Root’s men prove they can play the long game

England got the tempo of their batting absolutely right on the first two days here at The Oval and showed the perfect way to go about a Test match innings.

The criticism of their approach on what became the last day of the second Test — I said that being bowled out for 133 was rubbish cricket, not positive cricket — was justified but it has been a very different story here.

It was a brave decision of Joe Root to bat first in the conditions but, as in nottingham where South africa vindicated Faf du Plessis’s move to bat first, England did not let their captain down.

alastair Cook initially led the way by leaving the ball at the right times and making South africa bowl straighter before taking every opportunity to score. Then his team-mates followed his example by adapting to the situation throughout.

That ability to adapt was demonstrated perfectly on the second morning when Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow sensed the right time, with the weather brighter and the ball older, to take the attack to South africa.

We have heard all that stuff about the style and brand of cricket, the ‘This is how we play’ business, but there is not a single way to approach Test cricket because conditions and situations change constantly throughout five days’ play.

There is no suggestion that the first two days of the third Test have been dull either. The game does not always have to be played at a hundred miles an hour and you do not have to be an old fogey to enjoy it when it’s not.

It is not all about blocking. It is about the right time to attack and the right time to defend and for the first time in a long while England got their mentality and attitude absolutely right here and finished above par with 353 as a result.

This was one of Stokes’s best Test knocks. He showed South africa that he could play in a completely different way to that swashbuckling double hundred in Cape Town and displayed a maturity in his game.

The way Stokes adapted his game to the changing conditions over the first two days epitomised everything that was right about this batting display.

What I would say is I didn’t see too much wrong with the way England played in the first innings in nottingham because quite a few of them got out to defensive shots rather than gung-ho ones and the problem then wasn’t their approach.

England will have to repeat this mindset in the second innings of a Test they have no chance of winning, to at least go down fighting, before we know they have learned the lesson of too many collapses.

Too often, when a win is beyond them, England have taken the easy option and gone down swinging. Instead, they should show the same mentality they have here.

It should be emphasised that England finally stumbled on the right balance when they replaced liam dawson with dawid Malan — this is how they should line up in future.

You can argue about the personnel, but when you have a world-class all-rounder in Stokes at six and a world- class keeper-batsman in Bairstow (below) at seven it allows you to play five specialist batsmen and four specialist bowlers.

There is talk Bairstow is now too low for such an important batsman but nobody said adam gilchrist was too low at seven for australia. and no-one said Matt Prior was too good to bat at seven for England.

When gilchrist came in against us I wasn’t thinking, ‘They’ve made a mistake putting this bloke so low’, I was thinking about how strong australia were with him there. Then the way England bowled when South africa replied put their 353 in proper perspective and emphasised just how perfect their batting effort was.

Toby Roland- Jones’s brilliant debut proved to me that picking the right side is far more important than coaching once the side has been picked. England went back to basics by picking what they believed was their five best batsmen, best all-rounder and keeper-batsman and then their best four bowlers for the conditions. The results over these two days have been

there for all to see.