England got away with Bangladesh warning
It is right to celebrate a great Test match, but we have to remember England have only just beaten Bangladesh, the ninth-ranked team in the world. Yes, Bangladesh are a developing side, but let us not get ahead of ourselves, and instead take time out for a reality check. England have beaten Bangladesh by 22 runs having won the toss. If Bangladesh had won the toss, batted first, and England last, it could have been very different. If England perform how they did in Chittagong when the first Test against India starts in two weeks’ time, they will be hammered.
If our spinners bowl to India like they did in the first innings against Bangladesh there will be 600 on the board. If England are 21 for three against India, they are not going to make 200. If the tactics are slightly wrong with field settings — as they were in Chittagong, where the field was too spread for the spinners — then India will expose England.
So let us see this Test as a warning. England got away with it and they must improve. England showed skill at times, especially the seamers with reverse swing. The engine room of allrounders — Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali — played well. They are a juggernaut and many teams will see them as a problem. You cannot keep them quiet, but twice England were three wickets down for not very many, and the all-rounders cannot continually bail the team out. Changing the personnel does not seem to make any difference to the top order, because they have failed consistently.
I would have played Haseeb Hameed in the first Test. England have five left-handers in the top six. If you arrive with that line-up in India, with Ravi Ashwin turning the ball away from the left-handers, then you are not a bright or clever thinking unit. I do not mind playing Ben Duckett, but I would have put him in the middle order ahead of Gary Ballance, and opened with Hameed. That would have brought one more right-hander in the top order. Now they have opened with Duckett they cannot change it after one game. Duckett stays opening with Cook, so England have to bring Jos Buttler in for Ballance, who has just not cut it. Sometimes consistency in selection can start to make you look silly. If Bangladesh had scored the 33 runs they needed to win on the final morning, England would definitely be changing the batting line-up for the second Test in Dhaka, which starts on Friday. I hope they do not think that because they have won a close game they have to stick with a winning team. There are problems with that unit and they have to start preparing for India.
We might reach a stage where England pick four seamers and two spinners. They could also pack the batting by picking Buttler and dropping down to one specialist spinner, with Root to bowl a few overs as well. Those are questions to ask this winter. In these conditions the England spinners are expected to bowl teams out, which puts pressure on them. I feel they always need a massive score on the board, because they do not have the expertise, skill or mystery to defend low totals. Yasir Shah and Ashwin would have bowled the opposition out quickly on that Chittagong pitch, but our spinners are not at that level, so I can understand why the pressure got to them. We are now at the stage where England need to judge once and for all whether Adil Rashid is a Test spinner. Overall, England will be in good heart when they leave for Dhaka with a win under their belts. They will be relieved too. It would have become a very long eight weeks if they had lost this Test, with far harder challenges further down the line.