James Anderson
Read his first exclusive column inside today
Other than an Ashes series, Joe Root could not have been given a harder introduction at home than a four-test series against South Africa. Since South Africa’s readmission – or even since the 1950s – this has always been England’s closest bilateral series.
Only twice since 1951 has there been more than one match in it, not unnaturally. The traditional style of both countries has been so similar because South African cricket was shaped by English county players wintering in the Cape.
Root, however, can go better than the usual 1-1 or 2-1 results if he makes his captaincy resemble every other aspect of his game. From the moment he bounced out to the middle in a crisis in Nagpur in 2012 – relishing the confrontation and scoring 10 runs off his first 10 balls in Test cricket – Root has personified best practice in cricket.
South Africa are vulnerable because they have their most inexperienced batting line-up of the past 20 years – Hashim Amla stands out – and a new captain in Dean Elgar for this match, before Faf du Plessis returns from the difficult birth of his first child.
Graeme Smith, the man who has stopped England beating South Africa in England since 1998, is retired. So, Root, and his new vice-captain Ben Stokes, can discomfort and defeat these tourists if they lead in the same fashion they play the rest of their cricket; there will be the odd spillage along the way but England will then be on course to compete with Australia this winter.
The on-field culture of this England Test team has to change because last year they lost eight Tests and sank into some bad habits long before the end of Alastair Cook’s tenure. The running between wickets lacked any urgency except when Root, Stokes or Jonny Bairstow were batting together.
Backing off, not confrontation, became the keynote of Cook’s captaincy in the field. He might try funky field-placings, but not aggressive ones, until it was certain that England could not lose. Cook allowed his opening bowlers, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, to bowl defensively wide of off stump and drag back their length, to contain and preserve their figures, rather than pitch the ball up. Root, supported by Stokes, has to be prepared to confront his own players, as well as the opposition.
Reactivating these aspects of their game will make England more likely to win and harder to beat. Last autumn they were bowled out in one session in Dhaka and in 1½ sessions in Chennai. Teams are said to acquire the character of the captain, and Cook was resigned to giving up the captaincy before the end of last year. Now he is back doing what he does best – and better than anyone in England’s history.
The main feature of Root’s press conference yesterday – apart from saying, “I’m very excited, it’s been a very long wait but to get the squad together and work together has been fantastic” – was his announcement that England would have an all-yorkshire middle order of Bairstow at five, Root at four, and Gary Ballance at three.
While Root rightly praised Ballance for the “phenomenal” amount of runs he has scored this season, this arrangement is not sustainable in the long term. If Ballance is going to succeed in Australia against short-pitched bowling at his ribs, it is not going to be as high as No 3; while last autumn, when England played seven Tests in eight weeks, the same schedule as this, proved that no wicketkeeper can bat at No 5 and score runs while keeping day after day. But it would be sustainable for Stokes to bat at five and Bairstow at six, followed by Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes when he has recovered.
The retention of Liam Dawson appears to spell the end for Adil Rashid as a Test bowler. Mason Crane, after his two T20 internationals, is coming up on the outside rail; and any leg-spinner good enough to be selected by New South Wales at the age of 20 surely has a Test career ahead.
Elgar may only be captain for one Test at the moment, yet he is a composed and intelligent cricketer who has been doing hard yards for Somerset. “I guess they’ve got their insecurities,” he said about England.