All eyes will be upon England’s opening batsman at the Oval. Lean, dignified, quick to smile and forever diligent in the way he goes about his business – combatting the new ball so that the fancy Dans down the order can have some fun – he will make his way to the middle to warm applause. The spotlight is on Keaton Jennings.
After five days at the Oval, Jennings may well become England’s senior opener, charged with passing on a few handy hints to whoever joins him at the top of the order in November at Galle in Sri Lanka, where the first Test of the winter takes place on a pitch likely to be more venomous than the one recently seen in Ciderabad (aka Taunton), just west of Bridgwater, for Somerset’s tied match with Lancashire.
To be sure of his place Jennings needs the ballast of some runs in the final Test to bolster a very mediocre record, albeit in a summer when opening the batting for England has been the second hardest task any ECB employee has had to undertake – after selling The Hundred. (Jennings, by the way, does not need to produce fireworks to convince; crease occupation will do.) This is a crucial Test for him even though his chances of staying in the Test team this winter are greatly enhanced by the departure of his senior partner.
OK, an amendment may now be in order. All the selectors’ eyes may be on Jennings at the Oval. Everyone else will be focused upon Alastair Cook for the last time in a Test match. It behoves us all to look more closely now.
In the past this became almost unnecessary once Cook had established himself at the crease since it was obvious how he would play. There would be the clip off the legs with a grace and power that sometimes surprised, the trusty square cut and the no nonsense pull shot, all of which were ingrained in his method. Less instinctively he would cover-drive, a shot he played well – when in prime form. There were no reverse sweeps. And then there were those gloriously repetitive, wonderfully reassuring defensive shots, lots of them if the bowling was of a high standard since Cook always played the ball not the man.
Only the most curmudgeonly of curmudgeons could fail to wish Cook well in his final match. He has served England superbly for a dozen years and imagine how his mere presence and example in the dressing room and at the crease at Chelmsford could enhance the education of young Essex cricketers over the next three summers.
Final Test appearances are rarely glorious partly because they often prompt the decision to retire and, in any case, the game seldom permits fairytales. It may help that Cook has already come to his conclusion. When Don Bradman was bowled for a duck below the Oval gasometer in his final innings in 1948, John Arlott suggested that it must be hard to bat with tears in your eyes. This was a generous, sentimental notion but not universally taken to be accurate. England’s first slip on that day, Jack Crapp, once told Frank Keating of this parish: “Tears? That bugger Bradman never had a tear in his eye in all his life.”
Cook is more likely to be a little lachrymose. He has already told us that he had to have a couple of beers to stem the tears when announcing his decision to retire to his teammates at Southampton earlier this week. It is doubtful that he will adopt that system before taking guard at the Oval.
No doubt Cook will insist that priority one is winning the game, an outcome that would leave England with a healthy 5-2 record in Tests this season, some achievement given the paucity of runs from the upper order. England have picked the same XI that played at Southampton, yet there are significant alterations to how they line up. This time Moeen Ali will appear on the scorecard at No 3 and the name of Jonny Bairstow will have a cross against it, which means that he is the designated wicketkeeper once again. As a consequence Jos Buttler will presumably resume being a specialist No 7, a role that is surely bound to have a limited shelf life.
This switch of wicketkeeper feels significant even though there is no guarantee that this will continue throughout the winter – when in stark contrast to this summer batting might be easier higher in the order before the spinners take charge. There remains the unnerving suspicion that Root and Trevor Bayliss have settled on the old status quo in pursuit of a quiet life. Buttler says he is not bothered what role he has in the team; Bairstow is adamant that he wants to keep to the extent that there is a concern that his output of runs will diminish if he is denied the gloves.
Meanwhile Moeen’s official elevation to No 3, a position that Root has now deserted for good, could also be a pointer to the winter – especially if he scores runs in this match. It so happens that in the eight innings he has in the top three for England Moeen averages 12. Fortunately he is not a superstitious person, and he is ever willing to help out. Currently the India side are more worried by his bowling than his batting. However, Moeen has a wonderful capacity to surprise.
