After the Ashes debacle, England opted for a ‘reset’ of their Test setup, and it started with the axing of their two greatest fast bowlers because of the failures of their batters to put up sufficient runs. England have been poor in Tests in recent times, and their new-look team wasn’t carrying high hopes of undoing everything that went wrong.
On the first day of the first Test against West Indies, the same old England captain, Joe Root, elected to bowl first at Antigua, a ground where batting first hasn’t been a good choice in recent years. Debutant Alex Lees couldn’t last 15 minutes, and England were in the familiar territory of 57/4 at Lunch on Day 1.
After a lot of scrutiny of England players who end up playing in IPL, it was Jonny Bairstow who rescued England’s innings with his magnificent hundred that helped England put a decent first innings score of 311. Incidentally, Bairstow is the only player from England’s top seven to have an IPL contract.
Bairstow might not have expected to make a comeback in Test cricket after his poor show against India last year, both home and away. But a recall in Australia was welcomed by a scintillating century, and Bairstow carried that confidence into the Caribbean islands, first by scoring a century in the warm-up match and then a rescue act of 140 off 259 balls.
Often batters who are in good form are found wanting to get a feel of the ball more than the others. Bairstow’s inning was no different. According to data from CricViz, Bairstow only left 16% of his balls against the West Indian quicks.
Bairstow is a strong leg-side player. It helped his cause that the West Indian bowlers bowled to his strength, especially Kemar Roach. According to CricViz, 40% of Roach’s balls to Bairstow swung into the right-hander. Bairstow made it count, and as a result, 82% of his runs off Roach came on the leg side.
After the batters helped England put up a respectable total on board, all eyes were on their bowling attack. In absence of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, Chris Woakes and Craig Overton opened the bowling. Their performance would have surely been unsettling for Anderson and Broad, who would have scratched their heads looking at the lack of discipline from the English bowlers.
In their first 10 overs before the Lunch break, England conceded 44 runs without even looking like taking a wicket. Woakes went at 7.6 RPO before being taken off. The pacers looked so out of sorts that Root had no option but to summon the services of Jack Leach in the ninth over of the innings.
The reason behind West Indies creating wicket-taking opportunities and succeeding in getting them was that they kept the new ball a lot fuller than England. Despite Seales not being consistent in his line, which was too far away from the stumps for a new ball, he still kept it a fuller length, generating more swing. England were guilty of keeping the ball on short of good length and also straying onto the pads of the batters.
England were so wayward and inconsistent in their lines that Kraigg Brathwaite, who has a career strike rate of 40.34, scored his fastest Test fifty, eventually falling for 55 off 70 balls, which even included a six.
According to CricViz’s ‘Expected Wickets’ model, the 10-over opening spell from England was their third least threatening spell in the last 10 years. On the contrary, when England last toured West Indies in the 2018/19 season, the first time Anderson and Broad bowled together, they conceded just 19 runs in their opening bowling partnership of 12 overs.
England’s ‘reset’ is a classic case of trying to fix something that isn’t broken. With West Indies already getting a lead in the first innings, things could quickly go downhill for England, considering they lack the experience to fall back on. The responsibility will once again lie on the shoulders of Root and his deputy, Ben Stokes, to bail England out of trouble.