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England’s Test team has major questions over five positions – its second opening batsman, first drop, number five, wicketkeeper and spinner. But, apart from that, they’re flying.
So just how well are England placed 18 months out from the next Ashes? Hype has been building around England since they dispatched Australia 3-2 at home just under 12 months ago. They had entered that series in horrendous touch, having won just five of their previous 17 Tests, even struggling to a drawn series against the lowly West Indies.
After rolling Australia they were dumped 2-0 by Pakistan in the UAE but swiftly rebounded to record a rousing 2-1 series win in South Africa. It was that defeat of the Proteas which really fired up the hype machine.
Now that they’ve steamrolled Sri Lanka in the first two Tests of their home summer, and spearhead James Anderson has charged to the top of the Test bowling rankings, England are dreaming big.
Coach Trevor Bayliss stated this week they now had their gaze locked on Australia’s number one Test team crown. Former England all-rounder and now pundit Ian Botham said he expected them to soon steal that ranking from Australia.
England’s Test results over the past 12 months justify the bullish attitudes of Bayliss and Botham. In that period they have a 12-9 win-loss record with comfortable series victories against two of the traditional powerhouse teams of the format, Australia and South Africa.
I would argue, however, that their success has been built almost entirely on the success of the same five players – opening bowlers Anderson and Stuart Broad, champion batsmen Joe Root and Alastair Cook, and all-rounder Ben Stokes.
Two-and-a-half years after the mass exodus of senior players prompted by their 5-0 Ashes humiliation, England still have holes galore in their line-up.
Alex Hales is averaging 28 as an opener. Nick Compton is floundering at three. James Vince is just two innings into his career at five. Jonny Bairstow is a trainwreck behind the stumps, having missed ten chances in his past six Tests. And frontline spinner Moeen Ali averages 53 with the ball in his past 13 Tests.
That is a hell of a lot of problems for a team which apparently is on the cusp of becoming the world’s best. Yet Botham and Bayliss aren’t being fanciful in their ambitions because, right now, there are no champion teams in the Test format.
Unlike seven to eight years ago when Australia, England and South Africa all had very experienced and talent-laden sides, the race for number one is wide open these days.
After being clearly the best side in Test cricket for years, the Proteas have crumbled. With uncertainty surrounding the Test future of key players Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and AB de Villiers, South Africa look set for a few tough years – in comparison to their golden era that is.
The current number one side, Australia, have fallen arse backwards into that spot. Just four months before they secured that ranking Australian Test cricket had appeared to be in a deep crevasse.
Six long-term members of the team had just retired. Gone were their two best pace bowlers, Ryan Harris and Mitchell Johnson, plus their captain Michael Clarke, in-form opener Chris Rogers, keeper Brad Haddin and veteran all-rounder Shane Watson.
Australia’s Test team was gutted like a fish. Yet somehow their new, inexperienced side emerged from the southern summer as a juggernaut, having gone 6-0 across their eight Tests, including a 4-0 hammering of the highly-touted Kiwis.
The Australian team now all but picks itself. The only questions surround all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, who has been sensational with the ball but a dud with the blade, and the identity of their third quick, although pace stocks certainly are not a significant concern for Australia.
Compared to England, Australia’s line-up is as stable as a 12-legged coffee table. England have tried a ton of openers as Cook’s partner since Andrew Strauss retired in 2012.
In their current XI, alone, there are four players who have opened with Cook in Tests – Hales, Root, Compton and Moeen. Hales is the latest man to get a crack at this jinxed position. In his first four Tests, in South Africa, Hales was exposed time and again by quality pace bowling, averaging just 17 as he was punished for his propensity to push at deliveries with hard hands.
At three Compton is drowning in his own self-doubt. A famously self-critical individual, he seems to be muddled of mind, unsure whether to bat his natural, ultra-defensive game or try to infuse it with some unfamiliar dynamism. The results have been awful, averaging just 12 across his past eight innings, at a glacial strike rate of 36.
Vince, too, is a new face at five, although it’s far too early to make any assessments of him yet after just two knocks. Behind him, keeper Bairstow has been in supreme touch with the blade in first-class cricket for more than a year now.
He looks capable of averaging 45-plus with the bat in Tests. But Bairstow should do that as a specialist batsman, in Vince’s place at five, because his keeping is horrendous. In his past six Tests, Bairstow has bungled eight catches and two stumpings. In South Africa, he dropped Hashim Amla twice, plus once each for Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma, Stephen Cook and Morne Morkel, to go with missed a stumping of AB de Villiers.
In the current series against Sri Lanka, he’s dropped number three Kusal Mendis and centurion Dinesh Chandimal, while also missing a stumping off Sri Lanka’s best batsman Angelo Mathews.
Of Bairstow’s ten missed chances, nine were of top seven batsmen. His keeping is a severe weakness for England, just as much as Moeen’s impotent bowling. The off-spinner had success with the ball early in his career as batsmen tried to smack him out of the attack, only to gift him wickets.
Once opposition teams realised that Moeen’s lack of control meant he could be scored off at a brisk pace without taking undue risk, he swiftly lost his impact as a bowler, hence his average of 53 in his past 13 Tests.
Australia learned this lesson in the last Ashes, trying to clatter Moeen in the first Test only for him to take five important wickets as England triumphed. As other teams have done, Australia then sat on Moeen for the rest of the series, milking him at 4.5 runs per over with minimal risk as he averaged 60 with the ball across the final four Tests.
Moeen currently has no role in the England attack. In his past 13 Tests he has been capable neither of being a strike bowler nor of offering his team control. England might be winning matches, but the lack of a proper spinner will come back to bite them sooner rather than later.
Moeen is, however, occupying just one of the five positions in the England XI which are clouded in uncertainty.