West Indies v England
2nd Test, Preview: England Wield the Scalpel
January 30th 2019
As many as five players might well have been hanging on news
of the 2nd Test squad. Sam Curran, Keaton Jennings, Adil Rashid, Ben
Foakes and Moeen Ali might all have had reasons to fear the wielding of the
axe. As it turns out, the selectors, sensibly, have chosen to make surgical
changes, rather than play the axeman as some of the more radical fans would
have them do. Sam Curran keeps his place in the XII, although it is possible
that he will be the one left out tomorrow. The major change has been for Keaton
Jennings to be dropped for the second and possibly final time in his career.
Jennings has periods of form in which runs and centuries flow like a river in
the spring thaw but, at Test level, seam bowling is finding him out. While, in
County cricket, there are enough bad balls that he can make hay, at Test level
the bowling is more persistent and less forgiving of errors. The point has been
made though that the County game, which thirty years ago, offered exposure to
the very best bowlers in world cricket (think of facing Michael Holding, Joel
Garner, Richard Hadlee, Wasim Akram, Bishan Bedi, Muttiah Muralitharan, Imran
Khan, Morne Morkel, Chris Cairns, …) now, due to the intensity of international
tours, only features the very best players on an occasional basis and then, for
a few weeks. It is no longer possible for a county such as Somerset to play
stars of the class of Joel Garner and Viv Richards alongside Test players such
as Ian Botham for the majority of games, season after season. There are many
fine bowlers in County cricket but, for all the efforts of the two-division
system to create intensity, the way that the Championship has been shunted into
two halves, with early season games in April/May and late season games in late
August and September, with hardly any games between, has not been conducive to
developing all-round players. In a difficult situation, the selectors have
taken a pragmatic, but highly risky approach in dropping Jennings with three
games to go before the Ashes and replacing him with a non-specialist opener.
Joe Denly is a player who made a big impact early in his
career. An attacking opener who broke into the limited overs set-up, playing 9
ODIs and 5 T20s in 2009/10, he was tipped for Test honours when at Middlesex,
before he lost his way completely. Rescued by Kent, he averaged 40.9 in 2015,
38.6 in 2016, 55.5 in 2017 and then, 34.5 in 2018, supplemented by 23 wickets
at 18.5. While his average in 2018 was affected by playing on some very sporty
surfaces at home, playing a non-specialist as opener, who averaged under 35
last season in Division 2, is an extremely brave decision. If Denly were to fail,
where do England go with just the match against Ireland before the Ashes?
Alastair Cook has called the decision to bring in Denly “brave” and it is one
that could backfire horribly. On the other hand, though, Denly is highly
experienced and has gone through the mill. In a sense, he is regarded a safe
pair of hands in a difficult situation. Not originally in the Test squad for
Sri Lanka, he was drafted-in as a potential #3 and third spinner, but had a
difficult time in the warm-ups and the plan was abandoned. What though is hard
to understand, is England going to the Caribbean without a reserve opener given
the pressure on Jennings and, to a slightly lesser degree, on Burns. However, it
is an evident truth that there are no specialist openers crying-out for
selection, although Sam Robson and Daryll Mitchell might disagree. The decision
to go with Denly has a certain similarity to the promotion of a previous Kent
specialist #3 to Test opener… a chap called Chris Tavaré, who made a decent
fist of it in 18 of his 31 Tests.
The second change in the squad was widely expected, but has
been dressed-up discretely. Adil Rashid was expected to lose his place, so has
been given leave to return to the United Kingdom to be with his wife for the
birth of his second child, due during the Test. Jack Leach, who should probably
have been in the team for the 1st Test replaces him. However, it is
far from certain that Leach will play. England are likely to recall Stuart
Broad and play four seamers, with Sam Curran dropping to fourth seamer. In this
case, Moeen Ali will be the lone spinner, supported by the part-time tweak of
Joe Root and Joe Denly. However, if the pitch, expected to be low and slow, looks
likely to take spin, England could well drop Curran, who looked well off the
pace both with bat and ball in Barbados and play three seamers and two
specialist spinners. England misread the Barbados pitch; they cannot afford to
misread this one.
What everyone – even the West Indies – is expecting is an
England reaction. However, Caribbean cricket has been severely slighted by some
of the pre-tour comments and would be quite inclined to serve up two shirt
fronts on which a result would not be possible in six days, let alone five, to
protect their series lead. Sir Geoffrey though, as is his want, has made light
of his faux pas and suggested that the West Indians carry him around in their
kit-bag to gee them up… it has worked here… in spades! England have to win both
remaining Tests to win the series and have
to make the pace in Antigua.
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