England v India: 4th Test Haseeb Hameed’s Misfortune Could be Keaton Jenning’s Lucky Break

 

England v India: 4^th Test

Haseeb Hameed’s Misfortune Could be Keaton Jenning’s Lucky Break

November 30^th 2016

It is at least arguable that had England played Haseeb Hameed in Bangladesh they would have won the series. As it is, they have unearthed a gem. Scores of 21, 82, 13, 25, 9 & 59* in the first three Tests fail to measure his impact.

A score of 25 in the second innings at Visakhapatnam looks like a modest contribution, but it took up 50 overs of self-denial, inducing pure frustration in India as England tried to conjure a draw from the wreckage of a wretched performance. Hameed’s dismissal started the slide to defeat when India were beginning to look increasingly ragged and frustrated. Greater still though was his second innings effort at Mohali. Batting with a broken hand. Unable to grip the bat properly, he marshalled a recovery from 107-6 to 236ao. Ultimately both efforts were in vain, but both deserved so much better.

Hameed is on the iron bird to England to get a titanium plate put in his hand and, by all accounts, almost had to be ordered home, as he wanted to play the last two Tests. Unable to field, it would have been impractical, but it showed spirit.

No one doubts that Hameed will return to take his place as an opener for England next summer. He looks to have made the opening slot his own when he is fit again.

For now though, a replacement is needed. Already there had been hysterical calls to send out Sam Billings as the best available player of spin, but England’s problems go much deeper. India are not just providing a trial by spin: India’s pace attack is providing hostile and dangerous and is getting at least as much out of the pitches as England’s. England have tried Duckett, Root and Hameed as Cook’s partner at different times this winter. Root has done the job and was a good stand-in at Mohali, but right now he is a more natural #4 and it is where he is going to score the most runs. You can talk about using Root, Moeen, Duckett, or even Billings to stand-in as opener for the last two Tests, but they need a specialist.

With the Lions squad in the UAE one would think that the matter is simple. Unfortunately, unlike previous winters when they have had a heavy schedule of matches, the Lions tour this winter is more of a camp. The match programme only starts on December 1^st with four 50-over matches against the UAE and Afghanistan: hardly the most challenging opposition. With the 4^th Test starting on December 8^th, any replacement may get to play the first two games in the UAE, but no more, as preparation for two Tests against a rampant India.

While there were calls for Nick Gubbins of Middlesex to be called-up, over the summer Keaton Jennings just did that little bit better and showed a happy knack of making good scores into big ones: 7 centuries, including two doubles, testify to that, as do his First Class scores at the end of the season: 14, 0, 27, 45, 21, 0, 33, 171*, 40, 8, 201*, 11, 1, 25. When Jennings gets in, he scores big, but it can be feast or famine. Gubbins, in contrast, has been more consistent over 2016 and has more fifties, but fewer hundreds.

All-in-all though, Jennings was the right choice, if only to reward him for prolific form in Division 1 in a club in turmoil and for setting out his stall with Durham and England. With Jennings likely to play most of his cricket in Division 2 in 2017, if he were passed-over here, it is likely that his chance would be gone, at least until Durham return to Division 1. Of course, Jennings’s selection comes at a price: he is the latest in a long line of players born in South Africa to throw in their stall with England. It has left England open to the criticism, launched many times over the last few decades, that it is a team of mercenaries. There is something insidious about this in its purest manifestation of seeing how the picking of a multicultural team to represent a multicultural society causes so much offense to so many people.

England’s second and less expected replacement, is Liam Dawson. Dawson is very much seen as a player for the future and is being developed as part of a long-term plan. It turns out that Zafar Ansari’s injury problems are far worse than was revealed and he will, unexpectedly to most, leave India too before the 4^th Test.

England have got in a bit of a bind here. The top two spinners in the country are Jack Leach and Ollie Rayner. Jack Leach is young and Chris Rogers, his county captain, mindful of what his compatriots did to Simon Kerrigan, does not think that he is ready for Tests. He would though be the like-for-like pick, as a Slow Left-Armer. Ollie Rayner, in contrast, is more experienced, more mature now and ready, but would be a third off-spinner when Moeen Ali is already being criminally underbowled at times. There is a very highly rated Slow Left-Armer at Middlesex in Ravi Patel, but he has hardly played for two seasons and, although still on the radar, is unlikely to advance his career future at Lord’s in the near future.

It may be that Liam Dawson is the best of a poor set of choices but, with Alistair Cook’s well-known lack of confidence in spinners, putting an inexperienced spinner who is not even first choice for his county (the even younger leg-spinner, Mason Crane, has usurped his role as first-choice spinner for Hampshire), into the Test team, may not be a rip-roaring success.