Ben Stokes almost said it, but actually didn’t. England’s new Test skipper after winning the toss chose to bowl first against India at overcast Edgbaston. “We’re gonna have a bowl. We’ve done well chasing and it’s also to see how the wicket will behave” – these were the actual words of Stokes on Day 1 of the rescheduled game against India, coming off a 3-0 victory against New Zealand.
It was quite a turnaround for a Test team, which didn’t win a single game in the last nine matches before the start of this home summer. And, a month later, a captain is almost opting to chase in a game where till the time that actually comes, three innings, fatigued bodies, change in the nature of the surface and many such uncertainties preside
England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) after the Ashes drubbing and the shock against West Indies were sure about at least one thing, that the old approach wasn’t going to take them anywhere. The coach resigned, the batting coach resigned, the director of cricket moved on and the buck had to stop with the captain, hence Joe Root resigned as well. Root the batter was working, rather flourishing, but the captain wasn’t.
It all started with Rob Key’s appointment as the MD of the England men’s cricket. Stokes came in as the new leader, and while raising several eyebrows, Brendon McCullum came in as a coach, just for the Tests, obviously. Stokes was a leader, who developed under Eoin Morgan; McCullum’s New Zealand was the most entertaining and audacious Black Caps outfit one has ever seen. Morgan and McCullum have worked together professionally and there’s mutual respect as well. Thus, there was an expectation of how the new England team was going to play but apprehensions existed as to if they will pull that off because it was red-ball cricket that we are talking about.
Often, aggression and fearlessness are associated with batting because it’s more expressive and out there. Thus, it was interesting to see how it was going to pan out in English conditions first up, which are considered ‘one of the toughest’ for batters. Apart from maybe Lord’s, England didn’t find it difficult to chase down totals. Trent Bridge was as flat as it could get and Headingley is traditionally known to get better to bat on, as did Edgbaston.
Of the three games against New Zealand, England won the toss in just one but bowled first in each of those, thus getting what they wanted. What they did at Trent Bridge, chasing a target at 5.98 on the last day of the Test match with 299 runs to get was outrageous, to say the least. It took me a while to believe it. But this is what this England team does, believes.
The execution
And at Edgbaston against India, probably a much pacier attack, well-rounded pace battery, they went one step ahead and chased down 378 runs at 4.9. Yes, it was entertaining for the home crowd, but for the purists, there was a dual reaction. Some are still intrigued as to how they are able to pull it off so consistently and so easily ‘with a cigar in their mouth’ as Michael Vaughan said while some still believe that this is not Test cricket, that the grind, the mental toughness is missing, which is also to do something with the nature of the surfaces.
During these last 5 weeks, a lot has been said by McCullum and Stokes and here’s what’s interesting. Ahead of the Headingley Test against New Zealand, McCullum said on SENZ Radio that he wants to make Test cricket ‘sexy’ that people enjoy and want to watch it. McCullum said that Test cricket has been here for 100 years but the ones consuming it are not. The times have changed, the society has changed, attention spans have reduced and people want things quicker, which have instant results and hence this ‘attractive brand of cricket’.
Sexier Test cricket and the rewriting of the format
On why England, McCullum said, “For that to happen, I genuinely believe England, with the history of the game here and also the support base that it has throughout this country as well and where it also sits at the table of big players in international cricket, if England is strong, then Test cricket has got a real chance of thriving and being successful.”
The times have changed. Test cricket was always about the bowlers and the 20 wickets. Captains still believe it’s the bowlers who win you Test matches, even if the batters put up a mammoth total, it’s the bowlers, who have to take those 10 wickets to restrict the opposition. However, England are changing that.
‘No one will be braver than us’
Stokes said after the Edgbaston Test mentioned that the third innings is almost becoming the fourth as the teams would concentrate on how England would play in the innings to follow rather than focus on how much they would like to have. Stokes said that it is a nice position that they are in, to be feared as they are ‘trying to rewrite how Test cricket is played’.
