question marks over the form of incumbent No.3 Nick Compton and opener Alex Hales mean up to three spots could be up for grabs in England’s batting order.

Hales is being tipped by most to hang on to his spot at the top of the order, but Australian-born Middlesex batsman Sam Robson and Yorkshire’s Alex Lees are breathing down his neck.

Nottinghamshire’s Hales scored 73 in the current round of County Championship action, while Robson posted his third ton of the season in the same match.

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Lees was dismissed for 16 against Surrey, following his 92 and 107 earlier this month.

Hampshire’s James Vince and Middlesex’s Compton are seemingly locked in a battle for first drop, while Essex’s Tom Westley has also put himself in contention with four tons from eight innings this season.

Vince put himself in contention with a century last month and is currently unbeaten on 39 heading into day four of Hampshire’s clash with Lancashire, while Compton was dismissed for three against Nottinghamshire, continuing his indifferent start to the season.

Two players with Test experience also appear to be vying for Taylor’s spot in the middle order – Gary Ballance and veteran Ian Bell – alongside Vince, should Compton retain his sport at No.3.

Bell, dropped for England’s most recent Test series against South Africa, was averaging 82 from three innings in the County Championship but suffered a blow when a hamstring injury saw him forced to bat at No.7 on Tuesday before being dismissed for seven.

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Ballance has scored one half-century from seven innings for Yorkshire this northern summer.

The Guardian’s Mike Selvey has made a case for Robson to play his first Test since August 2014, slotting in as opener – joined by Hales at No.3 and Vince at No.5.

"The most accomplished opener (this season) has been Sam Robson, who has made centuries in all three innings at Lord’s and has looked compact, comfortable and focused,” Selvey wrote.

"Robson has earned a recall. The person who should bat at three is Root but he has no aspiration to do so at present. Rather than open, (Hales) could come in at the fall of the first wicket. It would leave the way clear for Vince to bat at five.”

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Veteran Telegraph writer Scyld Berry believes England’s selectors should choose the batting line-up most likely to succeed in the 2017-18 Ashes in Australia, naming Alex Lees as the player best equipped to open alongside Alastair Cook.

"It is widely agreed that Alex Hales deserves another chance. But he is more likely to succeed in Test cricket as an attacking No 3 … than as an opener,” Berry wrote.

"Another Alex should open with Cook, the 23-year-old Lees of Yorkshire. An argument against him is that he is too similar to Cook.

"When Jake Ball, who is shaping up as James Anderson’s successor, and Stuart Broad ran through Yorkshire’s top order for Nottinghamshire at the start of this month, Lees was the one who looked like the Test batsman."

Meanwhile the Daily Mail’s Paul Newman is tipping Compton to be given one more chance by England selectors, with Westley the dark horse to sneak into the XI.

"Coach Trevor Bayliss believes in giving players an extended run before drawing a line under them," Newman wrote.

"Whether Compton survives now may well come down to how much Cook believes that his Essex team-mate Tom Westley, the county form horse, is ready to make the step up from Lions cricket and the second division to Test level."

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