'Dropping struggling Dawson now would be counter-intuitive'
Wednesday 26 July 2017 20:52, UK
England must adopt a more cerebral, Alastair Cook-like approach as they plot victory over South Africa in the Oval’s 100th Test, says Mike Selvey.
The Oval had just seen its 62nd Test when Sir Ranulph Fiennes embarked on a north-south circumnavigation of the globe in the course of which it took a shade under fourteen months to journey between the south and north poles. What kept him? Already in this four-match series England and South Africa have travelled between two polar extremes of performance without the frostbite and with a rapidity that makes the great British adventurer look a laggard.
At Lord's, shambolic South Africa were soundly beaten by upbeat England: at Trent Bridge came a reversal of such staggering proportions that the only wish for the Oval's 100th Test this week is that the teams might calm down and reach a mutual state of equilibrium, without getting stuck in the equatorial doldrums.
Of the two teams though, it is the Lord's performance of South Africa that was the more aberrant. Since last the sides met in a series, that which England won in South Africa the winter before last, England have played 16 Tests, winning six only and losing eight, with the Lord's win the only one in the last eight matches against six losses. By contrast, South Africa have played 13 matches over the same period, losing only a controversial pink ball Test in Adelaide aside from the Lord's defeat, with eight wins.
For all their white-ball progress, the only consistency England have managed in Test cricket during Trevor Bayliss' time as coach has been their inconsistency. Despite an extra week for England to lick wounds and regroup, it is still South Africa who are entitled to claim more momentum now. They will field a changed team but only to strengthen it with the return of Kagiso Rabada following his one-match suspension.
England too will field a new cap, or indeed perhaps several. There has to be a reason why a team that contains a nucleus of talented achievers, some of the finest England have ever possessed, can produce such erratic performances and it stems perhaps from what amounts to a mission statement of intent as to the 'brand' of cricket that the coach and captain would like them to play. In essence, this has translated as a positive mindset, which, to judge by events, has produced D'Artagnans of the willow prepared to lose in pursuit of a win.
This might be admirable in principle but a personal preference would be to try and win while mindful how not to lose in the process should the situation arise. The realisation that Test match cricket is still scheduled over five days, and that there is as much of an art to crease occupation as there is to run-a-ball hundreds, would be a good place to start the education process, as two of the best modern exponents, Alastair Cook and Faf du Plessis might testify.
It is possible to be positive in defence, but a batsman doesn't see out time by, for example, trying to hit a spinner over the top, as Jonny Bairstow tried to do and failed during the Nottingham debacle. Once South Africa had taken an important first innings lead, rather than go headlong, it was primarily the calm second innings diligence of Hashim Amla and Dean Elgar that set the standard for how the match needed to be played.
It is a natural thing for a leader to set the agenda and for the team to take its cue from that, but maybe the England team are trying too hard to please the new gaffer. In fact, Root, as captain, has problems now, for the euphoria of his first match was transformed into a furrowed brow in the second. Question marks were raised over team selection for the first Test in any case, none of which have been answered positively, and even more raised after the second.
Fortunately for the selectors, if not for the player, the broken finger sustained when a ball from Morne Morkel jammed Gary Ballance's finger against his bat handle meant that they dodged a decision on his immediate international future. It was clear to many, however, as it was before the series began, that for all his tenacity, Ballance's idiosyncratic technique is insufficient to cope with clued-up high-quality Test match bowling, although the whispers were of a reluctance, bordering on stubbornness, to drop him.
Now, in his absence, it is Tom Westley who is handed the number three position, that which always seems to be the poisoned chalice when it comes to England teams. It is generally accepted that a batsman should aspire to bat there, the position achieved as a rite of passage through performance further down the order and gradual progress up: it may well be that three is where Root should bat, as he did last year, and where his rivals at the top of the batting tree such as Steve Smith, Kane Williamson, and Amla all bat now. The argument against tends to centre on English pitches and the protection from the new Duke ball of the best player, although a counter argument could be that who better than the best player to cope with it.
Westley, from Essex, no doubt has the endorsement of Cook and Graham Gooch, as well as his early mentor Keith Fletcher and Graeme Fowler, his coach at Durham University, and has navigated successfully through the accepted pathway of county, and Lions, with an unbeaten century against Morkel, Rabada and Chris Morris in his last first-class innings almost a month ago.
It is said he is not short of confidence, which is good if channelled in the right direction, and that he has a strong leg-side game. The latter is also an excellent quality to have, providing it comes from a straight bat and turn of the wrist rather than the right shoulder coming round and the bottom hand shovelling in, as in an early version of Bairstow. Ballance's misfortune meanwhile might cause him to reflect on WC Field's comment that you never give a sucker an even break.
There is an option for England to bolster the batting with the inclusion of a second new cap in the combative Middlesex left hander Dawid Malan in place of Liam Dawson, which would mean a readjustment of the order, perhaps even with Bairstow dropping to seven and Moeen Ali to eight. Dawson has been in the team ostensibly to do a holding role, but as he has the worst economy rate of all the England bowlers and cannot buy a run this is not going as well as might be expected.
But unless the recent damp weather has impacted on the pitch, omitting him now would seem counter-intuitive given that the Oval is a ground where some variety is needed in the attack beyond seamers, particularly if they are all of an ilk. And here we come to the conundrum that is Mark Wood. Is he fit or not? If so, then why is he bowling at 85 mph? If not, then why did he play the last match? A single wicket for 197 runs in the two matches are not the figures of a so-called impact bowler. If he cannot bowl fast, he should not play. Toby Roland-Jones must be pushing hard for a place although Middlesex are expecting him and Malan back forthwith.
Watch the third Test between England and South Africa - brought to you in association with Sky Ocean Rescue - live on Sky Sports Cricket from 10am on Thursday.
