Featured image courtesy of Action Images via Reuters/Paul Childs
England return to the test stage for the first time since their outing in June against New Zealand. The last time they played India in the long form of the game an inconsistent batting line-up combined with a ruthless attack, as England were skittled for 134, 135, 112, and 81 across the eight innings. With the run-up to the Ashes squarely on the squad’s mind, this series of tests offers a chance to bleed inexperienced players, and assess the team’s weaknesses going into a huge series.
Joe Root is an established all-time great
Let’s start with a positive for England as shiny as the side of one of Jimmy Anderson’s famous inswingers. While England floundered early on in the first innings at Trent Bridge, captain Joe Root once again proved his supreme quality and worth to a team that is crying out for batting consistency. As the openers and middle order collapsed around him cheaply, Root dug into to ensure another embarrassment didn’t ensue. With a combination of some attractive cover drives and tricky but clever batting, Root made a solid 64, keeping out the Indian juggernauts of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami.
From an individual perspective, this innings marked a truly historic contribution, moving past Alastair Cook to become England’s highest run scorer of all time. While some arm-chair pundits have questioned his captaining and even cricketing ability as of late, his record on the pitch is absolutely indomitable. The most recent achievement is simply a statistical reminder of what has been verbatim among those in the know for the past five years or so.
Ben Stokes’s absence creates a hole in this team
While England remain strong, they also face a top Indian team without the nation’s beloved cricketing rockstar Ben Stokes, who has taken a period of leave over poor mental well being. Captain Joe Root took the opportunity to support him, telling BBC Sport that “As long as I’ve known Ben, he puts everyone else first, and now is an opportunity to put himself first. He has my full support and he has the whole team’s support on that. It’s important he takes as long as he needs.” This is a well-minded response from an astute captain, but with his absence there may also be problems on the pitch. In many ways, Stokes’s aggression, confidence, and sheer talent is emblematic compared to many of the current failings in this team.
In England’s first innings, the batting line-up largely failed to stand up to the challenge. Burns, Lawrence and the experienced Joss Butler all fell for zero, with Sibley, Crawley and Bairstow making initial charges towards a score, before falling flat against the Indian attack. Obviously, you take into account the stormy and cloudy weather, the suitability of the pitch for India’s pace bowlers, and the reason we love sport so much, basic human error and lack of judgement. However, what you might find in Stokes often defies all pre-conceived notions of what should or shouldn’t happen in sport. Particularly without his batting presence, England’s performance so far has shown that solidity and guaranteed runs is needed somewhere down the order outside of the familiar faces.
Anderson marches on
At 39 years old elite athletes like Jimmy Anderson performing at the highest level are a rare breed in world sport. Watching Anderson take the game to India in this test is testament to his continued ability to defy biological logic, outperforming the majority of England’s attack, and leaving elite batsmen like Kohli and Pujara quaking in their spikes with two wickets in two balls in the first innings. With 2019’s breakout star Jofra Archer having to undergo major surgery in May, and Stokes taking an aforementioned extended leave of absence, England will find themselves relying more on the accomplished head and hands of Jimmy Anderson to unseat both India in this series and Australia in the Winter.
The Indian bowling attack threatens English instability
While England’s poor batting does threaten to flatter India, there’s no denying their world-class quality and ability to pile the pressure on from the off. Indian captain Virat Kohli said of his attack before the series that “I can vouch for the fact that we definitely have the ability to bowl them out on a consistent basis. That’s the kind of quality we possess and, as long as we execute our skills and our plans, then we are very confident of doing that very often in the series.” While boorish in his approach, Kohli’s teammates have so far given him no doubt that his confidence is well-placed.
Watching English batsmen like Zak Crawley and Dom Sibley who struggled in their previous tour in India, facing a new ball zipping across the surface from the springy wrists of Bumrah and Shami, is a difficult sight to stomach for any England fan. With Burns and Sibley making slower but steady starts in the second innings, it remains to be seen whether this storm can be weathered across the series, and matches past can be cast from their minds.
Robinson with a point to prove
Many casual fans of the sport may well fail to recognise the name Ollie Robinson, the England pace bowler who took an impressive five-for in the first innings. However, Robinson’s cricketing performances have are regrettably not the cause of any media fame on his part. On the same day Robinson made his test debut for England at Lords this June, tweets made by him containing racist and sexist content in 2012 and 2014 were unearthed by the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board).
There was rightfully a subsequent investigation, and at first it seemed that Robinson would never adorn the England whites or blues again. However, on 3 July, following a hearing from the Cricket Discipline Commission, it was decided that given the age of the tweets, and their judgement that he was a changed man, he was allowed back into the England fold. His performance in this test then, is from a determined player who wants his performances to start making the headlines, shedding his associations with past failures and the tabloid media. Additionally, like Anderson, troubles with England’s top bowlers with regards to their health may mean that consistent performances from Robinson mean a lot more to the team than his perception as an individual.