Awful England still crippled by travel sickness
OLD NEW ERA SMELLS LIKE THE OLD ONE AS SILVERWOOD’S SIDE ARE BLOWN AWAY BY WAGNER
So much for the new era. So much for building big first innings and so much for taking 20 wickets in unfriendly conditions. While we’re at it, so much for knuckling down to save a Test match on the last day.
So much, frankly, for almost everything England set out to achieve in their first Test under Chris Silverwood and Joe Root. This was a reverse-Midas performance — all they touched turned to dust.
As they contemplate defending the Ashes in two years, the Australians will be chuckling into their baggy greens.
Defeat in the first Test by an innings and 65 runs confirmed the excellence of New Zealand, although that came as no surprise. England, on the other hand, were supposed to offer a little more than a sustained masterclass in naivety and crassness.
After all, they spent the build-up to this game talking the talk. To fail so badly trying to walk the walk was — and let’s find a gentle way of saying this — a sobering experience for the new set-up.
England couldn’t reach 400 after winning the toss on a belter. And they couldn’t turn a New Zealand score of 197 for five into a match- winning lead. Instead, they conceded 615 for nine — an eye-watering recovery.
Even seeing out 117 overs on a grudging surface ought to have been within the tourists’ capabilities, yet they lost three wickets in maddening circumstances on the fourth evening, then batted on the final day as if unsure whether to stick or twist. Inevitably, they managed neither.
Root suggested his side had done ‘a lot of good stuff’. Sorry, Joe, you’re a good guy and, despite your recent slump, you remain England’s best batsman. You keep saying all the right things about patience and application. But whatever ‘stuff’ England produced in this Test, very little of it was good. And much of it was downright awful.
The trigger for a dismal last-day slide to 197 all out — a total boosted by a merry ninth-wicket stand of 59 between Sam Curran and Jofra Archer — was a poor shot from the captain himself.
In the first innings, Root had provided slip- catching practice and fallen for two. In the second, he poked Colin de Grandhomme low to gully and shuffled off for 11. It was the stroke of a batsman in two minds — save the game, or indulge the strokemaker within? And it set the tone for a succession of baffling shots as England slipped from 121 for four to 138 for eight between lunch and tea.
Root now averages below 40 as England captain, as opposed to nearly 53 before he took over. While the likes of Kane Williamson, his opposite number, and India’s Virat Kohli moved up a gear after taking charge, Root has gone into reverse. In 2019 alone, he averages 27.
He denies that the cares of office are affecting his game but consider this: in one- day internationals, where he is among the rank and file under Eoin Morgan, his average has actually improved since he first led England in a Test, from 49 to 55.
It is specifically in Test cricket, with its non-stop demands on and off the pitch, that he is struggling to fulfil his side of the bargain.
England are operating on the basis that Root will lead them in Australia in 2021-22.
And while the long-term support of the management stems from a desire for stability, there is a danger that the pledge looks premature after a performance such as this one in Mount Maunganui.
Since Root took over, England’s away record reads eight defeats in 14 Tests and only four wins — with three against a mediocre Sri Lankan side.
While Silverwood beds in, England will argue that change doesn’t happen overnight. But that will not wash for long.
Coach and captain must now contemplate whether to make changes for the second Test this week in Hamilton — a near- certainty after the bowlers were kept in the field for 201 overs thanks to BJ Watling and Mitchell Santner.
But they will also need to remind the batting line-up of their responsibilities. As if losing openers Dom Sibley and Rory Burns to weak strokes at the end of day four wasn’t enough, the final day turned into a danse macabre.
Ben Stokes chopped on to his stumps when he needn’t have played at the ball, ollie Pope chased a wide full toss and watched in horror as Santner pulled off a blinder at cover, and Jos Buttler ushered an inducker from the superb Neil Wagner on to the base of his off stump.
only Joe Denly could be absolved of blame. After a patient 74 in the first innings that perfectly fitted the new template, he ground out 35 in 214 minutes in the second before failing to get his gloves out of the way of a Wagner lifter.
Wagner finished with five for 44 on a surface that had utterly defeated England’s attack.
But then it was that kind of match, one in which the two teams played very different games on the very same surface.