England v West Indies 2nd test match: 11:00 on 16th July at Old Trafford
The return of test match cricket was a success. The bio-secure environment worked and can be copied elsewhere. It was not perfect, and the total silence that greeted runs and wickets took some getting used to. The silence reminded me of silence at Lords in 1981 when Sir Ian Botham returned to the Pavilion. At Southampton, both teams deserve a great deal of credit for being competitive from ball one – despite the silence and limited preparation. We now know that test matches behind closed doors can work, and that is a huge relief to all of us in need of cricket to watch.
In the first test match we saw a good game with an exciting last day, and established that ‘this can work’. However, England made some poor decisions and missed chances. West Indies were workmanlike, consistent and well led. Only Shai Hope and John Campbell failed to make a significant contribution. West Indies played a style of cricket that took advantage of England’s mistakes. West Indies showed that they can be a high quality team and deserved to win, but England were to some degree responsible for their own downfall. At 1-0 down with 2 to go, England cannot afford to underestimate the opposition or make mistakes. The catches must be taken, but perhaps even more crucially, some of the 20+ scores need to become centuries – and Joe Root needs to take a lead on this and set the example.
It starts with selection though. After the first test match, Mike Selvey tweeted that England should focus on the opposition in front of them, not the opposition they face in 18 months time (he went on to make some good clarifications in later tweets). The requirement to build a team for the Ashes is clear, but if that results in confused decision making that undervalues the immediate opposition, it will do more harm than good. West Indies are a dangerous team to underestimate, and the decision to rest Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad in 2012 at Edgebaston led to a second string attack being punished by, of all people, Tino Best in a memorable 95. Selvey is right – England must pick the best team for today. That does not mean we ignore the future, nor does it mean that England cannot pick different teams for different games. It does mean that England have a clarity of selection, and flexibility to make changes.
Today England have announced 13 players for the second test match starting, and it is an interesting squad. I had expected that England would persist with Joe Denly at the expense of Zak Crawley. This would have been the wrong decision so I was pleased to see England announce that Crawley will bat at number 3. After the performances of both Denly and Crawley at Southampton, only one decision was sensible. One could argue that if England are dropping Denly they should also drop Jos Buttler, but I think it is reasonable for Buttler to be given until the end of the series. However, Buttler cannot be allowed to play as he is doing for the rest of the summer. With Buttler, it seems that confidence is more of an issue than perhaps he would like to admit, and England must be careful not to damage Buttler’s one day game in pursuit of the test match Buttler.
The bowling raises an eyebrow. England have ‘rested’ both Anderson and Mark Wood. One assumes that Broad and Chris Woakes will play, though Sam Curran will never be far away. One wonders if the decision about which bowlers would play in which games was made before the series started, because it does seem some odd decisions are being made – resting two bowlers at once creates a totally different attack. Whilst Anderson and Wood need to be looked after, it is Jofra Archer that needs to be looked after the most, as he bowled the most overs of the 3 at Southampton and is most likely to impact an Ashes tour (Anderson should not go to Australia and Wood’s impact is not as consistent as Archer’s). Ironically, Old Trafford would usually be the place for Wood to succeed – and is of course Anderson’s home ground. Broad ought to have played at Southampton (instead of Wood), and perhaps England needed to make a late change to the plan when conditions changed.
Talking about flexibility, England need to make sure they are flexible when the coin is tossed. Ben Stokes defended his decision to bat first, arguing that events of the last day justified it. However, the reason England lost the game is because they conceded a 100 run lead on first innings. When it was dark and damp on day 1 after a long rain delay, it was the time to bowl – whatever the preconceived plan was.
For West Indies, it will be a case of ‘more of the same’ and I am sure Hope and Campbell will keep places, though a full time spiner would be useful at Old Trafford, bringing Rahkeem Cornwall into the picture. The question will be if Shannon Gabriel can get through the series – and if he does, England will struggle to win 2 games.
My team:
Burns, Sibley, Crawley, Root (c), Stokes (v/c), Pope, Buttler (w/c), Woakes, Bess, Archer, Broad
Cricketed 