England v Pakistan: 1^st Test, Day 2

After Miserable Thursday, Awful Friday

May 25^th 2018

If you were an optimist, you would look at the close of play situation on Day 1 and see England still well ahead, with a chance to get right back into the game on the second morning. If luck and biorhythms were right, England could even squeeze out a small first innings lead. The alternative point of view is that the match and the series could be sailing away over the horizon by Tea.

It did not quite happen that way. At Tea it was 227-5 and England were, just about hanging on. There was a chance that the lead could be kept to reasonable proportions. Pakistan’s tail was, we were told, fragile. At 246-5 Babar Azam received a sickening blow and retired hurt, exposing the tail – it turns out that the ball from Ben Stokes has broken his wrist; his tour is over and one can only send him sympathy and best wishes for a speedy recovery – and even then England could not exploit their opening, fortunate and undeserved as it was.

At the Close, it was 350-8. Effectively 350-9. The lead is 166. And England will need a score northwards of 400 to make a game of this.

There were three factors:

1.     Some very determined Pakistan batting. Their side has risen to the challenge in the way that no one anticipated.

2.     Some sloppy England bowling. Too often too short and misdirected.

3.     Some poor fielding. Five chances went down, three of them would normally be taken at this level. In contrast, Pakistan themselves missed almost nothing.

In Australia, Joe Root won praise for being prepared to try new things and to adapt to situations. Here, the plan was less clear. Fielding positions shuffled. Players found themselves changing from one specialist position to another. There was an air of lack of thought, improvising, disorganisation, poor use of resources. His captaincy seems to be getting less certain and less imaginative with time, not more.

There is also an air of frustration among the fans. There is a feeling of opprobrium, a suggestion that too many of this side have had too many chances, while others have reached the end of their useful career at this level. Right now, if you asked the average angry, opinionated fan, he or she would probably give only 3 or 4 names as certainties for the 2^nd Test (Root, Stokes, Bairstow and, possibly, Cook).

The problem with such a massive clear-out is that there is no quick fix. If you decide to drop your entire attack, you cannot guarantee that what will replace them will not struggle even more at this level. What makes things even less clear is that fact that most of the pitches so far have been seam-friendly. The top wicket-takers of the season so far in Division 1 are: Jake Ball, Ben Coad, Joe Leach and Tom Bailey. There have been calls for Jake Ball to be called-up, but he has played four Tests already and has just three wickets to his name at a strike rate over 200. Ben Coad is an interesting one. His record is superb. He looks like a likely England bowler of the near future, but he is a very typical English bowler of low-80s pace. You can talk all you like about Glenn McGrath and Terry Alderman, who were both high-70s/low-80s, but they were inhumanly accurate and consistent: for every McGrath, you have one hundred Graeme Gooches – similar pace, useful as a partnership breaker, but not the bowler who you would want necessarily to take the new ball at the Gabba. Joe Leach is an honest county pro – he will take wickets and run through a brick wall for you, but he is no Dennis Lillee. And Tom Bailey is in his seventh First Class season and has played just 37 matches – he has not even been a 1^st XI regular until recently.

Of the top four wicket-takers in the averages, I suspect that Ben Coad may well get a game sometime this summer: if you do not give him a chance, you will never know and Jake Ball will be mentioned in despatches, but neither looks, at the moment, like the man to replace Jimmy Anderson or Stuart Broad, long-term.

Similarly, the batting. Keaton Jennings has a Test century to his name and has runs suddenly, like a dog has fleas. Nick Gubbins at Middlesex is running into some form too: one of the many theories around when Haseeb Hameed made his wonderful debut was that maybe he would open, with Jennings at #3: you can think of a scenario where you might want to put Gubbins in for Stoneman and have Jennings at #3, with Joe Root back at #4. However, there are not many batsmen screaming out for inclusion, although Ollie Pope seems to be testing his vocal chords.

The most curious situation is with spin bowling. There have been plenty of comments about England’s chopping and changing and, apparently, picking a name at random for these Tests. It is depressing. These are the fans who only follow the game occasionally, normally when England are at home and doing badly, but their opinions on social media make good headlines in an atmosphere of “sack the lot!!!”

Right now, England are seeing the prospect of entering a golden age of spin bowling. There is a generation that includes Mason Crane, Jack Leach, Dom Bess and Amar Virdi who look as promising as anyone since Monty Panesar burst unexpectedly on the scene in 2005. All are young. They are inexperienced, but with plenty of bowling on helpful pitches, they will develop. England have been unfortunate that first Crane, then Leach have had serious injuries and needed to be replaced. Dom Bess is not even a Somerset regular at the moment due to the nature of early-season pitches! He has taken just one wicket so far this county season and has been asked to make a debut on a pretty blameless Lord’s pitch in conditions in which even legends such as Abdul Qadir, Muttiah Muralitharan or Shane Warne might struggle to make inroads. Bess has shown energy, he has bowled with variation and flight and has seemed to enjoy himself thoroughly. And Joe Root had one of his better moments last night when he brought Bess on against the tail to see if he could get a debut wicket.

Spin bowling, for years the Achilles Heel of the England side, is the one area where the future looks bright. England will undoubtedly take young three spinners to Sri Lanka and this moment they look likely to be Leach, Bess and, possibly Virdi, with Crane, Moeen Ali and Liam Dawson missing out.

However, that it the future and the problem is today. England look dispirited, out of ideas and resigned to defeat.

Today will be the day when two of three players may seal their fate, as England try to save the series, when it is only on its third day of a possible ten.