Mark Stoneman and Tom Westley let golden opportunity pass them by

Pink was the colour at Edgbaston but for Mark Stoneman and Tom Westley the day must have been tinged with green for envy.

Both were desperate for runs at the start of their Test careers but early dismissals forced them to miss out on the docile hours when life was a beach and Alastair Cook and Joe Root were able to bat with as much freedom as is possible in Test cricket.

For Stoneman the pain must have been acute. It is ten years since his championship debut for Durham playing in the same XI as Ottis Gibson, the soon to be former England bowling coach, and Steve Harmison. It is 11 years since he played in a World Cup for England under-19s, during which time two of his team-mates in that tournament, Moeen Ali and Steven Finn, have played a combined 78 Tests.

All those years churning out runs for Durham and now Surrey but watching as others were picked ahead of him not just for England but the Lions too must have made the relief at receiving his cap from Andrew Strauss feel even more acute.

It adds up to a long road to a Test debut and a date with an absolute ripper from Kemar Roach’s back catalogue that snuffed out his first innings after only nine minutes.

There was not even time for the analysts on television or radio to have in depth look at his technique. No “split screens” as Michael Vaughan wrote in Wednesday’s Daily Telegraph when his backlift or trigger movement or bottom hand could be raked over like never before.

Instead all we saw were six balls. If you had told Stoneman before play that his first ball in Test cricket would end in the hands of second slip he would have been horrified. Instead it was so wide from Roach that he was able to watch it drift harmlessly, or Harmisonlessly, by. His first four, driven through extra cover and speeding to the boundary under the Hollies Stand must have been a pinch yourself moment for an old county hand. Another clipped off the legs for four was equally well timed before the inswinger arrived that moved late and hit his off stump.

Immediately the joke went out on twitter with the hashtag StonemanOut. Stoneman should have played against South Africa coming in after the Trent Bridge Test to open with Cook to allow Keaton Jennings to move slightly out of the firing line at three. Instead England’s policy of giving a player one game too many meant Jennings played at the Oval even though he was cooked against the new ball and then once England won that Test there was no chance of a change for Old Trafford.

It means England have to judge Stoneman on returns against West Indies, a soft launch for a Test career, before they pick their Ashes squad next month.

In the same position is Westley. This is his third Test and three games against West Indies will be his lot if he does not make a decent score. His technique has already gone through the analysts’ ringer and his bottom hand, leg side preference was highlighted within a few minutes of his Test career starting at the Oval.

Here there was a lovely timed drive down the ground for four through mid on when Roach over-pitched but a couple of pearlers beat him outside off stump before Westley missed a straighter one from Miguel Cummins. Westley’s strength, trying to hit through the on side, had been his weakness on this occasion and once again Root was walking out with England two down for not very many.

What followed next was predictable. England’s two best batsmen bedded in and a delivery like the one that dismissed Stoneman was not seen again. It was a procession as Cook and Root hit 18 boundaries before lunch and notched off their 50s and, in Root’s case century, milestones before tea.

It was only around 6.30pm and the 51st over of the innings that batting changed and evening began to set in. Roach made a couple fly cutting Root in half with one and then forcing an edge from Cook that would have gone straight to third slip had there been one. But by then Cook was approaching the 80s and Root in the 90s. Stoneman and Westley were instead sat in the dressing room contemplating the salmon with mango and chilli salsa on the players’ menu having failed to dine out on the easy pickings elsewhere.