What HAS gone wrong with England’s batting?
Recall for Vince is just odd...but he could prove us all wrong
IF ONE definition of madness is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result, then some England fans might just have questioned the selectors’ sanity after the latest Test recall for James Vince.
Vince will only t ake part in Thursday’s fourth Test against I ndia on his home ground in Southampton if Jonny Bairstow’s fractured finger prevents him from playing in the middle order. But the fact that Vince is once more in the mix says plenty about the latest generation of English batsmen.
His 13 Tests have produced an average of 24.90 — by no means the worst among the cast of characters who have batted for England over the past few years.
Essex’s Tom Westley averaged 24.12 in five Tests last summer, Keaton Jennings — currently in his second spell as opener—is averaging 23.16, Yorkshire’s Adam Lyth managed 20.38 in 2015 and Northamptonshire’ s Ben Duckett 15.71 in the sub continent in 2016-17. In a league table of English batting hopefuls, Vince is not even in the relegation zone.
But the select ors must be concerned that, should Bairstow not make the cut, they will revert to a player who has already been dropped twice in 2018 alone and whose tendency to give away a start by flashing outside off stump embodies the malaise that cost England the third Test.
In fairness to Vince, he has done what he needed to do after England began the summer without him, averaging 56 for Hampshire in the county championship. He has scored more Division One runs than anyone bar Surrey opener Rory Burns.
That included an unbeaten 201 against Somerset in May, the day before he was omitted from the Test squad against Pakistan. The decision stung and he has responded like a man with a point to prove.
It helps that Vince is a good fielder, since England’s catching against India has been dreadful. It also helps that, unlike Burns, he is aright-hander: fast bowl er Ishant Sharma and off- spinner Ravichandran Ashwin are more comfortable against lefties.
Stats experts CricViz have argued that Vince edges a freakishly high proportion of his drives, which they claim makes him one of the world’s unluckiest batsmen. That may be overdoing the sympathy but there is no doubting the beauty of his cover-drive.
Yet there is an inevitable sense that we have been here before. Like Jennings, Vince is now part of a system where batsmen who have recently failed are being recalled with indecent haste. And that is because, since Joe Root’s debut in India in December 2012, the county conveyor belt has delivered goods of varying quality.
It should send shivers down English cricket’s spine to learn that, in that period, only two England Test players have averaged 40: Root on 51 and Lancashire’s Haseeb Hameed, who averaged 43 in three Tests in India, then broke a finger.
Everyone else, including Alastair Cook and Bairstow, has averaged under 40. And many of the more recent pretenders, such as Mark Stoneman and Dawid Malan, have averaged under 30. In that respect,
Moeen on standby if Stokes fails test
BEN STOKES is struggling to be fit for the fourth Test against India, which starts on Thursday. A niggle behind his left knee will be assessed when he joins up with England on Tuesday and while the medical staff are confident he will be OK, it could open the way for Moeen Ali, who is yet to play a Test this summer. the selectors deserve sympathy, forced into revisiting the past because the present is not spoiling them for choice.
And the problem is exacerbated by the struggles of England’s two supposed bankers: Cook may be nearing the end of his career, while Root has been outshone by his opposite number Virat Kohli.
With Ollie Pope, 20, trying to carve out an international career at No 4, two places higher than he bats for Surrey, the line- up looks as fragile as ever. And his introduction means another newcomer, either Burns or Worcestershire’s Joe Clarke, i s unlikely t o get an immediate chance.
But something has to change because the status quo i s not working. The second-innings stand of 169 at Trent Bridge between Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler was only England’s sixth century partnership in eight Tests in 2018.
Critics have pointed out that the Championship schedule is only making things worse. Forced to the margin soft he season to accommodate white-ball cricket, much of it is played in bowlerfriendly conditions that reward medium-pacers and turn batting into a lottery.
Perhaps more patience should be shown. After all, it took Bairstow 22 Tests to score his first hundred. Before him, Mike Gatting needed 31. Because he has such obvious potential, Vince may yet be similarly indulged.
That said, his inclusion in the squad for a game England cannot afford to lose feels like a gamble. While Vince could make fools of us all, however, his presence has done little to calm English nerves.