7 hours ago
1
It’s considered impolite to talk about the Ashes while a blockbuster five-Test series is raging against India – but the plight of England’s bowlers at both Headingley and Edgbaston has left little option.
In the first game, India racked up 471 and 364, and somehow lost. In the second, where they avoided the tailend collapses that cost them dear in Leeds, it was 578 and 427 for six, making them only the fourth team in history to top 1,000 runs in a single Test. Their captain, Shubman Gill, has scored 585 off his own bat, with three games to come in which to break Don Bradman’s record aggregate of 974 for a Test series.
One-all it may be heading to Lord’s on Thursday, but England’s bowlers have been stretched on the rack in a way India’s have not, delivering 443 overs so far to the tourists’ 340.
And while India will welcome back Jasprit Bumrah, the world’s best bowler, to strengthen a bouyant attack, England are considering sweeping changes, with Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Jamie Overton and Sam Cook all in the mix, and head coach Brendon McCullum asking for more helpful conditions than an Edgbaston surface that, not for the first time, left the England camp fuming.
As the Ashes creep closer, the make-up of their best bowling line-up remains worryingly unclear. It’s all well and good reeling off Archer, Mark Wood, Brydon Carse and/or Atkinson.
But Archer has not played a Test since February 2021 and has bowled a total of 18 red-ball overs since then. Wood will be lucky to end his latest injury lay-off in time for the fifth Test, Carse has an ongoing problem with his toe and Atkinson is feeling his way back from hamstring trouble.
Ben Stokes' bowling line-up has struggled throughout this series and toiled at Edgbaston
Brydon Carse looked spent at times in the second Test and has been nursing a toe injury
Josh Tongue has the best average of the England attack but has been expensive
England’s supposed best attack has never played together, and it is a leap of faith to imagine they will all take the field at Perth on November 21. That’s why what happens in the coming weeks at Lord’s, Old Trafford and the Oval will be crucial – not just for their chances of beating India, but of arriving in Australia with a strategy that extends beyond selecting anyone who is fit enough to make it down the pavilion steps.
Making as many as three changes to the seam attack sounds drastic, and goes counter to McCullum’s preference for stability, but the current plan isn’t working.
England’s collective bowling average so far in the Anderson–Tendulkar Trophy is 51, their highest in any home series of more than one game, with the exception of the disastrous 1989 Ashes, when an eye-watering 16 different frontline bowlers averaged almost 58, and Australia won 4–0.
No England bowler averages fewer in this series than the 33 of Josh Tongue, who has been miscast as an enforcer and has paid the price with an economy rate of 4.56. Carse, who was so impressive during his first winter as a Test cricketer in Pakistan and New Zealand, is averaging 52, and Chris Woakes a grim 96. Neither has enjoyed much fortune, it’s true, but those numbers are hard to sugar-coat.
One school of thought insists Woakes play at Lord’s, because his 32 wickets there have cost less than 13. But that includes six for 17 against Ireland in 2019, and 11 in the match against Pakistan as long ago as 2016.
He is 36 now, and at Edgbaston – his home ground – he was unable to provide the consistent new-ball threat posed by India’s Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj, with their fuller lengths and skiddier trajectories. His speeds also regularly dipped below 80mph, so it is hard to see how he can be taken to Australia, where his 16 wickets have cost 51. For all his diligence and popularity, he is nearing the end of the road.
And that places a greater onus on finding out as quickly as possible whether Archer’s body can withstand the rigours of five-day cricket after a few years made up of injury woes and white-ball cricket.
‘He’ll certainly be available for selection,’ said McCullum. ‘Our seamers have gone two Tests on the spin, and we’ve got a short turnaround before Lord’s. When you chase a bit of leather, you go pretty deep into your spells as well. Jofra is looking fit, strong and ready to go.’
Jofra Archer looks set to come in for the third Test at Lord's - but has bowled only 18 red-ball overs in the last four years
Chris Woakes may play on the back of his outstanding career figures at Lord's, but there is a catch to that
Akash Deep made the ball talk more than any England bowler could manage at Edgbaston
Atkinson, too, needs a gallop, if only to establish whether he can match the speeds that lit up his 12-wicket debut against West Indies at Lord’s a year ago. By the end of last year, during the third Test against New Zealand at Hamilton, his fastest delivery was 84mph, which was nearly 2mph slower than his average delivery during that first game. McCullum stressed that England still needed to have a ‘good look at Gus’ before naming him in their final XI.
If Atkinson plays, the final seam-bowling spot could be contested over by Woakes and Sam Cook, even though his debut against Zimbabwe seemed to confirm the coach’s suspicion that he lacks the speed to make an impact at Test level. If Atkinson misses out, the pacier Overton - who can hit 90mph - could add to the lone cap he won against New Zealand three years ago.
Whatever combination England settle on, they will need more help from the conditions than they received in the first two Tests, especially at Edgbaston, where Stokes bowled first on the understanding that he would be rewarded with pace and bounce.
The England management have not forgotten the 2023 Ashes pitch at the same venue, which died a slow death and helped Australia’s lower order fashion a two-wicket win.
A dressing-room source diplomatically described the mood this time as ‘frustrated’ after England were outperformed in conditions both Stokes and McCullum felt were more Bombay than Birmingham.
The reason India’s 336-run win was only their 10th in England in 69 attempts dating back to 1932 is because their batsmen struggle with lateral movement, in the same way England can’t handle turning pitches on the subcontinent.
Yet India have scored seven individual centuries so far, and in the second Test the old ball was as responsive as a rag doll.
McCullum even went to the unusual lengths of directly answering a question about what kind of surface he would like to see at Lord’s. ‘Something with a bit more pace, bounce, and a little bit of sideways movement,’ he said. It came off as not so much a preference as a plea.
Gus Atkinson is an option for Lord's, where he made his Test debut last year, but his speeds were way down over the winter
Jamie Overton can hit 90mph and impressed with bat and ball in his lone Test cap, but it was three years ago and he has not been close to a call-up since
Sam Cook is the best the county game has to offer but struggled against Zimbabwe in his Test debut in May
Yet the days of Test-match green tops in England may have gone, with excellent drainage ensuring the pitches start dry, and the hot early summer drying them still further.
In any case, because host venues – keen to maximise revenue – want the game to last the best part of four days, grassy surfaces are frowned upon. The characteristics that once gave England a home advantage are changing fast.
And because groundstaff are more answerable to their county chief executive than they are to the Test team, England’s requests can easily fall on deaf ears.
The Lord’s pitch for the final of the recent World Test Championship offered early help to the seamers, with 14 wickets falling on each of the first two days, before flattening out as South Africa chased down 282. England would probably settle for a repeat – because the alternative does not bear thinking about.
