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Opinion

Where do England stand after the Indian Test series?

Roar Guru
9th March, 2021
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Roar Guru
9th March, 2021
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The past few weeks must have been horribly painful for diehard English cricket fans.

They would have been over the moon with their team’s progress up to and including the thumping they inflicted on India in the first Test in Chennai. Sadly though, that was the last moment of joy for Joe Root’s team and their supporters.

No doubt the England coach, Chris Silverwood, Root and the army of support staff will be dissecting that tour and preparing some sort of report card on how the team’s progressing. As an outsider, this is how things are going.

In terms of rotation and selections, England have had a plan for some time, based on the ultimate goal of having a fit, in-form squad ready to win the Ashes in Australia. To achieve that, they’ve allowed a host of players to step out of the Test team.

Has that worked? The real answer won’t be known until after the Ashes tour, but England have suffered in India.

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Jos Buttler played in the first Test and went home. Jonny Bairstow played in Sri Lanka, went home for two Tests, then scored three ducks in four innings. Moeen Ali, who picked up eight wickets in the second Test and a brilliant cameo of 43, went home, when he was the pick of the England spinners at that stage.

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This policy may have also impacted on selections. England got it badly wrong when they chose three quicks and only one spinner in the third Test and again in the last Test, when choosing only one specialist quick and a spinner who was badly out of form.

In fairness, England will know exactly who they want to play both at home in the return series and later on in Australia, but even then, the coach is saying there will be more players spelled during the England summer and it’s entirely likely more rotations could happen during the Ashes.

James Anderson drops a catch

(Photo by Philip Brown/Getty Images)

There’s also the small matter of the IPL, which will impact on Test selections. Apparently those players contracted to play in India will be allowed to miss Tests against New Zealand?

With batting depth, it seemed England had found the right combinations, given the results they achieved against the West Indies, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and even India in that first Test.

The reality came through in the next three games. The talent’s there, but are the current crop good enough to make enough runs to win an Ashes series?

Dom Sibley, Zak Crawley, Dan Lawrence and Ollie Pope have all shown glimpses of the talent they possess. The real issue is about batting long.

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Root talked about issues with the county system, where the four-day season is split into two parts. The first eight games are played before the end of May and the last four games are played in September, with white-ball cricket dominating the main part of summer. Sound familiar?

His concern is the pitches are seamer-friendly, which makes it extremely tough for batsmen to really build an innings. He even referred to the sort of pitches Sheffield Shield games are played on as good examples of surfaces that help players bat for long periods.

It will be interesting to see how the England batsmen come up mentally after this recent series. The guys previously mentioned badly need more than one confidence-building innings prior to the Ashes. They also need more consistent production from Ben Stokes if he’s going to bat at number five.

Ben Stokes

(Photo by Surjeet Yadav/Getty Images)

There’s no doubt England have plenty of fast bowling talent. There were two bowling positives from India. Olly Stone really looked the part. He’s apparently only played five first-class games in the past few years, but certainly looked sharp and could be a real handful in Australia.

It was also good to see Ben Stokes bowling for extended periods. England will revert to the usual three seamers and a spinner for their Test summer and the Ashes, but having Stokes available to help out the attack with ten or 15 overs is very good news.

The jury’s out on whether Jack Leach is going to be effective in Australia and which other spinner will be part of the touring squad. Leach took 18 wickets at 28, which are okay numbers, but he went at more than three an over in conditions he’s certainly not going to see in Australia.

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Dom Bess’ confidence is down and we all know how Moeen Ali went last time he toured, so where does that leave the England spin attack?

A bright note has to be the wicketkeeping of Ben Foakes. I’ve said in other pieces that this guy is the real deal with the gloves and he was outstanding in India. This is one selection issue that England will be happy to have – does Buttler come back automatically or do they stick with the better gloveman?

Overall, it seems whatever gains England made in the past nine months of Test cricket have not yet turned this team into a strong all-round unit. There are still the obvious batting frailties outside of Root and Stokes, and the spin attack also needs some sorting.

England have taken on a serious Test workload and they might well need all of these games to sort out who will come to Australia in November.

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