As if the current lot haven’t been? You’ve got to select your best players. Vince is equally good as Malan, Livingston probably better. These are very talented batsman, just feckin play them and let develop in stead and of putting your faith in far lesser equipped batsman because you feel they have a better mentality than for test cricket or what ever reason.
Vince played a fair few tests and didn't do well. Similiar record to Malan, who got the call back up because the youngsters were failing and he was performing well in all formats.
Roy was dreadful in the few tests he played, looked like he couldn't play the red ball at all. It might be slightly better to have him at 6 than opening, but we're stocked with better options for that role. It's best to let him focus on white ball cricket where he excels.
Livingstone is interesting. The youngest of the lot, and his bowling means there's a potential for him to be included as an all rounder, either as the 2nd spinner on a turning pitch, or as the sole spinner on a green top, or in the sub continent potentially even as the 3rd spinning option. Again it's complicated by us having plenty of decent options to bat 6-7, Root and Stokes nailed on 4 and 5.
The biggest problem England have is the top 3. None of these suggestions resolve that problem. Vince had been encouraged to bat higher in County, I think he was batting at 3 and maybe opening at some point, but it didn't last long and he was back at 4 or 5 last I checked. I think Malan is probably the best option for now, he's had 3 half centuries since his recall averaging 40+, and more importantly he seems comfortable batting at 3. Hes like 35 though so it's a short term option. We essentially need 3 new players for the top 3, Bohannon is an option potentially, but there's not many so we need at least a couple of Burns, Hameed, Sibley and Crawley to find form. That will give a platform to whoever is at 6-7, Bairstow, Buttler, Pope, Lawrence, Livingstone, Roy, Vince, Foakes etc.
Bracey is another interesting one, very young, batting at 3 in County and getting big scores whilst keeping. However batting 3 and keeping in tests is a monumental ask, so do we try and play him at 3 as a pure batsmen, or have him lower in the order keeping? For a prime example, check Sangakarra's batting average with and without keeping. It's like 40 keeping and 70 not keeping. He was too good a batsmen so it made sense to move him to 3 and not keep.
If we had a functional top 3, it wouldn't so much matter whose batting 6-8. I'd rather we pick our four best bowlers. Woakes is a great option in England but has failed time and again overseas. Would much prefer us to pick 4 of Mahmood, Stone, Archer, Wood, Robinson, Parkinson, Broad and Anderson so we can actually bowl sides out. Any attempt to bolster the batting line up with a Curran, Bess or Woakes (outside of England) its great news for the opposition. If their batting is good enough they can play at 6 or 7, great, if not don't bother with them.
We also need to start picking players suited to the conditions. Ballance and Jennings for example did well overseas, but couldn't handle the red ball in England. They could have been used to good effect on past tours (its too late for them now but we should look at that example). I won't pretend to be a good enough analyst of technique to say which of our batsmen would most likely prosper in which climate, but I'd like to think we would employ people who would.