Brilliant Choices For Forthcoming Tour!

No fewer than six Yorkshire players are rightly slected in the sixteen-man England squad for the brief three-test tour of the West Indies in April. The tour has a pitiful two-match preparation and looks dreadfully undercooked from that perspective. Heaven knows England never seem to hit the ground running in overseas test series, but let's hope that some of the Tykes' contingent can do their county and country some justice in the Caribbean.

The six test hopefuls are:

Gary Ballance. [This was expected, on the back of his fine summer with England in 2014. However, his World Cup efforts in recent weeks were a shambles.]

Joe Root. [Joe is a certain starter for England in all forms of cricket. He looks a mainstay for a long time to come. His temperament and ability are of high quality.]

Jonny Bairstow. [Jonny deserves serious consideration for a recall to the one-day team alongside Buttler, but he will be merely Jos's understudy in the West Indies.]

Adam Lyth. [At last the years of hard work have paid off. There are calls to play Trott as the opener, but Adam stands a fighting chance of being Cook's partner].

Liam Plunkett. [Big Liam let nobody down on the Lions tour of South Africa. His pace is an obvious asset and he can be equally belligerent with bat in hand.]

Adil Rashid. [In the absence of Moeen Ali, Adil looks set to get shunted into first team duty, unless the cautious selectors play it safe and opt for James Tredwell.]

Here's hoping that some of the above can represent the three lions with as much distinction as they have represented the white rose. Bon voyage, tout le monde.

The puny tour itinerary is as follows: