Westley is put out of his misery
THERE has been no more poignant moment for an England batsman all summer than the midpitch chat Tom Westley had with his captain after he was given out leg-before to Jason Holder.
It was a discussion based on hope rather than expectation. And all Joe Root could tell his stricken partner was that, no, the decision probably wasn’t a howler, and, yes, he should probably head back to the Lord’s pavilion.
For Root — and for Westley’s hopes of clawing back an Ashes place that has been slipping from his grasp over the past few weeks — it was a sad little vignette.
Captains often speak about the hard discussions they sometimes need to have with their underlings. But it’s not often those discussions take place out in the middle at a critical moment of a deciding Test at the most famous ground in the world.
Westley was hardly the only batsman to fail on a day of 14 wickets, four floodlights and countless groping edges. But in terms of the post-match repercussions, his was the most significant exit.
His dismissal for eight was his fifth single-figure demise in a row and took his five-Test career to 149 runs at an average of 18. Since 84 of those runs came in his first game against South Africa at The Oval, his decline has been clear.
Only a second-innings century will give Westley a chance of a ticket to Australia — and even that may not be enough.
The dynamics of statistically driven team sport such as cricket mean that one or two players will inevitably be under the spotlight and that spotlight has fallen with cruel precision on Westley.
Gary Ballance was spared the axe earlier in the summer by a broken finger, while Keaton Jennings was quietly dropped after the series win over South Africa.
yet while Mark Stoneman and Dawid Malan have earned breathing space during this series — although Stoneman made only one here before nibbling at Kemar Roach — Westley has been thrust front and centre, like a middle- order Oliver Twist, begging for more runs.
Not only have his returns diminished, but he has had his technique unpicked by the sages with a remorselessness that would have been easier to deal with before social media made every opinion immediately available to all.
When Westley spoke on the phone recently to his mum Margaret about his hopes of playing in his first Lord’s Test and of making the Ashes trip, she grew tearful. Mother has suffered as much as son.
Spirits rose briefly when Westley dusted off one of his favourite leg-side whips to collect a boundary off Holder, encouraging the thought that he had vowed not to sacrifice his strength in search of punditpleasing purity.
But if one of his problems this summer has been a tendency to aim towards midon, bringing the slips into play, another has stemmed from his off-stump guard. If the ball nips back and hits him on the pad, as Holder’s did here, Westley is in instant trouble.
Technology suggested an umpire’s call on both impact and height: on another day he might have been spared. But such is the lot of the struggling batsman.
Should England dispense with Westley’s services after this game, they will need to consider whether to lean on Root to move back up to No 3. Even before this game, the captain confirmed his preference for No 4, but his side can’t keep losing early wickets and Root won’t want many more painful chats.
For Westley, the second innings really is do or die.