There is a lot of time for thinking and for netting but none for playing before England start their Test series against India in Rajkot on 9 November.
England’s management team has learned a fair amount from the two Tests in Bangladesh, which provided a gripping spectacle way beyond our expectation, but this does not include the identity of the 11 players that constitute their best team on the subcontinent.
On the credit side they know more about their Bens. Stokes can be a formidable presence out here, especially with the ball but also with the bat, provided he does not overheat; Duckett played one innings, which offers hope and no little excitement.
These pluses are outweighed by the confirmation of England’s frailties. In the thick of it all is England’s coach, Trevor Bayliss. He is no Malcolm Tucker; he does not really do political spin so he acknowledges that picking the best England XI at the moment “might cause a bit of a headache. Alastair Cook and I will sit down and have a good chat about the lineup”.
That meeting will have rather prosaic items on the agenda: the batting, the bowling. They might include the fielding after a poor morning session on the calamitous third day of the second Test but Bayliss will just hit a lot more catches at training rather than wasting energy talking.
In his post-match interview Alastair Cook gave a neat insight into the challenges of batting on the subcontinent, as demonstrated by the events of Sunday afternoon. “We showed our inexperience in those conditions, even though I was out there experiencing it [no false modesty here: Cook has scored more runs in Asia than any Englishman].
“It was amazing the difference before and after tea. You lose a couple of wickets, then men come around the bat and the crowd gets into it. It takes something to deal with that. You know it does not last for ever but that half-hour, 40 minutes is crucial and we just weren’t good enough to get through it.”
Bayliss, having coached so long in Asia with Sri Lanka, is familiar with the challenge and does not pretend there are any quick fixes. “In those conditions you have to try to score and put pressure on the opposition. Before tea Duckett was proactive. You have to back yourself. That’s the way to go.” This is not just Aussie bravado. There is logic to this approach.
So much depends on the playing surface. If the pitch is essentially flat before encouraging more turn late in the match – which used to be the likeliest scenario on the subcontinent – then there are benefits in cautious crease occupation. There are few unplayable deliveries lurking around the corner and the long haul is justified. The bowlers can be worn down.
If the pitch offers extravagant movement from the start – as in Chittagong and Dhaka – such a passive approach is less likely to be successful. That killer delivery is around the corner however solid the batsman’s defensive technique. The bowlers must be challenged; they must be forced to bowl badly, which can easily happen even to those good enough to be selected for Test cricket.
That is the theory. Next comes the question of personnel. Gary Ballance, at No4, must now feel as insecure as a comedian. It would be a major surprise after 24 runs in four innings against Bangladesh if he plays in Rajkot. Bayliss said opening with Haseeb Hameed and batting Duckett at four is an option. So too is bringing Jos Buttler into the team, albeit in a very unfamiliar role. Both options require a considerable leap of faith in India, where Bayliss said “it could be even more difficult”.
Item 2b: Bowling (slow). Here Bayliss came as close to spinning as he ever does. He said England’s spinners bowled “OK” in the series. He added Bangladesh “outplayed us” in this department and there were “concerns about the consistency of length” among England’s spinners. In old Aussie speak I think this means they bowled far too much garbage.
This must be the most worrying item on the agenda. It is possible to argue there is the raw material there among the batsmen; it is hard to believe that applies to the spinners. The only two to come out in credit after the Dhaka match were Moeen Ali and Gareth Batty (because he was not playing).
It feels as if the selectors have done Bayliss no favours here. They had a tricky task because the cupboard is bare but not many county players would reckon Zafar Ansari is a better left-arm spinner than Jack Leach of Somerset. It is true Leach, who is still a novice, took many of his 68 wickets last summer on turning pitches at Taunton, but what are England playing on out here?
But those decisions have been taken. England rarely swerve having selected their squads – though they did change their minds about Ian Salisbury in between the winter tours of 2000–01. They decided it was not going to work so they changed their tour party for Sri Lanka by replacing Salisbury with Robert Croft.
Here late additions to the tour party are not on the agenda as far as we know and it remains fiendishly difficult to decide which spinner(s) should accompany Moeen in the Test team in Rajkot. There is plenty of time for everyone to mull it over.
