THE TOAST IS JONNY BUT WE CAN STILL HAVE A SUMMER WHINE!
Chris Stocks questions the wisdom of playing a five-match ODI series as the autumn gloom descends
As rain wiped out play after just 14 balls at Trent Bridge yesterday, the one overriding question was why the hell are we starting a one-day series in mid-September?
England and West Indies had put on a decent game at Old Trafford on Tuesday, with Jonny Bairstow impressing as he scored his maiden ODI hundred to help Eoin Morgan’s men chase down 205 to win by seven wickets.
However, even that contest was reduced to 42 overs despite bright sunshine in Manchester throughout the day.
Overnight rain had left the outfield sopping wet and at this time of year there was no way the problem areas were going to dry completely. Thankfully, after a two-hour delay, the umpires took the view that a game could be staged, even if both captains looked far from keen to actually partake.
Cricket is supposed to be a summer sport, even if that season in England is often far from warm or dry.Yet playing in late May, June, July and August gives everybody the best chance of at least enjoying a decent game in half-decent weather.
Start a one-day series on September 19, though, in the north of England and you cannot argue if mother nature intervenes.
The fact this series begun so late is startling, especially when England’s international summer began with an ODI against Ireland in Bristol on May 5.
By the time the last game is played in Southampton a week today there will be less than a month before England set off for their Ashes tour of Australia.
The likes of Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and Bairstow will have barely three weeks off before embarking on England’s longest winter since the team stopped travelling by boat.
England fly from Heathrow on October 28. They will not return until the end of the tour of New Zealand on April 5. Set amidst this backdrop, the England & Wales Cricket Board’s scheduling of this one-day series against West Indies is even more startling.
Yet a series we have and in Bairstow we at least have a player who is revelling in it, the Yorkshireman’s unbeaten hundred at Old Trafford the most significant knock of his limited-overs career and a performance that could see him become a mainstay of the team right up until the 2019 World Cup in this country.
Morgan had stated before this series that Bairstow would be given a run as an opener in 50-over cricket after replacing Jason Roy for the Champions Trophy semi-final defeat by Pakistan in Cardiff in June.
That is the venue where Bairstow first made his ODI debut against India in 2011 and his innings on Tuesday was a long time coming.
A mainstay of the Test team as wicketkeeper and middle order batsman, Bairstow is now hoping to thrive at the top of the order in ODI cricket after spending the last six years in and out of the team.
Root, happy to take a back seat from his duties as Test captain in this series, says: “The best thing about Jonny is he can bat anywhere in the top six. He has a brilliant power game where he can be destructive at the backend or the powerplay up front and he also works
and rotates the strike very well.
“He’s very quick between the wickets, always putting fielders and bowlers under pressure and it makes it a lot easier batting with him when there’s someone so quick to run the runs with you. I thought that was one thing he did really well, picking up every single and really challenging the guys on the rope, getting the twos and threes when we could.”
Root scored a composed 54 during a 125-run stand with Bairstow in Manchester.
Ben Stokes also thrived, taking three wickets, including the prized scalp of nemesis Marlon Samuels, and hitting the winning runs with a huge six.
But with the Ashes so close, is Root not concerned about burnout for Stokes, Bairstow, Moeen and himself?
“As players, you know yourself better than anyone else and in the best interests of this and the Test team you need to be really honest,” said Root. “Only you really know if you are struggling or tired. Everyone wants to play as much as they can.You are only around for so long, at the peak of your game and fitness, and you want to take every opportunity.
“Those guys have got a lot of cricket ahead of them this winter, but we have a period off before we go to recuperate and relax. I think a change in formats is almost a little break in itself, you think about different things, you approach training differently and you almost are having a bit of a break from red-ball cricket.”
Time will tell if Root is right. I guess we’ll find out at the end of a relentless winter that follows this endless summer.
Bairstow is now hoping to thrive at the top of the order in ODI cricket after spending the last six years in and out of team