Monday 11 July 2016 10:46, UK
David Lloyd looks at England's squad for the first Test against Pakistan, talks Nasser Hussain's world record and ponders about Grimsby...
Sri Lanka's tour is over and next up for England is Pakistan.
I thought England were really good in all three formats against Sri Lanka, they are in a good place but it will be much tougher against Pakistan. They played attractive cricket, and it was important they played good cricket, it was an excellent team effort with some individual brilliance.
The T20 was a good finish to the Sri Lanka tour, although England won at a canter really. The ground looked terrific, I've not been a fan in the past but the Ageas Bowl looked an absolute picture - and it's always a darn good pitch down there so it was very enjoyable.
Jos Buttler was the star but England have been consistent in saying that he needs to play some red-ball cricket before he gets back into the Test team or comes back into contention, that's fair enough.
I think they actually do want him back in the Test team but quite rightly he's got to play some county cricket. It's similar with Ben Stokes, he's playing as a batsman at the minute so obviously he's not fully fit and you tend not to play people in Test matches if they're not fully fit! I don't think it's fair to the player to expose them to the pinnacle of the game when they are not 100 per cent.
Toby Roland-Jones has come into the squad though and I mentioned him when I was down at Lord's earlier in the season, I thought he was really impressive. He's a similar bowler to one of yesteryear, Angus Fraser. I thought he was quick enough, accurate, good action, fit and a good build - he was impressive.
Jimmy Anderson will obviously be missed, he's a big loss for England but Roland-Jones is a good pick and I wouldn't be surprised if he plays because Lord's is his home ground so it may be that Jake Ball misses out.
The one that I didn't see coming was Gary Ballance. Although in the last County Championship match, which was against Middlesex and Roland-Jones, he scored an excellent hundred. I thought England would have gone for Scott Borthwick - he's been quiet in the last two county matches but in the one previous to that he got 183 not out.
They've said that Root is batting at three so it'll be Vince four, Ballance five, Bairstow six and Moeen Ali seven. I know that Mahela Jayawardena, who knows Pakistan pretty well, thinks that Ali at seven against them is one place too high so we'll see about that.
In the T20 Blast, it's great to see teams like Northants and Gloucestershire doing very well and they're going to be a force this year and I hope that they get through to Finals Day.
I know that people are a bit disappointed about them not being on TV but unfortunately these fixtures have to be put in place well in advance.
Meanwhile, Nasser Hussain is obviously a very proud man at the minute after he set a new Guinness World Record for the highest catch of a cricket ball. The pair of gloves that he had on, I think they might be the way forward - two different gloves!
I'm doing a bit of decorating today, I've got a bit of painting to do so that'll occupy me, but I did a bit of filming at the Ageas Bowl for Royal London with David Willey and Charlotte Edwards - that'll be coming to your screens soon!
I've also just had word from Sky that the film that I ordered has come through - 'Grimsby' with Sacha Baron Cohen. I don't know whether it's about Grimsby but it's called Grimsby so I'll be watching that this weekend.
Plenty of football teams are back in training for the new season now and at Accrington Stanley our ground is being totally revamped and our owner, Andy Holt, is doing a lot of digging! The ground has been re-drained and reseeded so that looks great.
I have seen some tweets from the lads who have gone back though and they're all stiff as boards! They've got to get the mileage back into their legs and it reminds me of when I played cricket, going back in April - I've never been as stiff, stiff as a fat lad.
The England football team obviously need a new manager but I've not seen any real contenders. There's Big Sam, of course - Sam Allardyce - he's a top man. I know Sam and he's a good bloke and he's up-to-date with all the latest methods but we'll probably go for a foreign manager like Sven-Goran Eriksson or Fabio Capello. That worked out brilliantly.
