Cricket seems infected with the phrase, ‘brand of cricket’ right now and it’s a detestable trend. Whatever it means, there seems to be value to it in the way we talk about England as a cricket team at this time. The Australians decimated the head-down and work through it approach of Flower and Gooch and now we were all hoping for a breath of fresh air from Moores. It hasn’t started well, failure to seal the first test and getting so close in the second with Sri Lanka show the fine margins that England lost and the skipper still can’t get a run.
All the changes from the winter and the run rate in the first test may have provided a bit of optimism and a risk of attacking cricket from the England side. Packed with pace and quick run-scoring; I suppose they do say if you can’t beat them, join them. Plunkett picked up a five-for, whilst Jordan bowled impressively despite failing to pick up wickets. The most concerning of all really will be Stuart Broad and James Anderson’s inefficiency with the new ball on a pitch that was making Angelo Mathews look like Malcolm Marshall. We saw two of the best seam bowlers around bowling wide and letting boring Karunaratne and Silva leaving the ball all too often.
Plunkett’s joining of the attack at least allowed for a barrage of brutal short stuff (or short ball theory as Strauss loves to call it) but, as a batsman, this would give me a feeling of confidence. Why, I hear you ask, well, when the ball is still new and they’re none down doesn’t it suggest a lack of ideas? It did work and remains an effective method, but to go to that when you have a new-ball pair like those two seems a tad like accepting defeat. Brand of cricket – or whatever we are calling it now – at least is seeing a change and a nice approach to accept that no spinner is of the quality so why make room for one. The balance of the side seems right, it fits with what is going on and the pitches England should be looking to prepare for India with a nasty bit of chin music on its way. The fast bowling attack doesn’t allow for rest bite for the batsman and this could even see Ben Stokes added, if the self-injured Durham man is brought in as a batsman.
The batting display from the top three may have seen two hundreds for Ballance and Robson, yet still had a waft of the winter about it. Cook out to a dodgy shot and then some very slow and restricted play from the other two, the area England seem to be lacking behind the rest of the test nations is in the speed of their top order. Root’s inability to change the pace in his innings seems more to do with mentality than a lack of shots, whilst Ian Bell’s fine form has continued and is a pleasant relief to see his delightful cover drive after a hard morning of Robson and Cook nurdling singles. The batting of Moeen Ali showed a dimension many weren’t sure he had in the near-heroic final day at Headingley, that the media may need to made aware he is a batsman first and he and Joe Root taking up the spin bowling mantle need to be give more overs.
Where next for England? Aggressive cricket would be nice to see and for people to take the game to India’s spinners. Stokes is a man with a long future in test cricket and a space for him has to crop up sooner or later, a lot of pressure onto Cook to recreate his form in the previous two series with the Indians. Another 294 please Cookie. Take the game to India, it would be good to see a man like Warner in the top three, but that may be just a step too far.
England will most likely settle for the same eleven from the last test series. Ballance would be the player I see least likely to have a long term future and would like Stokes in for him in the not too distant future to add to a lethal fast bowling unit, lets blow sides away.