FEATURED PREVIEW
Follow Us“If Test cricket is going to survive and thrive, then England has to be at the top of the tree. If the Ashes isn't competitive or if England aren't vying for No. 1 positions, then Test cricket is in trouble, because of the support that the people of England and the UK have for Test cricket.” – Words of the newly appointed England’s head coach, Brendon McCullum.
There is always an aura of expectations with a new crew, let it be a movie, a restaurant or a cricketing board. The English summer of 2022 will have a conjecture of similar sort.
A series win in Sri Lanka, early in 2021, started the year with a good hope. But England’s Test cricket had a rough turn of events later on. They lost to India in their away tour, lost a series against New Zealand at home, trailed by 2-1 at home against India, lost 4-0 in the Ashes and to add salt to injuries, lost to West Indies by 1-0 in 2022.
As an aftermath, in the past few months, the ECB (England Cricket Board) has gone through a shuffle. Rob Key has taken over as the Managing Director of England Men’s cricket. Ben Stokes has taken over the reins from Joe Root as England’s 82nd Test captain and McCullum the new head coach, taking over from Chris Silverwood.
Despite the shuffle, a whole lot of challenges lie ahead, especially for McCullum and Stokes. The workload of their pacers, a prolonged opener, a consistent number three batter, the search for a Test wicket-keeper, a wicket-taking spinner and not to forget, self-management of Stokes.
From Stokes’ perspective, it is just not about his batting or bowling now. The extra added responsibility of captaincy puts more weight on his shoulders. Considering the number of Tests England play in a calendar year, there is a chance of Stokes missing out on a lot of limited overs series and franchise cricket, to manage his workload. That’s not it, a proper all-rounder like Stokes, already has dual responsibilities. Adding one more, could hamper his performance and history has its say.
Sir Ian Botham had a batting average of 40.5 with six centuries and 139 wickets at an average of 18.5, before he was named as England’s Test captain. But during his captaincy tenure of 12 matches, his batting average dipped to 13.1 and bowling average was in the high 30’s. Andrew Flintoff suffered a similar fate in his 11-match captaincy stint. England will be hoping that Stokes doesn’t experience a failure like this.
A Prolonged opener
Since the retirement of Sir Alastair Cook (September 2018), England have struggled to find a consistent opener. They have tried 11 options, which is the most by a team since September 8th 2018. Overall, in this time, their openers have averaged only 27.8, third lowest among the top-10 teams. To add more, their openers have suffered 22 ducks, the highest.
Rory Burns, after his first few matches, looked like a sustainable opener, but he also faded away. In his first 15 matches, he had an average of 33.7 with six half-centuries and two centuries and only one duck. Whereas, in his last 14 matches, the opener suffered a massive downfall as he averaged 23 with eight ducks. Zak Crawley, in his 13 matches as an opener so far, has averaged 24.6. Currently, the tall lanky batsman is the frontrunner to be one.
Another aspect that needs an improvement in England’s opening department is their scoring pace. Despite “strike rates being overrated” in Test cricket, England’s openers are way too slow. In the aforementioned time, their openers have scored at a strike rate of 40.8, the lowest among all teams. But, there could be a change of approach with McCullum at the helm. Known for his aggressive intent, McCullum might urge his openers to score quickly.
A consistent number three
In England’s last tour to West Indies, Root found success as a number three batter, an issue that had been creeping them for a long time. But, Stokes in his interview said “I've already spoken with Joe. I've asked him to go back to four and I'm going to be at six. Wherever Joe bats he gets runs, but his best position is at four. I feel him at four and me at six gives us a bit of experience in that gap”.
He also added, “So you can obviously see where the places are opening up for people to put their hands up: it's three and five.” This means, England will have to go back to their drawing board to find one. Dawid Malan in seven matches averaged 26.9 and Jonny Bairstow, who is in the squad, averaged 25 in 12 innings.
Irrespective of it, Ollie Pope has been confirmed as their new number three for the first Test against New Zealand. Interestingly, Pope in his 103 First-Class innings, has never batted higher than four. Like Benjamin Disraeli, the former UK Prime-minister said “ The secret of success in life is to be ready when opportunity comes”.
The search for a wicket taking spinner
Who is England’s wicket-taking spinner? A question that has been going around for a while. Jack Leach is their premier spinner as of now, but, how consistently does he pick up wickets? If not him, who is it going to be? For the upcoming series against New Zealand, Leach has been preferred as their first-choice spinner.
However, the left-arm spinner hasn’t had a major breakthrough in any of the series he has played so far. Apart from his series against Sri Lanka (away tour), in none of the series he's had a strike rate of less than 50. In the last two series, he has picked up 17 wickets at a strike rate of 92.9. In the 2021/22 Ashes series, he neither picked up wickets nor contained the runs. In four innings, he had six wickets at an economy of 4.3, very high by Test standards.
On the other hand, Matt Parkinson, the leg spinner, has bagged 24 wickets in County Championship Division One, 2022, for Lancashire. He has picked up a wicket at least in each of the innings he has bowled. To add more, he is the only spinner with 15+ wickets so far in the tournament.
