Shah is a one-day player. His technique is not condusive to the test arena. His FC average was considerably lower than Bopara's and Bopara is a far better fielder, and more handy a bowler than Shah.
Shah isn't a one-day player though. Shah's always been far stronger at the longer version of the game than the shorter one. His technique
might get found-out at the Test level but there's only one way to find-out, and that's to try. Shah has earnt the right to try, there've been hundreds of players with faulty techniques who've been good to magnificent Test players - look at Gary Kirsten and Stephen Waugh, for example. Not all technical flaws can be exploited.
And there is absolutely no way on Earth that Bopara's First-Class record is better than Shah's, that's why it's such an outrage that Bopara was picked for Tests ahead of Shah. Shah has been bashing down the door (the Test one - not the ODI one that the selectors have so stupidly repeatedly opened to him) for 8 years now, and has gotten a whole 2 Tests' recognition because of it, both as injury replacements. Bopara got 3 Tests, as a first-choce, on the basis of
1 good year. Absolutely ridiculous.
I dont think it possible to drop Cook, i dont really know whats gone wrong with him, his tecnique, i dont remember ever being that poor. First time i noticed it was only in the series against Seth Efrica a bit ago. He has some talent driving on the offside and can be quite fluent when he wants to be, but he has never had a sweep shot, then again most essex batsman are taught not to use it and the way he constantly rocks on to the back foot is something that i think has come in to his game but hasn't always been there. I think once he sorts this tecnical deficiency out then he will develop in to a good test opener.
Obviously,
if he sorts it out he'll be a Test player of rare excellence. That much can be deduced from his shot-selection. However, to take it for granted that he can iron-out all three flaws would be extremely unwise. I first noticed the first (the tendency to defend deliveries outside off-stump, and worse defend them towards extra-cover rather than straight back down the pitch - you should always play a defensive shot with the full face showing to the bowler) in Australia in 2006/07, a little while ago now. The other one, the heavy-footed leading foot and tendency to get the bat stuck behind the pad and play around it, is one that afflicts plenty of LHBs (and RHBs when they face left-arm-over seam-bowlers) I first noticed against India in 2007, and it played a big part in us losing that series.
It will be far from straightforward for Cook to fix the latter flaw, and the fact that he still hasn't fixed the former despite it being in evidence for 2 years now suggests that a) it's proving very difficult as well or b) he and the England coaching staff are a bunch of dunderheads who can not merely not spot technical flaws for themselves but can't even take note of someone else pointing them out, as Sky commentators have done plenty of times.
As for the sweep, it's a problem for him, but not I don't think a bigger one than many other England batsmen. England batsmen by-and-large are simply not judicious sweepers. If I'm tutoring batsmen, one of the first things I'd say is "pretty well under any circumstances,
never sweep against the spin".