HOW ENGLAND CAN LIGHT UP EDGBASTON...
Root aims to skittle Windies PAUL NEWMAN
This may be, as the hosts keep insisting, a step into the unknown but what is certain is that the inaugural day-night Test in England should go the way of so many at this famous old Edgbaston ground and end in a home victory.
Nobody is sure how the pink Duke ball, which is being used in a Test for the first time, will behave or whether the English climate really is conducive to day-night Test cricket, even at a time of year when it will at least get dark during play.
Yet the gap that exists between these teams in English conditions at any time of day and with any colour ball should be so great that England will be disappointed if they do not only win here but also at headingley and Lord’s.
West indies may have begun the long climb back to respectability now they have the right men in captain Jason holder, coach stuart Law, director of cricket Jimmy Adams and English chief executive Johnny Grave to steady their long sinking ship.
But without the superstars who would rather cash in playing Twenty20 than represent a once proud region, this team looks so callow it should be a mismatch.
Yes, West indies’ attack could cause problems for England’s fragile top order with the extreme pace of shannon Gabriel and Kemar Roach and the potential of their rising young fast-bowling star Alzarri Joseph. Yet their batting contains players barely recognisable outside their own families, let alone the wider cricket community, and England’s attack should be licking their lips in anticipation at what lies ahead from 2pm today.
No wonder stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson have both this week baulked at the idea of being rested at some point during this late summer series to keep them fresh for the Ashes this winter.
This should be the time to fill their boots and Broad could easily take the five wickets here he needs to overtake sir ian Botham’s tally of 383, while Anderson should make great inroads into the 13 he needs to reach the magical 500 mark.
The ever-increasing number of English batsmen who have failed to take their Test chances, meanwhile, should look away now as opportunity knocks loudly for Mark stoneman, Tom Westley and Dawid Malan.
England really should have had their top order sorted out by now ahead of the big one this winter rather than still have uncertainty over key batting positions at two, three and five. But, as it stands, runs in the next three Tests will cement the trio’s Ashes places even though they would provide no guarantee that they really are the best men to stand up to Mitchell starc and company in Brisbane in November.
West indies’ party line is that England should under-estimate them at their peril and captain Joe Root was keen to guard against complacency when asked yesterday if he expected to win comfortably.
‘We’re very confident but we don’t expect anything,’ said Root. ‘i think you’ve got to earn the right to play in Test cricket and that doesn’t change whoever you are up against. You can go in as favourites or massive underdogs but it’s all about how you approach each session.
‘if we keep the mentality we had during the back end of the south Africa series, we’ll give ourselves a really good chance of coming out on top.’
if Root is at all worried England will become complacent he need only remind them of the last time they played a Test against West indies two years ago. Then, against the backdrop of ECB chairman Colin Graves calling them ‘mediocre’, West indies won in Barbados to level a bad-tempered series.
holder yesterday admitted there was friction between the teams then but the absence of Marlon samuels, who could start a fight in an empty room, should make relations much better.
The bottom line is West indies’ greater experience with a pink ball, both in a Test against Pakistan and last weekend against Derbyshire, should really count for nothing. The gulf in class is surely too big.