For the third Test the England selectors have made only one change to the squad that prepared for the second. Even in light of the nature of the capitulation at Lord’s it is a perfectly reasonable and reasoned response, based on rather more than simply the idea that these players got England into the mess so they can jolly well get them out of it as well. In all the hysteria that accompanies any England defeat by Australia it is easy to overlook the fact that these are also the players who won the first Test in Cardiff by a convincing margin.
The one change they have made – the inclusion of Jonny Bairstow in place of his Yorkshire team-mate Gary Ballance – was inevitable given the continuing failure of the top order over the last three months to give the innings even an adequate start. Along with Bairstow’s inclusion comes a rejigging of the batting order, with Ian Bell now charged with the responsibility of batting at three, Joe Root moving up one place to four and Bairstow, rather than Ben Stokes, going in at five.
There has been no change to the bowling, although there is sure to be some scrutiny of Mark Wood in training for he is a young bowler unused to the heavy workload of an intensive Test series and will need careful managing. Going back to the New Zealand series, it was certainly evident that after a successful and ebullient debut at Lord’s, his pace was down at Headingley and he was less effective at Lord’s after back-to-back matches now.
After the heady days of last summer, life at the crease has been a struggle for Ballance, and ever since the absurd decision to rush him into the team at the start of the World Cup. He looked uncomfortable then and has appeared no less so since. International bowlers know his method, sitting deep in the crease, and target him with deliveries into the ribcage to a set legside field, and then pitch the ball right up and try to move it away from him.
His obvious determination, not something to be discounted readily, cannot compensate for these technical frailties. But for him to re-emerge as a quality international batsman will require a complete rebuilding of his method in the same way that a golfer might rebuild his swing: it will not come easily.
So now Bell has been given the responsibility of occupying what ought to be the position to which batsmen aspire to make their own but in the case of England has generally been viewed as a hot seat and with consequent suspicion. One way or another it could be a defining time for him.
If a batsman continually fails to get a start, as is happening with Bell, it can be, counter-intuitively, difficult to assess whether or not he is in any sort of form. But Bell – now 33 – is at that age where it may take a fraction longer to pick up length in particular. He is a batsman who likes to hit an early boundary, especially through the covers, and perhaps he will have to rein himself in a little now.
A personal choice would have been to move Root to that position, one which he certainly ought to occupy at some stage, then leave Bell where he has been, shift Stokes – a fine uncomplicated technician – to five and bring in Bairstow at six.
Bairstow has earned his place through the sheer weight of runs, having hit his fifth century of the summer over the weekend. He, too, is a player who has had technical problems in the past, specifically some trouble against the short ball, and a tendency to play round his front pad too readily. But he played with vitality to win England a match when brought back into the one-day squad against New Zealand and in the past he batted bravely and with success against a formidable South African attack. Alongside that the last six of his 14 Tests have been against Australia, against whom he averages only 22. If he stays in, though, the run rate will certainly not drop.
Adil Rashid retains a place in the squad although there is said to have been some disquiet about the manner in which, having been told he would play at Lord’s owing to fitness concerns over Moeen Ali, he withdrew himself the next day, citing a sore spinning finger, only to be named in the Yorkshire team a few days later. The argument that he was actually told to be prepared to play, as some have suggested, is semantic (all squad players have to be prepared to play – that is why they are there) but the implication is hard to avoid. How he reacts now will be instructive but beyond him the spinning cupboard is pretty bare.
