England v
Pakistan: 2nd Test Preview
And the
Winners are… Keaton Jennings and Sam Curran!
May 30th 2018
With England needing a win to avoid yet another series defeat and
controversy raging over selection and the team’s under-performances, a call
from Trevor Bayliss is enough to send the heart racing… mainly with fear of
being the latest fall guy.
The recipients of phone calls this week have been Keaton Jennings –
widely predicted to replace Mark Stoneman – and, less expected, Sam Curran.
Keaton Jennings had scored 536 runs at an average of 107 in his last six
innings and, completely predictably, that run ended as soon as he had received
the call to return him to the ranks. Sam Curran gets the call thanks to his
good County Championship form with the ball, to an injury to Ben Stokes and to the
fact that he is a left-armer and adds some variety to the attack.
There are many possibilities. Ben Stokes may yet play as a specialist
bat: the fact that England can now call on the useful bowling of Jennings could
tempt them to go down that route. There could be a straight swap of Stokes for
Woakes. Jonny Bairstow could move up the order, allowing Joe Root to bat at his
preferred position of #4. Dom Bess could make way on the grounds that a spinner
rarely wins matches at Leeds, with Malan and Root offering a few overs of spin,
if required. Michael Vaughan would even drop Stuart Broad.
What is clear is that few members of the squad can be sure of their
place. The top 5 are not getting runs. England are too often 30-2 and 40-3 and
if you do not put up 400 regularly, you are not going to win many Tests. That
said, all too often over the winter and against Pakistan, the bowling lacked
punch and, even more, lacked variety. As was said of David Gower’s attack in
his first match as captain, when you have four right-arm, medium pace, seam and
swing bowlers and a flat spinner, you can change the bowlers, you can change
the ends, but you cannot change the bowling.
That Sam Curran is preferred to Jake Ball, to his brother Tom, or to
Craig Overton is revealing: where there is a choice, youth gets the call. Even
in Jennings v Stoneman, it is the younger man who has the benefit of the doubt.
Jake Ball’s record – just three wickets in four Tests – has counted
against him, while Tom Curran is regarded as lacking the pace to be effective
at this level. With Sam Curran in the squad, England can drop Mark Wood and
still retain an attack with a bowler who is different. In fact, it is not
impossible that both Woakes and Curran will play.
What to do with the batting is more of an issue. The batsmen are clearly
lacking in confidence and making poor decisions. Despite his score at Lord’s,
there are still questions about Alaistair Cook and that average opening
partnership of 18 between Cook and Stoneman was certainly not all Stoneman’s
fault. Can Keaton Jennings awaken the sleeping giant in his partner? That said,
can Jennings cope with high-class seam bowling more successfully than he did
against South Africa when, admittedly, desperately out of form?
Huge England totals have usually been made around big scores by Cook and
Root, but neither is quite on song. That is heaping pressure on
Stoneman/Jennings and Malan. Dawid Malan responded brilliantly in Australia,
but cannot buy a run now and knows that this may be his last Test for a while
unless he can make a score. However, Malan’s job would be much easier if he
were to come in at 200-3 instead of 40-3. For that to be possible, Cook and
Jennings need to put up opening partnerships of fifties and centuries.
Similarly, Bairstow and Buttler, both attacking batsmen, will do better against
tiring attacks than against fresh ones that are scenting blood after an early
collapse.
While it is too much to hope for that the England XI will show radical
changes – although the call-ups for Buttler, Curran and Jennings show that the
mantra is no longer so clearly “more of the same” – we are already diverging substantially
from the XI played in Brisbane and more changes can be expected on Friday. All
in all, the playing XI is quite unpredictable.
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