PETER HAYTER

Room at the top: Joe Root has been a success opening for England before
PICTURE: Getty Images

As Mark Stoneman finds himself the latest batsman called up to become Alastair Cook’s 12th opening partner since the retirement of Andrew Strauss in 2012, one thing is abundantly clear: if you are an England-qualified opening batsman playing county cricket and you have not been mentioned as a candidate for Test honours, you should probably be considering a change of career.
For the record here is the list of the previous 11 who have been tried and, for a variety of reasons, fo...