Don’t talk about the Ashes. Don’t talk about the Ashes. Don’t. Talk. About the Ashes. OK. We can talk about the Ashes. But just for a bit, and only in the context of some quietly vital events in the opening session at a green and swampy Oval on the second day of this fifth Test.
Two things happened here that will have nudged the dial, not just in this match, but before Perth in November and England’s next one. The second of these was an hour of revivalist Bazball as Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley produced a wonderfully breezy 92-run opening stand in reply to India’s 224.
This was back to the source. It was Ur-Bazball, Bazball Classic, Mexican Bazball with genuine cane sugar – really the best Bazball, from some very handsome Bazball guys. The fifty opening stand from seven overs was the fastest for England in the first innings of a Test.
Early on Duckett took 24 off nine balls, including an outstanding example of the Hedgehog Sweep, bunching his quills into a ball, rolling over, whirling his bat past his left shoulder. Crawley kept battering the ball through the offside with such noble and soldierly command you half expected to look down and notice he was batting in epaulettes and a plumed hat.
It felt like a Baz-manifesto statement at exactly the right moment, timed to disrupt lengths on a line and length pitch. And for a Stokes-free England a sense, as the ball fizzed to all corners, of Stokes being utterly present, a giant head in the sky above the red brick pavilion, beard massive, eyes blazing.
The second and more vital of the two vital things came immediately before this, as Gus Atkinson did an important thing without really seeming to do an important thing. He did so brusquely and methodically as ever, marking a pencil point, inserting a rawlplug of appropriate gauge and putting a first firm screw in the wall, the obvious key peg in England’s attack come November in Perth.
Atkinson was his usual bashful self as he raised the ball to the stands on his home ground after completing five for 33 to close India’s innings. He has that studied anonymity, the look of the forgotten sixth member of a boyband, now grudgingly back for the reunion tour. But he made a decisive statement here, and at a key moment.
It is easy to lose sight of the fact England don’t really have a hypothetical first choice bowling attack right now. Who have we got then? What’s the check-board? Archer: yes, hopefully fit. Wood: yes, who knows. Woakes: crocked. Tongue: fit, raw. Carse: fit, decent. Cook: don’t think so. Potts: hmm. Overton: no. And outside of this, who knows? Another Overton? Sonny Baker? Eddie Jack? Jack Eddie? Promising Yorkshire quick Dougal Cakebread?
At the end of day two at the Oval England do now have the only actual double tick. Atkinson: yes, fit and ready. And to be fair it probably was always Atkinson and four others. But was it really? Why was he playing club cricket? Why is he suddenly in Surrey Twos? What are the whispers about endurance, fatigue, dipping pace? Is Atkinson actually good? Is this thing for real?
The five-for here was confirmation, first of that stellar early record, and second, just in the eye test. Atkinson looked so much better than everyone else here, all clean lines, simple, easy action, the whip in his delivery, the flick of the wrist. His pace was up at 88mph at times.
Of his wickets Dhruv Jurel was a good, Aussie-facing one, a hard edge from bounce not lateral movement that flew thrillingly high to Harry Brook.
And yes, Australia isn’t really a thing you can masterplan, despite the fact England always try. Well, we need tall, very quick, hit-the-deck bowlers who can go all day. Good luck with that. We remember Boyd Rankin flailing about like a wounded wampa in Sydney in 2010. He was tall. Atkinson is more from the 2010 metronomic plus decent pace template. Although the real key to that series was that Australia weren’t very good.
For the second day in a row Atkinson found a lovely rhythm early on. He had Washington Sundar caught hooking at an 87mph bouncer. He padded the numbers with two in an over at the end, bowled and nicked off, having promised to go straighter. But it was well deserved having provided the only element of control on day one.
He looked like a leader too. It is easy to forget how good his start has been, and how hard this is to do after just 21 non-Test first class games to date. His method looks transferable. He has skills, can bowl a yorker, can, crucially, seam the ball away from the right hander, a function perhaps of how high his arm is at point of delivery. Atkinson may lack the star power and extreme early-spell speed of Jofra Archer. But he also has the Test record Archer was meant to have by now.
Late in the day India kicked off their second innings 23 runs in arrears. Josh Tongue made the first breakthrough before Atkinson trapped Sai Sudharsan lbw to add to his tally. He has laid down his marker.
