The general consensus is that chief selector Ed Smith's vision of a great Test cricketer in Jos Buttler has had its time being vindicated and that the team management should seriously consider freeing-up the limited-overs great from that pressure.
Former England pacer Darren Gough is also someone who agrees with this line of thought, having seen Buttler fail regularly since last year's Ashes. After another set of failures in England's defeat to the West Indies at the Ageas Bowl, the wicketkeeper batsman now averages just 31.46 after 42 Tests, including only 15 fifties and one hundred in his 75 innings.
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Gough thinks Buttler will be playing the next two Tests of this series in Manchester to save his career in the traditional whites.
"Buttler has got two Test matches to save his career, for me," he told Sky Sports Cricket. "He's a terrific talent, lots of kids look up to him and he has all the shots. But, in Test cricket, you can't just keep getting out and that's what he keeps doing."
Gough, who picked 229 wickets in 58 Tests, believes England should pick only one of Jofra Archer or Mark Wood in the XI for the remaining two games and bring back both Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes while resting James Anderson ahead of the second Test.
"I think Broad's coming back in. I would rest Wood and Anderson at Old Trafford and bring in Broad and Woakes," he said. "That would be my plan then, with back-to-back Test matches, you bring Anderson and Wood back (for the third Test). I've said from the start - rotate Archer and Wood."
"We got a bit carried away, seeing Wood bowl really quickly in South Africa. We've seen Archer do it, but it's very hard to do it every single game. Broad, Woakes and Anderson are the reliable three, while Archer and Wood will blow away the opposition on their day."
Another move he would like to see, Gough, is the one looking past the struggling middle-order batsman, Joe Denly, who, after 15 Tests, averages just 29.54 and at 34, isn't exactly enjoying the best days of his youth. Denly's absence would allow England to retain young Zak Crawley in the XI despite the return of regular captain Joe Root. Crawley made an impressive half-century in the second essay in Southampton.
"The Denly selection - I think he's been a lucky boy to play the Tests he has played. I love him as a bloke, I think he's a terrific guy," Gough said. "But if you consider that since 2000, 47 batsmen have played for England - there's only three with worse averages to have played 15 Tests. That's Malan, Compton and Jennings - and they've all got hundreds. Denly hasn't got a hundred, so it's time to make a change."
