Geraint Jones dropped for Chris Read

That's a bit of a surprise. Not a massive surprise, but a surprise nonetheless. England's selectors seem to have deemed Geraint Jones 'out of form' rather than 'not up to standard'. The cure is apparently to play some county cricket.

With only a couple more Tests and some one-day matches to play before the Ashes, it would be highly surprising indeed if Chris Read didn't start the series Down Under gloved and squatting. Geraint Jones will still go, but as understudy.

You have to take your chances in international cricket and this could actually be Read's last chance to forge a career in international cricket despite his relative youth. Good luck to him. We've never held strong views about England's wicketkeepers, but taking Read in isolation, he was dropped because of his poor batting and he went and sorted it out, scoring heavily in first-class cricket. We've great respect for that. He could easily have let the disappointment get to him and effectively given up his Test career, but he didn't.

It could be that his determination and mental approach will stand him in better stead than the improvement in his batting. A bit of steel and resolve never harmed any batsman and Read's had to go through a hard and draining process to get back in this side. We reckon he'll be a tougher prospect for opposing bowlers. Hopefully his keeping's still immaculate. It would balance out the irony of Jones being dropped for his batting if Read were subsequently dropped for his keeping. This really shouldn't happen though.