A look at the action in the first three days of the test match between India and England in Hyderabad and a photo gallery.
India and England are currently locked in battle at Hyderabad, and after three days of play there is just a chance of decent finish. This post looks at the action so far.
PRELIMINARIES
There were huge question marks over England’s selections. James Anderson was overlooked and three front line spinners were named – Rehan Ahmed, Jack Leach and Tom Hartley. Ahmed is 19 years old and hugely promising, Leach is England’s best current front line spinner (alas, not the highest of bars), while Hartley was quite frankly a joke of a selection – Lancashire’s decision to sign Nathan Lyon as overseas player for the upcoming season tells you what they think of him as a red ball cricketer. With Brook having withdrawn from the series for personal reasons even England could find no excuse for not playing Ben Foakes, so at least the gauntlets were in good hands.
DAY ONE
England won the toss and batted. 70 from Ben Stokes got them to 246, which didn’t look too bad. However India got off to an absolute flier in reply, helped by Tom Hartley bowling some utter rubbish – he was at that point going at seven an over on a turner. Only the experienced Leach, with 1-24 from nine overs was anywhere near test standard with the ball, and India were 119-1 overnight.
DAY TWO
India moved into seemingly complete control, even though their batting was far from flawless – virtually every wicket they lost was down to bat batting rather than good bowling, three players reached 80, and two of those three got themselves out in the 80s, while the third, Jadeja, was unbeaten at the close. The day ended with Axar Patel scoring 14 off the last three balls, bowled by Hartley, who in spite of being donated two test wickets never looked remotely like the real deal. India were 421-7 and ahead by 175.
DAY THREE
I missed the first session due to not understanding the workings of my phone’s alarm system – it has different settings for week days and weekends. England took the last three Indian wickets quickly, restricting the deficit to 190. The most damning stat of the innings for England was that with three front line spinners selected Joe Root, very much a batter who bowls, had taken 4-79`. By lunch England were 89-1, with Crawley gone, but Duckett and Pope, who had been very jumpy in the first innings, both going well.
The afternoon session belonged to India, with four wickets going down, but Foakes staunched the flow of wickets and settled into a partnership with Pope. In the evening session Pope and Foakes continued to prosper, their partnership reaching 112, before a freak delivery from Axar Patel, which shot along the deck, accounted for Foakes. Pope had by then completed a century, and Rehan Ahmed proved to be a good partner as well. By the close England were 316-6, with Pope 148* and looking every inch a test match number three. England thus lead by 126. Given the paucity of their bowling, even with the pitch showing signs of genuine mischief they probably need to double their current advantage to really worry India, but the situation is not completely hopeless, as it seemed to be at the end of day two.
An acknowledgement of a major omission in yesterday’s post, a look back at yesterday’s west Indies v England ODI, an all time XI of players with given names beginning with K and a photo gallery.
This is a two-in-one post – yesterday saw the start of England’s new era in ODI cricket after the disaster of the world cup, and I look back at that match. I also parade an all time XI of players whose given names begin with K. Before getting into either of the main features I have on other thing to do…
ACKNOWLEDGE AN OMISSION
I noted yesterday when I covered cricketers whose given names began with J that I was dealing with an embarrassment riches. So much was the case that I entirely missed someone with a claim to place in the XI and to whom I should certainly have given at the least an honourable mention: Joel ‘Big Bird’ Garner the extra tall West Indies quick bowler of the 1970s and 80s. Note that I make no effort to perform the blogging equivalent of burying this rectification in 6 point type in the middle of page 27.
AN UNDERWHELMING RELAUNCH FOR ENGLAND
Yesterday saw the first match of a three match ODI series between the West Indies and England. The former had failed to even qualify for the recent ODI world cup, while the latter had an unmitigated disaster of a tournament.
THE PRELIMINARIES
After their world cup nightmare the England team showed a number of changes. Unfortunately Jos Buttler was allowed to retain the captaincy, a mistake which was to prove costly. Another poor call was the selection of left arm medium pacer Sam Curran who had proven valueless at the world cup. On the credit side a new look opening pair of Phil Salt and Will Jacks looked like a step in the right direction, as did the selection of young leg spinner Rehan Ahmed. Liam Livingstone was also in the XI, being treated as a bowling all rounder, scheduled to come in at seven and expected to bowl a full allocation of 10 overs. The West Indies had selected two frontline spinners as well, Gudakesh Motie (left arm orthodox) and Yannic Cariah (leg spin). Buttler won the toss and decided that England would bat, a correct call in my opinion.
THE ENGLAND INNINGS
Salt and Jacks made a blazing start, and were going at ten an over at one point, but both got out with the job half done, which was representative of the England innings as a whole. In the end, with the assistance of a late flurry from Sam Curran and Brydon Carse, England tallied 325 from their 50 overs. Gudakesh Motie had 2-49 from his ten overs, and Yannic Cariah 2-62 from his.
THE WEST INDIES RESPONSE
This was a tale of good spin bowling, good pace bowling from Gus Atkinson, dire pace/ seam bowling from Carse and Curran and terrible captaincy by Buttler, with Shai Hope playing a great innings, Romario Shepherd a spectacular one, and Sherfane Rutherford a brief but supremely eventful one.
Bizarrely, on a pitch that was helping spin, and with two of England’s designated pace options taking a hammering, Buttler chose not to deploy sixth bowler, off spinner Will Jacks. This piece of captaincy, curious at best, downright dreadful at worst, would cost England the match.
All seemed to be going pretty well for a time, and at one point the West Indies required run rate was close to 11 an over. However, once Rehan Ahmed (an exemplary display of leg spin bowling earning him 2-40 from his 10 overs) was finished, no one else was quite as good, though both Livingstone and Atkinson conceded runs at a respectable rate. The problem was the bowling of Curran and Carse, and the stubborn refusal of Buttler to deploy Jacks. Shepherd and Hope combined to take 23 off one Curran over, which made the ask manageable for the West Indies. After 48 of their 50 overs, with all of Ahmed, Livingstone and Atkinson bowled through and it having long since become too late to introduce Jacks the West Indies needed 19. Buttler opted to entrust the 49th over to Sam Curran, who had leaked 79 from eight overs up to that point. Five balls later, three of which had been dispatched into the stands Curran’s figures stood at 9.5-0-98-0 and West Indies had won the game with seven balls to spare. Shai Hope after a cautious start necessitated by circumstances had finished in glorious style, taking his score to 109* off 83 balls, his 16th ODI century, an innings in the course of which he passed 5,000 career ODI runs. Shepherd had hit 48 off 28 balls, Rutherford 6 off three, each ball being a genuine event – he hit his first ball in ODI cricket for six, was given out to his second but had the decision overturned, and then holed out off his third. Also worthy of mention was opener Alick Athenaze, whose 66 prevented his side from being sunk without trace. Hope was deservedly Player of the Match. Had England managed to win, Rehan Ahmed would have been an equally deserving recipient of the award for his bowling, but the incompetence of Curran and Carse and the poor captaincy of Buttler meant that Ahmed’s great effort was ultimately in vain and England’s brave new era of ODI cricket had started with a defeat. England need a new ODI skipper as a matter of urgency. Personally, with no absolute stand out candidate I would gamble on Jacks – slow bowling all rounders often make good skippers, and albeit on a small sample size, England historically fare well when captained by someone with first two initials WG – eight wins out of 14 matches under such a captain to date.
THE K XI IN BATTING ORDER
Kraigg Brathwaite (West Indies, right handed opening batter). Opening batters with given names beginning with K were hard to find, but the West Indian is noted for being able to bat time and has a respectable record in what has been a problematic area for his side ever since the Greenidge/ Haynes pairing broke up.
Krishnamachari Srikkanth (India, right handed opening batter). With a blocker in the number one slot I wanted my other opener to be more aggressively inclined. His career highlights include being the top individual scorer in a world cup final that his side won.
Ken Barrington (England, right handed batter, occasional leg spinner). One of the least appreciated of test cricket’s super stackers, his average of almost 59 an innings over the course of a long career puts him right up among the all time greats.
Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka, left handed batter, wicket keeper). Few would seriously dispute his claim to be regarded as his country’s best ever test match batter.
Kane Williamson (New Zealand, right handed batter). Another modern great, the third element of an extremely powerful engine room for this XI.
*Keith Miller (Australia, right handed batter, right arm fast bowler, captain). One of the greatest all rounders ever to play the game, and reckoned by everyone who played under him to have been a superb captain as well.
+Kyle Verreynne (South Africa, wicket keeper, right handed batter). Yet to fully establish himself at international level, but his domestic record is excellent.
Kapil Dev (India, right arm fast medium bowler, right handed batter). An extraordinary record for his country, even more so given that he was often the only member of the attacks of which he was part who was actually capable of bowling a ball at above medium pace.
Kagiso Rabada (South Africa, right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). An indisputably great fast bowler.
Katie Levick (England, leg spinner, right handed batter). The only non-international I have picked, she has a splendid record in domestic cricket, and a little like George Dennett (see this post) she has been unlucky that her career has happened at a time when England women have been exceptionally well served by spinners. With Miller capable of turning his hand to off spin it seemed sensible to select a specialist spinner of a different type.
Ken Farnes (England, right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). A promising career was nipped in the bud by the outbreak of WWII, but by then he had done enough to earn his place in this XI.
This XI has an opening pair who should combine well, a very powerful 3,4,5 combination, an ATG all rounder, a quality keeper-batter, a great bowling all rounder and three high quality specialist bowlers. Farnes, Rabada, Miller, Kapil Dev and Levick is by an reckoning a powerful bowling unit.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Kevin Pietersen is probably the standout name among those I could not find space for in the XI. The only way to get him in would be to use him as an opener, presumably in place of Srikkanth, and that was never a role he relished. Two Indian princes, the uncle and nephew KS Ranjitsinhji and KS Duleepsinhji were also unlucky to miss out on middle order slots. Kim Hughes had talent to burn but ended with a record that was not weighty enough to merit inclusion. Ken Rutherford recovered from a dreadful start at test level to become a highly respected middle order batter, but someway short of qualifying for inclusion in this XIs middle order. Karen Rolton, who has a cricket ground named after her in her native Australia, was s superb batter who deserves at least this mention. Kusal Mendis of Sri Lanka is a fine player, but not quite fine enough in my view. Ken ‘Slasher’ Mackay, a left handed blocker and right arm medium pacer, was also on the fringes. KL Rahul would have been in as keeper had I been picking with ODIs in mind. Karun Nair did once score a test match triple century, but that innings accounted for four fifths of his career tally at that level. Ken Wadsworth and Kiran More were both challengers for the keepers slot, while Keith Andrew was a top quality keeper, but a bunny with the bat. Keith Piper, keeper-batter in Warwickshire’s mighty unit of the mid 1990s also deserves a mention. Keith Barker, a left arm pacer and a useful lower order batter, was a candidate for the number eight slot, but I felt that Kapil Dev’s international pedigree had to tell in that instance. Kyle Abbott was a candidate for a seam bowling slot, but with Kapil Dev already inked in I preferred the fire and brimstone of Farnes. Kuldeep Yadav was the other candidate for the specialist spinner’s slot. Krom Hendricks, the first non-white South African cricketer to have been a documented victim of discrimination based on the colour of his skin, does not have a detailed enough career record to be selected, but warrants an honourable mention.
A look back at the events of the third Pakistan v England test, which ended in the early hours of yesterday morning UK time.
At just about 5:40AM UK time yesterday Ben Duckett smashed a four to take England from 166-2 to 170-2 in the final innings of the test series in Pakistan, and in so doing created a piece of cricket history – no visiting side had ever won a clean sweep in a three+ match series in Pakistan until that moment. This post looks back at the events of the third match of the series (I covered the first two matches extensively already) and then at the key moments of this extraordinary series.
THIRD TEST: DAY ONE
Rehan Ahmed was given a debut for England, and Ben Foakes was recalled to the XI, Will Jacks and James Anderson being rested. For Pakistan Nauman Ali played in place Zahid Mahmood. Babar Azam won the toss and decided to bat, which looked like good news for Pakistan. Pakistan scored 304, with various players making useful runs but no one getting a massive score, and by the close England had lost Crawley. Nevertheless, England would have considered getting Pakistan all out on day one a good day’s work.
DAY TWO
England looked to be struggling at 145-5, when Ben Foakes joined Harry Brook, but a big stand between these two and some useful contributions from the rest of the order saw England to 354, a first innings advantage of 50. Pakistan were 21-0 by the close.
DAY THREE
This was the day the fate of the match was settled. Pakistan were 54-3 at one point, all three wickets to Leach to give him seven in the match. Then Babar Azam and Saud Shakeel shared a century stand. The key turning point came when Babar Azam smashed a slow long hop from Rehan Ahmed straight to Pope at midwicket. From then on the Pakistan middle and lower order imploded, a combination of poor shots from them and good work from England seeing a high water mark of 164-3 turn into 216 all out. Rehan Ahmed had 5-48 and Joe Root nabbed a wicket with his occasional off spin. Rehan Ahmed’s debut match figures of 7-137 were the best such by an England leg spinner since Charles ‘Father’ Marriott took 11-96 v West Indies at The Oval in 1933. Marriott, then 37 and a part time cricketer (he worked as a schoolmaster and turned out for Kent in the summer holidays) never played for England again, Ahmed should do so on many occasions. Leach’s seven wickets with his left arm spin were enough to make him the leading test wicket taker of 2022.
England needed 167 to win and there were 17 overs to be bowled that evening. Traditional test thinking would suggest a cautious approach and looking to get through without losing any wickets, but Crawley and Duckett set off at a merry pace. When Crawley was out Stokes made a typical Stokes move – the events of Pakistan’s second innings suggested that this was Rehan Ahmed’s day, so Stokes sent him in at number three. This divided opinion among those following the match – some, like me, thought it was superb, others grumbled about it being disrespectful to Pakistan. It had limited success, Ahmed making a rapid 10, but I think it was right nevertheless. In 1986 when John Bracewell scored his maiden test hundred against England, NZ skipper Jeremy Coney tossed him the ball that evening although it was earlier in the England innings than he would usually have deployed his off spinner, and was rewarded with a wicket – it was Bracewell’s day. Stokes then went in himself for the remainder of the evening. Stokes and Duckett played well together and England closed on 112-2, 55 short of victory. I thought, as I said in my post on Monday that this was far preferable to 40-0.
DAY FOUR
Stokes and Duckett never looked like doing anything other than knocking the runs off and the main focus of interest soon became whether Ben Stokes could hit his 108th career test match six, thereby breaking the record held by England head coach Brendon McCullum. The answer to that was no, and with McCullum’s native New Zealand being England’s next opponents the two are tied on 107 sixes in test cricket. England won by eight wickets, with among those not to bat in the innings being Root (thin series but still England’s finest), Brook (soon to collect both the Player of the Match and Player of the Series awards) and Pope. This time last year a rabble of an England test team were being obliterated in Australia, and if you had told me that 12 months on an England test side would be winning 3-0 away from home without Root scoring many runs I would have laughed outright.
PLAYER RATINGS
These my England player ratings in batting order:
Zak Crawley 4 – failed in the first innings, made a half decent score in the second.
Ben Duckett 8 – a comparative failure first up (26), but 82* in the final innings rounded out an excellent comeback series for him.
Ollie Pope 6.5 – a 50 in the only innings in which he batted, and although he was gifted it by a terrible shot from the batter his catch to dismiss Babar Azam and start the implosion of the Pakistan second innings was a good one.
Joe Root 5 – a duck in the only innings in which he batted, but three wickets for him across the two Pakistan innings count for something.
Harry Brook 9 – a superb century which pulled England out of some strife in the first innings. He had a superb series and should be part of the England test side for many years to come.
Ben Stokes 8.5 – a fairly quiet match for Stokes the player (26 and 35* with the bat, eight overs for 20 with the ball) though that second innings carried England to victory, but a fantastic match for Stokes the captain.
Ben Foakes 7.5 – a good and much needed 50 in the only innings in which he was needed to bat, and impeccable as ever behind the stumps.
Rehan Ahmed 8.5 – had a great time with the ball, and an entertaining one as “night hawk” in the final innings. His success bodes well for England’s future.
Ollie Robinson 6 – a useful contribution with the bat in England’s first innings, and didn’t do a lot wrong with the ball, though this was never a surface to suit him and his light workload reflects that fact.
Mark Wood 7 – an entertaining cameo with the bat, and on a surface that offered nothing to a fast bowler he gave it everything he had every time he was asked to bowl.
Jack Leach 7 – England’s work horse in this match – 57 overs across the two innings yielded him combined figures of 7-212 and his scalps included Abdullah Shafique (who had made a splendid start to his test career until this match) in both innings and Shan Masood and Azhar Ali (giving the latter a Bradman-like end to his career – bowled for a duck by an English spinner who batted at number 11) in the second – four of his seven scalps thus coming from the top three in the Pakistan order.
SERIES KEY MOMENTS
Day one – England score 500 in 75 overs. This set a template for attacking cricket, and indicated that England weren’t about to just settle for an all round boosting of batting averages on a flat pitch.
Day four – THAT declaration – Stokes sets Pakistan 343 in four sessions, albeit knowing that the light will be truncating the first and fourth of those sessions.
Day five – England keep pressing, and claim the final wicket with maybe 1.3 overs left before the light closed proceedings.
Second test day one – England attack on a turner. Many criticized England’s approach in the first innings of this match, but they managed 281 from 51.4 overs, and my own belief is that they would have made many fewer runs had they been obsessed with batting time. England went on to win, as a fourth innings target of over 350 proved too much for Pakistan.
Third test day one – England bowl Pakistan out in less than a day after the latter have chosen to bat.
Day two – England bounce back from 145-5 to claim a first innings lead of 50.
Day three – Rehan Ahmed takes five wickets as Pakistan slump from 164-3 to 216 all out, England knock off two thirds of their victory target in the 17 overs they have to face that evening.
Day four – Stokes and Duckett carry England to an eight wicket victory, Duckett making the winning hit, which means that England whose total tally of test match wins in Pakistan prior to this series totalled two had secured a 3-0 win in this series.
PHOTOGRAPHS
These pictures are split – I left the camera I took them with at work on Thursday, which was the peak of the freeze and retrieved it yesterday. To further increase the variation there are some night time pictures there…
A look at how it is that England stand on the threshold of a historic clean sweep of the test series in Pakistan, plus some photographs.
This post will be a fairly brief one, setting the scene for a more detailed one on Wednesday. The main subject is the match that is nearing its end in Karachi. No visiting men’s team has ever won every match of a three+ match test series in Pakistan, and as things stand England, already 2-0 up in the series are 55 runs away from victory with eight wickets standing (and three of those waiting to bat are Root, Pope and Brook, the latter two of whom have had outstanding series) in the final game. This match has featured three things until Stokes was appointed skipper have been in very short supply for the England men’s test team in recent years, and I tackle each in turn.
A WIN ORIENTED MINDSET
England have all too often approached test matches from a perspective of ‘must not lose’. Under Stokes that has very much become the correct ‘must win’ attitude. The first match of the current series, when Stokes boldly offered Pakistan a target of 342 in four sessions (albeit knowing that due to limited daylight both the first and fourth of said sessions would be of reduced length) exemplified this, as did the way England started their chase of 167 for victory in Karachi – rather than ‘make sure we don’t lose any wickets’ Stokes and England opted to see if they could win it before the end of the third day.
PUBLICLYBACKING PLAYERS
There have been two outstanding on-field examples of this in the current match: Harry Brook caused Stokes to be run out, and Stokes as he left the crease made a point of telling Brook not to worry about it. Brook duly scored a superb century. Today Rehan Ahmed took 5-48, a splendid performance (more on this and him in Wednesday’s post), especially for an 18 year old debutant, and when Crawley was first out Stokes decided that was Ahmed’s day and sent him in at number three to play the ‘night hawk’ role – an attacking version of the ‘night watch’ role. Ahmed only scored 10, but he hit two boundaries and helped maintain England’s momentum. Stokes himself went in at number four, but the light closed in. Nevertheless, so much of the task has already been accomplished that even if Pakistan start tomorrow sensationally it is hard to see England even getting nervous, never mind succumbing to those nerves – doing what England did is far preferable to a more conventional 40-0, and almost 130 still needed.
SPIN BOWLING
English pitches these days do not often favour spinners with the result that England have struggled in that department in recent times. Jack Leach took his 100th test wicket during this series, and in the period in which I have been an active cricket fan (mid 1980s to present) only one England spinner has taken over 100 test wickets at a better average than Leach – Graeme Swann (Derek Underwood played some of his career during my lifetime, but benefitted from uncovered pitches for much of his career – on a rain affected pitch, or at the other extreme, a dustbowl, he was truly ‘Deadly’, but on ordinary surfaces he was merely very accurate, and I don’t think he would take his wickets at much if anything below 30 each these days). In this match Leach and debutant Rehan Ahmed each claimed seven wickets, and even Joe Root had some success with the ball. This is important – many of those talking about England’s approach under Stokes are understandably dazzled by the incredible batting, but to win a match you generally need to take 20 wickets, and one reason England are poised for ninth win in ten test matches is that they have taken all ten of their opponents wickets in each of the last 19 innings in which they have bowled.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Before my regular photos I have two others that have appeared in previous posts to share for a special reason: Karachi is regarded as something of a fortress for Pakistan, and England are 55 runs away from taking it by storm, so which of the two photographs below do you think is more apt for the circumstances:
Please comment with your answer.
Now for my usual sign off…
My last auction purchase of 2022 (eight images total)Installed in the Cabinet of Curiosities next to another piece of railway themed silver.Local pond at the peak of the recent cold snap (two pics)At the Autistic Group at King’s Lynn library, where I enjoy the lego (two pics)The next five pics show the same pond that was frozen solid as it is today in less vicious temperatures.
A look at England’s win in Multan, sealed earlier today.
This post looks at events in Multan and sets them in context. I have already covered the first two days play here, so this post takes up the story on day three.
DAY THREE
England extended their lead of 281 to 354, Brook completing a century to continue the highly impressive start he has made in test cricket. The last five wickets fell in a bit of a heap, but England had a substantial total to defend by then.
With Imam-ul-Haq initially unable to bat Mohammad Rizwan opened with Abdullah Shafique. These two both fell cheaply, and Babar Azam was also out with Pakistan massively adrift, but at that point Imam-ul-Haq joined Saud Shakeel, and they had a good partnership. Just before the end of the day Leach got Imam-ul-Haque for 60, and by the close Pakistan were 198-5, still needing 157 to win.
DAY FOUR
Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Nawaz got Pakistan to within 70 of the target, but Wood got both in a fiery spell just before the lunch interval, albeit the Shakeel dismissal was a rough one. Agha Salman and Abrar Ahmed resisted for a time immediately after the interval, but Anderson got Abrar Ahmed, and moments later Zahid Mahmood became Wood’s fourth victim. That left the last pair needing 36 runs to win, and they managed nine of them before number 11, Mohammad Ali edged Robinson to Pope to end that match. England were home by 26 runs. Many, including me, would have given debutant Abrar Ahmed the Player of the Match award for his 11 wickets and entertaining batting in both innings, and had been forced to name an England player for the honour I would have gone with Ben Duckett who played two superb innings, but landmark obsession carried the day, and Brook got it for his second innings hundred.
CONTEXT AND LOOKING AHEAD
This win was England’s eighth in nine test matches since Ben Stokes was appointed full time skipper. It also meant that in the space of a week they had doubled their all time tally of wins in Pakistan from two (in 1962 and 2000) to four. Pakistan are the fourth team England have won against (out of four they have played tests against) under Stokes – they came here off the back of home series wins over New Zealand and South Africa and a win in a one-off home test against India. England’s last win in Pakistan before this visit came at Karachi in 2000, and the third and final match of this series is in Karachi.
Jack Leach took his 100th test wicket during this match, and only one England spinner in my time following the game has taken that many wickets at a better average than him, Graeme Swann.
I would personally like to see Rehan Ahmed make his debut in the third test match, possibly in place of Will Jacks – with the series already won England can definitely allow themselves a look at Ahmed.
PHOTOGRAPHS
As this little gallery makes abundantly clear, Norfolk remains literally frozen…
A quick look at England’s selections for the first test in Pakistan, due to start early tomorrow morning UK time.
Yesterday I concluded my alphabetical all time XIs project. Tomorrow morning should be seeing the start of England’s first test series in Pakistan in a good many years, and England have named their XI. However an illness is sweeping the England camp and they are in negotiations to delay the start of the match. Before I look at the rights and (mostly) wrongs of this England XI I will say as an English person that England should get no special treatment – if they are not out in the middle and ready to play at the appointed hour the game should be awarded to Pakistan as per the laws of cricket.
THE ENGLAND XI
This is the XI England have named:
Overall I cannot say that I am impressed by this selection. Crawley has no business being in a test side and clearly only retains his place because his father is a golfing buddy of one of the top people in English cricket. Duckett to replace Lees is a reasonable call, though I consider Lees less in need of being replaced than Crawley. Pope, Root, Brook, Stokes and Foakes are all pretty automatic, with Bairstow injured. It is numbers eight to 11 that especially concern me: Livingstone is mainly a batter, with bowling very much his second string, and plays little red ball cricket these days, Robinson has had injury problems and while few could argue with Leach and even fewer with Anderson, the bowling looks to be lacking in both depth and variety, with the seam/ pace element limited to the new ball pair and Stokes, and Leach the only front line spin option, with Root and Livingstone by way of support. Pakistan pitches are usually flat and I cannot see this bowling “attack” taking 20 wickets on a flat track. Frankly this XI has all the appearance of one that has been selected to not lose, rather than selected to win, with extreme emphasis on batting depth and a skeleton bowling unit. Potts should be in there to support Robinson and Anderson, and if a batter who bowls spin is a must, then Brooks should miss out, with Stokes and Foakes each moving up one place and one of Rehan Ahmed or Will Jacks debuting at number seven (NOT Livingstone).
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off….
The flesh of this leaf has been almost entirely eaten away, leaving the vein structure perfectly exposed.
aspiblog 