England still know how to collapse
To lose a couple of quick wickets on a turner in Asia may be regarded as perfectly normal. To lose 10 in a session looks like fecklessness. This England team are good at digging themselves out of a hole and Chris Woakes, at No8, is regularly making more runs, with more style, than Gary Ballance at four. But this was a slide they couldn’t stop and it soon turned into a collapse to rival any of the great vintages of the Eighties. England were an omnishambles in the morning, a model of attacking cricket for most of the afternoon, and an omnishambles again after tea. Poor old Ballance has to go and they have to bring in a right-hander to replace him – either Haseeb Hameed to add solidity at the top, with Cook, perhaps, taking the tougher job in the middle order, or Jos Buttler to add attacking flair and share the gloves, so Jonny Bairstow doesn’t wilt in the heat. Both options require a bit of lateral thinking, which is more to Trevor Bayliss’s taste than Cook’s. TdL
Cook and his spinners ... again
In a way you have to feel sorry for Cook. He was criticised (rightly) for underusing his spinners in the final session of the first Test’s third day. So here he changed tack; he bowled Zafar Ansari from the start ... and kept him on until well after the first drinks break. The Surrey all-rounder bowled 10 overs on the spin and went wicketless – admittedly England’s four dropped catches hardly helped him in this regard – for 41 runs. He created chances, especially early on his spell, but his length looked increasingly ragged and Shakib Al Hasan dispatched him to extra-cover with increasing regularity as he tired. Cook also bowled Moeen Ali through that first hour and it was astonishing that, when the captain finally did make a bowling change, it was the senior spinner who was first out of the attack. It’s a tired line but a valid one: Cook’s use of the spinners makes their prospects in India look bleak. DL
Stokes is making a fool of himself
The all-rounder’s contribution with bat and ball in this series cannot be faulted – his 128 runs in the series were the most by any England player in the two-Test series and his 11 wickets at 10.09 were a brilliant return, albeit one overshadowed by Mehedi Hasan. However, his verbal sparring with Sabbir Rahman in the morning session tipped over from feisty to slightly unpleasant and the umpires were forced to intervene. Stokes was hit for two fours in his final over before lunch, then turned with his arms raised in celebration when he thought Sabbir had nicked one – confident that Alastair Cook’s review would see the not-out decision overturned. It wasn’t and his unearned chutzpah, along with the increasingly aggressive chuntering, made Stokes look more than a bit pathetic. DL
Shakib’s shot selection is bizarre
As a senior player in the Bangladesh side and batting with his side uncertain as to what kind of lead they would need Shakib might be expected to play with a modicum of responsibility. He had seen the night before what irresponsible shot selection could do when Mahmudullah was bowled swiping wildly across the line; indeed that was the very reason Shakib was at the crease first thing this morning. The all-rounder was stumped having a brainless charge in the first innings of the first Test as his side conceded an eventually crucial first-innings lead. Today he played an identical shot just after the fall of a wicket – with long-on back to boot – and was fortunate the ball evaded Bairstow and went for byes. He had already swung and missed, or got a top edge, with a number of slog-sweeps and the manner of his wicket, looking to cut against the spin to a massive leg-break turning out of the rough, came as no surprise. DL
Duckett shows no fear in breaking the mould
The traditional England opener is sober, solemn, a little dull. He comes from either the home counties or the Yorkshire or Lancashire league, and he likes to let the ball go outside his off stump. Two Tests in, Ben Duckett is not so much breaking the mould as smashing it to smithereens. After being found guilty of the most glaring of England’s dropped catches, Duckett put that behind him and batted as if chasing a Twenty20 target, which was exactly the right strategy. He swept, he reverse-swept, he switch-hit, he lofted over the infield, he raced to a fearless first Test fifty. It was the biggest moment for Northants youth since Matt Smith took over as Doctor Who. Then, first ball after tea, Duckett got a grubber. He was gone for 56 and, although England tried to stay purposeful, only Ben Stokes, briefly, threatened to show the same chutzpah. TdL
