After 15 years, I think I know how to bowl...
Jimmy takes swing at his critics
England go into a second Test they dare not lose at Headingley tomorrow knowing they can only silence the ‘noise’ starting to deafen them with an emphatic victory over Pakistan.
another defeat to follow one of their worst in memory at lord’s would send England into full crisis-mode, with coach Trevor Bayliss struggling to keep the Test part of his job while concerns grow over the captaincy of Joe Root.
and England will hardly be helped by the possible absence of Ben Stokes, who was last night suffering from a hamstring injury that makes him a doubt for tomorrow. Sam Curran joined the squad last night while Chris Woakes is now almost certain to play in place of Mark Wood, not least to boost the batting.
It was left to one of England’s most important players yesterday to issue a rallying call as the pressure builds on a Test team under-achieving so spectacularly that they have crashed to seven defeats in their past 10 matches.
Even Jimmy anderson, with 535 wickets behind him, found himself under scrutiny in the aftermath of England’s lord’s nightmare when his old captain Michael Vaughan said he or Stuart Broad should be dropped in order to ‘ruffle feathers’.
It is something England will not do, particularly as anderson (right) has 68 wickets in his last 15 Tests at 19 apiece, but even the suggestion such action might be necessary is a reflection of the current mess.
‘When you suffer a heavy defeat there’s always more noise around,’ said anderson.
‘It’s just something we have to deal with and block out as best we can.
‘If the management think feathers need to be ruffled all we can do is concentrate on our jobs and when Friday comes round put in a much better performance.
‘Obviously I’m going to say no,’ added anderson when asked if Vaughan is right to target one of the big two bowlers. ‘We’ve got 950 Test wickets between us. In these situations you need people to stand up and put in matchwinning performances.’
Criticism of the big two bowling beasts centres on their apparent reluctance to pitch the ball up when the situation demands through fear of conceding too many runs. Consequently they were shown how to do it by Pakistan at lord’s. ‘I didn’t have my best game at lord’s, I know that,’ said England’s record wicket-taker. ‘ But, after 15 years playing Test cricket, I am aware of what lengths to bowl.’ It is all very well pointing the finger at the bowling but dismissing Pakistan for 363 was par. The problem was that they were already playing catch-up following another batting collapse. gone are the days when England routinely reached 500. now even 200 is proving difficult.
One of the batsmen charged with improving England is Keaton Jennings, who returns for his second spell as alastair Cook’s opening partner as England drop Mark Stoneman.
Jennings made an excellent start to his Test career with a century on debut in Mumbai but by the time he was dropped after facing South africa last summer he looked found out technically and shot mentally.
a move to lancashire from durham has led to a decent start to the season for Jennings and a batsman viewed by England as a potential future captain has another opportunity to show he can make it.
‘I’ve addressed certain issues not only with my technique but my life,’ said Jennings. ‘I just want to enjoy it.’
The immediate consequence for Jennings was having to postpone an exam yesterday for his ongoing accountancy degree in his native South africa — ‘ I’ve got five modules left which seem to be taking forever,’ he said — but he will face a much tougher examination at Headingley than anything his lecturers can provide. It is up to the whole of the England side to prove they can pass the test. EOIn MORgan is fit to captain the England one-day side in their five-match series against australia and the 50-over game against Scotland that precedes it on June 10 despite a cracked finger.
His vice- captain Jos Buttler is rested for the Edinburgh match and is replaced by Sam Billings, but he is back to play the aussies.
Squad v Scotland, June 10: E Morgan (capt), M Ali, J Bairstow, S Billings (wkt), A Hales, L Plunkett, A Rashid, J Root, J Roy, B Stokes, D Willey, C Woakes, M Wood.
Squad v Australia, 5-match series: Morgan (capt), Ali, Bairstow, J Buttler (wkt), Curran, Hales, Plunkett, Rashid, Root, Roy, Stokes, Willey, Woakes, Wood.