The best England batting debut I have seen in 40 years
Hameed’s defiant start in Test cricket offers more promise than even those of Gower, Cook and Pietersen
David Gower swivelled to pull his first ball in Test cricket for four. Alastair Cook hung on to grind out 60 and a century with immense competence on his Test debut. Kevin Pietersen boldly took on Australia to blaze 50 in each innings in the first Test of the Ashes series of 2005 and wave the flag for Michael Vaughan’s side. Joe Root marched out cheekily and scored 10 runs off his first 10 balls at a veritable crisis in Nagpur in 2012. But of all the Test debuts by England batsmen I have seen in the past 40 years, that of Haseeb Hameed has been the most promising, enough to make the follower of English cricket tingle with anticipation about what may come.
Although Gower went on to make a fifty, it was in truth against one of the ropiest bowling attacks Pakistan have ever had. Cook chiselled out his runs on the flattest of pitches. Pietersen was going down with a sinking ship at Lord’s in 2005, landing as many blows as he could before his partners departed. Root was the best of these debutants in that the situation was critical, with England hanging on to their 2-1 lead over India by their fingernails, their senior batsmen paralysed with tension at the prospect of winning a series in India for the first time in 28 years. But even he went on the defensive after those first 10 runs so that his 73 occupied five hours.
Hameed raised the threat of a siege and made the danger evaporate in the dry heat of Rajkot. England were only 49 runs ahead by the time they had finally bowled India out for 488, and so tired after almost two days in the field that Cook had dropped a sitter.
Ravi Jadeja took the new ball, the fastest spinner in the game and therefore the finger-spinner most suited to the turf, which was turning, sometimes slowly, occasionally spitting. And English opening batsmen are not supposed to be much cop against spin, let alone one aged 19 years and 300 days.
But it was Hameed who looked the veteran, Cook the debutant. Cook, scratchy and sketchy, eventually settled down, after inside-edging Jadeja past the short-legs and outsideedging Ravi Ashwin just short of slip. And that is what a great batsman does – by dominating the bowling himself, he makes life easier for his partner.
Was Hameed – a slip of a lad, as skinny as the soon-to-be-famous Ranjitsinhji was when he went to school in Rajkot – match-fit enough to give England a positive start? He had played only 20 first-class games, after all, before his first Test.
The answer was soon forthcoming, because he took quick – by no means panicky – singles, rotating the strike and making Cook run like none of his nine other opening partners since Andrew Strauss. And it was with a cheeky grin – because he is a chirpy Lancashire lad – and a brief clench of his glove that Hameed watched one of his quick singles increased by four overthrows when a throw-in ricocheted off the stumps. Adil Rashid said afterwards that Hameed was “very calm, very organised” and “a hard worker with a sense of humour.” The most impressive feature – no, awesome in one so young – was Hameed’s counterattack against Jadeja and Ashwin.
Jadeja pitched a ball fuller than those which Cook had groped for, and Hameed straight-drove it slightly to the off side for six. He had watched Murali Vijay do it four times in India’s innings, so why not, asked the teenager?
Ashwin immediately dropped his mid-on back to long-on – the world’s best spinner backing off! What a feather in Hameed’s helmet. But, with the straight hit for six covered, that did not stop Hameed cutting an offbreak for four, and in the same over – bending low into the stroke with an elasticity which only Pietersen might have managed, and then before his knees played up – executing a coverdrive no less than gorgeous.
Jadeja retired, on his home ground, with figures of 9-0-33-0 in his opening spell – no maidens, no pressure. Hameed throttled down; the danger receded; India visibly resigned thoughts of winning. Hameed was beaten a couple of times outside off stump by Umesh Yadav, but otherwise he was flawless until the close on a pitch which could have brought a cluster of wickets.
It was with a cheeky grin that he watched one of his quick singles turned into four overthrows
Earlier in the day, Moeen Ali had bowled nine overs for 15 runs and two wickets, and Rashid – much improved by Saqlain Mushtaq’s coaching – had bowled his best in Test cricket to date to finish with four wickets. Add Zafar Ansari’s two and England’s three spinners had taken eight wickets out of the 10.
Thus was the occasion marked when four British Asians played in an England team for the first time, reflecting their proportion in the whole of cricket in England and Wales.