“Same squad, different performance” is the message from the selectors after England’s startling defeat at Headingley. With surprising speed they announced the same 13 names in their squad for the decisive Lord’s Test against West Indies, which starts next Thursday. The most relieved man will be Tom Westley, who failed twice in Leeds, an outcome that inevitably reduces his chances of making the squad for Australia.
The Lord’s Test has everyone salivating after West Indies’ brilliant five‑wicket triumph, which leaves the series level at 1-1. Indeed within 24 hours Test cricket around the world has been given a welcome boost by dramatic wins for West Indies and for Bangladesh over Australia in Dhaka. Of these, West Indies’ victory at Headingley was the most unexpected.
The Australia captain, Steve Smith, was taken aback before the Test by a question which referred to Bangladesh regarding themselves as favourites. He was polite and diplomatic but icily reminded everyone of the modest record of Bangladesh in Test cricket.
Yet in quick succession we have had two reminders that in this game history can sometimes be dismissed as bunk.
Whatever the records Bangladesh know they now possess some hardened Test cricketers, three handy spinners and intimate knowledge of conditions seldom experienced in Australia. Smith did not dwell on that evidence. Likewise Joe Root may have been misled by history. Sides do not chase down 322 in the fourth innings of a Test very often, especially after a devastating innings loss the previous week. When seeking to explain his second defeat as an England captain on Tuesday evening Root kept referring to the fact he had two bowlers with almost 900 Test wickets between them as if they were guarantors of victory. Like everyone else he was anticipating a straightforward win.
The Monday night declaration came as a surprise but that is not the major issue after this England defeat – though such a decision might be viewed less favourably if Root tries it unsuccessfully early in an Ashes series. However, allow one observation about how the game has changed in the past decade or two. The old truisms about declarations often focus on the cunning dangling of the carrot to the opposition thereby provoking risky strokeplay and dismissals. But that is not always the case in the 21st century.
Many modern batsmen, though this may not include the admirable Kraigg Brathwaite, feel more secure when they are playing their shots than when they are defending. Moreover the suspicion is Moeen Ali, bowling his off-breaks, would have felt more comfortable and would have been more dangerous if the batsmen had been hellbent only on defending their wicket at Headingley. The same might apply to Chris Woakes, whose bowling was so rusty in his comeback Test. Counterintuitively West Indies might have been more vulnerable if they had been forced to defend. Instead they scented a famous victory.
Trevor Bayliss was suitably supportive about Root’s declaration. “I hope the result doesn’t change the way he thinks about the game. In that situation we’ll win more than we lose. The wicket played pretty well and West Indies batted even better. So all credit to them. But I’d like to see the same sort of thought process happening in the future.”
Root and Bayliss preferred to focus on England’s performance in the first two days at Headingley as a key factor in their defeat. This was an odd argument and something of a distraction given that England were in a position to declare on the fourth evening but there is no denying Bayliss’s assessment of a sub-standard performance on Friday and Saturday.
“Batting was probably a little more difficult than it originally looked, though it was a decent wicket,” Bayliss said. “West Indies showed us what length to bowl. When we were in the field we were two sides of the wicket and a little bit short. We went past the bat a bit and got a lot of edges to third man and I think that frustrated our blokes and we didn’t really follow that up with more good balls. We let them off the hook with balls on the hip and easy fours.”
Bayliss was more impressed by England’s second-innings batting when Mark Stoneman and Dawid Malan made contributions. “They started to look comfortable at the crease. Certainly Mark looks like a tough type of player to me. He is ready for a scrap the whole time and he was able to put the bad ball away. And Dawid has a couple of 60s now even if he looked a bit nervous in that first one”.
It was England’s final day performance – along with the brilliance of Shai Hope and Brathwaite – that cost them the game. For the first time Root was out of control in the field where it became apparent he trusted only 40% of his attack; he was overdependent on Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson and it was especially mysterious Ben Stokes was given only five overs.
Suddenly England’s bowlers looked either fragile or exhausted, which means this may not be the best time to bid farewell to Ottis Gibson. He has been an excellent bowling coach but it has been confirmed he leaves the England and Wales Cricket Board after the Lord’s Test to take up the post as the coach of South Africa. The identity of his replacement is no more clearcut than the appropriate names to join Alastair Cook, Root and Stokes in England’s top six.
