Reflections
The Dilemma of Number Three
Cricbuzz · Jon Hotten · 19 Jun 2025, 5:08 PM
Both England and India have been presented with a tricky decision around the least defined position in batting
August 2009. Going into the final Test match at the Oval with the Ashes series level at 1-1, England face a selection quandary. Batting at number three, Ravi Bopara has endured a series from hell: 105 runs at an average of 15, capped off with a first-baller in a heavy defeat at Headingley.
Bopara has to go, but when someone has to go, someone else has to come in. Who, though? This is England's dilemma. Over a week of back-of-an-envelope calculations and scribbled possibilities - Unretire Marcus Trescothick? Find that guy Rob Key who last played in 2005? - it comes down to a choice of two
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