Conditions today will be tough so don’t give up any freebie wickets
Hengland have seen the damage their own bowlers can do and must be patient to build a winning position
Having seen the ball snake past the outside edge dozens of times during the Pakistan innings, England will probably be worried about the examination they face today in difficult conditions.
But they could look at things another way. This is a chance to prove that they have improved as a batting unit.
A couple of years ago, when Trevor Bayliss was coach, we heard lots of rhetoric about England “imposing themselves”. Which, in practice, tended to mean that they played a lot of daft shots and fell in a heap.
Now that Chris Silverwood has taken over from Bayliss, something has changed. We are seeing more patience and application. And I like seeing more patience and application. It gives me a warm feeling.
Today is a moment to test that mindset because there are going to be plenty of magic balls out there. When James Anderson and Stuart Broad bowled, they kept sending down fast leg-breaks that the wicketkeeper was catching at head height. Not even Len Hutton could have played those. Against a nicely balanced Pakistan attack, England are going to need some good fortune to survive. But when the ball goes flashing past the outside edge, you have to put it out of your mind. The key is not to go reaching for a shot that is not on just because you think the next ball might have your name on it.
They need to look forward and make the opposition bowl them out. Do not give them any freebie wickets because they already have the conditions stacked in their favour. And if England can build a firstinnings lead their world-class seamers should be able to finish off the job and seal the series right here.
The task is going to take patience, concentration and technique. And when I look at the openers, Rory Burns and Dominic Sibley, I see men who have the first two in spades. The trouble is that they both tend to move their foot directly towards the ball – instead of to one side of it – and end up playing around their front pad. I do not blame Burns and Sibley. It is a technical flaw that ought to have been sorted out by the coaches at county level before they found themselves under the microscope of Test cricket.
Since they are here now, they will have to try to make improvements on the fly. We saw Burns trying to do this in the second innings of the last Test.
He was making a big effort to open his body a tiny touch, allowing him to place his front foot on the inside of the ball and make a free swing of the bat. It shows a good mind, but you should not be having to do that with your footwork at this level.
Sibley is the same. He cannot play much on the offside because of his grip, and he plays around his front pad a lot. Against a probing seamer like Mohammad Abbas that is going to create problems.
With Burns and Sibley, we are not talking about Hobbs and Sutcliffe but I give them credit for being mentally tough. Which is a great quality at this level. So England have to work with what they have. If this batting line-up was full of names such as Denis Compton, Wally Hammond, Kevin Pietersen and Ian Botham, I would say: “Score at four an over and annihilate the opposition.” Unfortunately, this batting line-up is a lot more limited with only a couple of world-class players in Joe Root and the absent Ben Stokes plus a bunch of other guys who are trying to learn the ropes.
Speaking of Root, he has not been stacking up the runs this summer but I actually like the way he has been going about his business. He used to be a very busy player, looking to score off every ball almost in the same way as he does in 50-over cricket. But in this summer’s Test matches he has settled back and tried to play himself in more carefully.
For me, that is the right approach. Joe is a magnificent player, he has everything you need from a top-order batsman, but he has sometimes got out through being overeager. If he plays more calmly, I believe he will come good. And the same goes for the whole team.