We need to be smarter and not attack all the time
I was too aggressive at Trent Bridge and as a team we must learn how to judge each Test in isolation
It is easy to get carried away in this Twenty20 era and think Test cricket has to be entertaining all the time. You can get suckered into believing you have to always be attacking with the bat, ball or fielding positions. But Test cricket is not always like that. There are times when it is a little slow-paced and even a bit boring.
There is a lot of talk about how Twenty20 has changed batting techniques in Test cricket. But it has also had an impact on bowling. Economy rates for bowlers in Test cricket have been going up in recent years and that is not just down to the aggressive way batsmen approach the game.
Bowlers have become more aggressive, too. At times, we can get a bit carried away with lengths, and fields. We are perhaps a bit more reluctant to accept that sometimes the sensible option is to be a little more negative. It is not being defensive or boring. It is being realistic.
That is the lesson we have learned from Trent Bridge. In the dressing room after the game the coaching staff asked us all to go away and think about our own individual performances: how we could have been better but also to come back with any suggestions about how we can improve as a group.
As a bowling unit, we have to play smarter cricket and read situations better. When it is swinging it is right to attack but, on good pitches, there are long periods when it is flat and we have to be more patient.
Trent Bridge was such a fast-scoring ground. If you beat the infield, the ball went for four. With that outfield, it might have been smarter to have put the point fielder back, or a sweeper on the boundary, to stop shots that were not perfectly timed going for four.
The Oval is a fast outfield too, with a big square. I expect it will be equally fast scoring so it will be important to learn the lessons from Trent Bridge and not view it as being negative if you drop the odd man back on the fence if the ball is not swinging or seaming.
At Trent Bridge, we kept slips in for a long time and we might have chased wickets a bit by being overly attacking. We were going to bowl first if we won the toss and on that first day expected to make the most of the bowling conditions, which put too much pressure on us early in the game.
Regardless of how many Tests you have played, you can get sucked into that mindset of “we need wickets”. So you chase the game rather than perhaps reducing to two slips, a gully, dropping point back a little and having deep square to give you the option of bowling short, which is what South Africa did really well.
Conditions were made for bowling on the first morning.