Now we come to the raucous one. It may not be everyone’s cup of char but there has scarcely been an England cricketer of the past few decades who has not revelled in the party atmosphere of an Edgbaston Test match. England thrive here: they find it uplifting.
Of the past 11 Tests on the ground, they have won seven and drawn three, the only defeat coming in 2008 when Graeme Smith’s masterful unbeaten second-innings century for South Africa not only saw off the opposition but the opposition captain, for Michael Vaughan resigned soon afterwards. It was here, incidentally, in the players’ dining room in the old pavilion that Nasser Hussain, emotionally, also gave up the captaincy in 2003, following a drawn Test with South Africa. Here it was, too, 11 years ago, that England beat Australia in one of the finest of all Tests, and where, six years on from that, against India, they made 710 for seven, their third highest total ever, with Alastair Cook making 294, and, as a contrast, the great Virender Sehwag responding with a king pair for India.
Pakistan, on the other hand, have played seven Tests in Birmingham, beginning in 1962, of which they have lost four and are yet to win. On their last visit, six years ago, they were bowled out by Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad for 72, still their fifth lowest total, and, Graeme Swann having had his second-innings fill, were beaten by nine wickets. Only in 1971, when Zaheer Abbas made 274, Mushtaq Mohammad and Asif Iqbal added centuries, and the magnificently moustachioed pace bowler Asif Masood took nine wickets in the game, did England struggle. Pakistan fell five wickets short of an innings win having made England follow on.
Pakistan will not have arrived in Birmingham now with any great confidence, although as the 1971 team had just been well beaten by a Cambridge University side captained by one of their own star batsmen in Majid Khan, they would have been in a similar position, and look what happened. But after their epic win at Lord’s, Misbah-ul-Haq’s team were clinically dismantled at Old Trafford, and in particular the bowling of Yasir Shah. All the circumstances point to this being a difficult series for them to turn around.
England have made just the single change from the last match, an enforced one caused by the calf strain sustained by Ben Stokes. Of the threefold options available to Cook and Trevor Bayliss – Steve Finn, Jake Ball and Adil Rashid – all of them bowlers, it is Finn to whom they are turning. That England will beat Pakistan with pace rather than spin is already evident, which was always going to exclude Rashid at the moment. When both Finn and Ball played in the first Test at Lord’s, they both acquitted themselves well, Ball on debut showing no sign of nerves, and Finn clearly back to something like his very best. The spell that he delivered from the Nursery end was terrific if fruitless. Anecdotally, from someone actively involved, Finn was outstanding in practice before the second Test, and has remained at that level.
At his best, Finn is an important element in what is, when all are fit, a very strong pace bowling group. His career strike rate is phenomenal, all the more so given the tough times he has gone through latterly. Last year, in the second innings against Australia, he blew the middle order away to set up England’s win so this is a ground with very fond memories, and a vociferous driving support on which a fast bowler can thrive. Having picked Finn at times when he would have been better off out of things, it would have been an absurd move to pass him by at this stage.
England are not without continuing problems, however, centring on the top five in the order. In a nutshell, well as Joe Root and Cook are batting at present – Root sublimely so – the team should not have to rely on them to do the job every time. To this end, while the Pakistan head coach, Mickey Arthur, is without question a nice man, he is not very good with so-called mind games and his call that Alex Hales, James Vince and Gary Ballance are all playing for their Test futures can be filed away under “the bleedin’ obvious”.
Of these, Ballance is the one who has a proven pedigree, although up to the point only where bowlers started to rumble him. But he does have a game plan, and an excellent temperament: standing out of his crease helps him with the perception of a stride forwards, the lack of which has been part of his undoing. Hales seems still to be caught between the stools of white-ball aggression and Test-match discretion. He appeared to be coming to terms with the idea of not chasing the ball but has regressed. The clock is ticking.
So too with Vince, who in a short space of time has managed to make one mode of dismissal – nicking to the keeper and slips – very much his trademark. His offside play and penchant for boundaries may look pretty but at present bowlers are happy to cast the line outside off stump knowing that the fish will not resist the bait. This may well be the last opportunity to show that he has the capacity to learn how to bat. More than anyone in the team, it is his Test career that is on the line now.
This article was amended to reflect the fact that Nasser Hussain resigned as England captain after a drawn Test at Edgbaston against South Africa in 2003
