England must be bold and ring the changes at Lord’s
The generous interpretation doing the rounds in Birmingham was that england, deprived of Jimmy Anderson since the first morning, were trying to beat Australia with 10 men. The less generous interpretation put the figure slightly lower.
Was it nine, given Moeen Ali’s disintegration as a batsman and loss of potency with the ball? Or eight, as Joe Denly tries to work out his Test-match identity? The harshest critics might even argue for seven, as Jonny Bairstow is yet to buy a red-ball run since the World Cup.
Whatever the most appropriate number, and however this topsy- turvy Test concludes today, england will have to consider changes before the second Test at Lord’s, which starts a week on Wednesday. And if Anderson’s absence can’t be helped, it is the need for unenforced switches that Joe Root will find unsettling so early in this five-match series.
For some, the injury to Anderson was a kind of karmic payback for the pre-match mishap suffered by Glenn McGrath at the same venue 14 years earlier.
But there is an obvious difference: after McGrath twisted his ankle treading on a stray ball at practice, Australia could simply pick someone else, Michael Kasprowicz, whose most memorable contribution to one of the greatest Tests of all time was to be last out with his side three runs short of victory.
england had no such luxury. Since Anderson’s injury occurred four overs into his opening spell, and it had nothing to do with concussion, there was no scope for a replacement.
So england really have been playing Australia with one arm tied behind their back — the
most golden arm in their Test history, as well. And that has had repercussions for the rest of their bowling line-up.
Perhaps the most damning of these has been to expose the sameness of three right-arm seamers — Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes and Ben Stokes — all operating in the mid-to-late 80mphs, accompanied by some insipid off-breaks from Ali and Denly’s hittable leg spin. It does not sit well with national selector ed Smith’s taste for variety.
Assuming he comes through a three- day second-team game for Sussex this week, Jofra Archer will play at Lord’s — partly because his extra pace offers precisely the point of difference Smith craves, partly because he has it in him to be england’s best bowler regardless of the conditions. That, though, is the easy bit. After stumbling to 122 for eight on the first day, Australia scored a further 649 for nine across two innings, putting a subsequent 147.2 overs into the legs of a reduced attack as Steve Smith confirmed his status as Test cricket’s most insatiable batsman since Don Bradman.
It might explain why Woakes bowled only seven overs on the fourth day: his record at Lord’s, where he averages 68 with the bat and nine with the ball, is so good that Root will need him fit and fresh.
england can’t omit Broad after his first-innings excellence here, which leaves only one plausible means of recalling Sam Curran to bowl left-arm swing and give it a late biff. And that is to drop Denly, on the basis that Curran is likely to out-bowl and possibly even outbat him, and move each of Stokes, Jos Buttler and Bairstow up a position.
Then there’s the thorny issue of Ali, obliged by Anderson’s misfortune to shoulder an even greater burden as england’s main spinner. Instead, he is going through one of his troubled phases. On Saturday, he offered no stroke to his nemesis Nathan Lyon; on Sunday, he bowled two beamers and went at nearly 4.5 an over on a helpful pitch.
england have dropped him once already this summer, at a critical moment in the World Cup. They may now decide there is nothing to be gained from forcing him to rediscover his cool in the cauldron of the Ashes, and opt instead for the left-arm spin of Jack Leach. If nothing else, Leach’s recent 92 as nightwatchman against Ireland oozed the confidence Ali is so badly lacking.
All this would mean a slightly extended tail, but england’s top order is threatening to function at long last, and they will not beat Australia by playing it safe.