Batting Problems Continue

 

 

Ashes 2013

 

New England, old problem

 

December 26^th 2013

 

There are times when it is nice to be away from Internet coverage. A few days away, isolated from the world have helped to forget about the “tour from hell”. The fact that the 3^rd Test and with it the Ashes as a theoretically competitive series ended well before Christmas and then had a dead period until Boxing Day has helped. For the older England fans, brought up in an era when success of any kind was a collectors’ item, the epithet “tour from hell” was used so often that it began to lack all meaning: none of us have missed them and finding England in the middle of what was a recurring nightmare in the ‘80s and ‘90s has been an unpleasant surprise.
 

A fractious tour took on a new ratchet up of pressure with the retirement of Graeme Swann from all cricket before Christmas. Criticism has rained down on him. It was well known that he was not expected to get through to the 2015 Ashes but, to retire mid-tour was a shock. However, Swann is no one’s fool. As in 2010, the Australians have set out to attack him and neutralise him. Then though, the batsmen made enough runs that he always had a long rest between bowling efforts. Here, he has rarely had the luxury and, even his supposed rest, has usually seen him coming out to bat in a crisis against an angry attack. The elbow that has been operated on twice could not last him much longer anyway and he has a boy, Wilf, who he dotes on and, being away so much, is missing growing up. Undoubtedly Andy Flower has had a word in his ear and told him that he was not going to be picked for the last two Tests and Graeme Swann has seen that it was time to turn the page on his career.
 

Much has been made of the dearth of spinners to replace Swann. The Australians see Simon Kerrigan as a figure of fun in much the same way that a lot of people saw Shane Warne as a figure of fun after his first Test. That was a mistake and Simon Kerrigan may well make them pay in the way that Shane Warne did. There are also plenty of useful young spinners around. Maybe none is worth an England place right now, but how many people would have said that Graeme Swann would be a great spinner when he was 25? He had had one disastrous tour of South Africa that had convinced Duncan Fletcher that he was an immature crybaby who would not fit in England’s plans. In the meantime though, Monty Panesar has an unexpected chance to revive his England career. When Monty burst onto the scene in 2006 as a 25 year old with hardly any First Class experience it looked as if the sky was the limit for him. He was popular with the fans and front page news. Now, he knows that he has been lucky to get a chance. He also knows that he may not be an automatic choice for Sydney, even in the absence of Swann.

England have called up Scott Borthwick and James Tredwell. Borthwick is an anomaly: a spinner and a leggie at that, who has flourished in Chester-le-Street’s green, seaming surfaces. His stats do not look great, but he has to contend with a pitch that is not exactly a spinners paradise for his home games. Tredwell had a miserable season with the captaincy at Kent proving to be an insuperable burden. However, his second half of the season showed a considerable upturn and, playing ODIs to rest Swann, he showed that he is a not inconsiderable bowler. Tredwell’s returns for England have been better than Swann’s in the last year or so. The selectors have decided to leave Kerrigan with the Lions to mature a bit and have ignored the talents of Danny Briggs: the pool is by no means as empty as some might say.

The final team showed no surprises: Broad was fit; Panesar replaced Swann (the brave move would have been to go with Borthwick, who has been playing Club cricket in Australia and would have offered something different with the ball, plus a lot more in the field and with the bat) and Jonny Bairstow took the gloves from Matt Prior. With Prior so down the move was inevitable, but it is asking a huge amount of Bairstow to come in like this – he has played very little and is very much a back-up ‘keeper.

In the Test we had a novelty act. Sadly, it ended in an all too familiar fashion. When Michael Clarke won the toss and put England in and then Cook and Carberry set a base without too much fuss and nothing much happened for the bowlers, Australia must have feared the worst. Rather than run through the top order with quick wickets, they reverted to English tactics: cut out the runs and just bowl dry. At 96-1 and 176-3, it could have happened for England. They were, once again, close to seizing the initiative, the strike bowlers tiring. However, we saw, once again, something that has been the bane of England’s batting in this series: the top seven all reached double figures, but only KP passed Michael Carberry’s 38. And Michael Carberry himself was the only other batsman to reach thirty. Carberry’s series of scores is getting seriously annoying. Yet another solid thirty. Yet another start, but only one fifty in nine Test innings. You now know how his innings will go: get to thirty, look as solid as a rock and then fall unexpectedly just when you think that he must go on to make a century. Unless he can break this sequence with a big score (and, even then, centuries in consecutive Tests did not save Nick Compton) the selectors will look elsewhere next summer.

Three wickets and a scoring rate in the last session that would have had old Ebenezer Scrooge  purring with joy and England are back in the pits again, faster than you can say “Nigel Mansell”. KP is hanging in there for 67 and Tim Bresnan, promoted above Stuart Broad, is showing himself to be as solid and brave as ever, but the fear is that 176-3 could well be 240ao very rapidly tomorrow morning. For England, nothing less than 300 is acceptable and 330 would be better, although probably unattainable from here.

England need KP to add to his centuries and to farm the strike and for Tim Bresnan to play with the skill and determination that gave him a Test batting average of over 40 in the early stages of his career. The first forty minutes will be vital: get through them and the ball will be starting to age a little and batting will get easier, which could just set up KP to let loose for a while; lose a wicket quickly and the tail will be exposed to a rested attack and a still relatively new ball.

If you are an optimist, you see KP racing past a century, backed by the tail, before Monty exploits the big turn that Nathan Lyon was finding even early on, to put Australia under some real pressure tomorrow. The fear though for most fans is that the alternative scenario is far more realistic: England may just fold quickly in the morning and see Australia in the lead with only two or three wickets down by the Close. Those first forty minutes of the morning will set the tone for the day: if England were to win them, we might just see the start of a revival.