'There must be a case for Dawid Malan to move up the order'
Thursday 30 November 2017 14:40, UK
West Indies produced one of the most stunning turnarounds in cricketing history to level their series with England at Headingley - but Mike Selvey expects the hosts to win at Lord's, possibly with a leg-spinner in their ranks…
It's all to play for at Lord's, then, with the destiny of the Wisden Trophy on the line at a time where England might have been expecting a series done and dusted and a chance for some Ashes fine-tuning: after the West Indies' debacle at Edgbaston, who, unless they wanted their sanity questioning, would have predicted that?
As fickle as sport can be, it is hard to overstate the enormity of the achievement of Jason Holder's side in producing such an astonishing change in fortune in the course of a week. West Indies' bowling was sharp and largely disciplined, the batting generally outstanding, and the fielding alert (aside from the indifferent catching, an affliction that affected both sides, and about more of which later).
The captain himself transformed his own game to play a proper leader's role with the exception of some mysterious lack of faith in the wrist spin of Devendra Bishoo. To place it all in context, though, perhaps we can have a history lesson for in three decades of covering international cricket, this correspondent can recall only one match that even comes close to matching it.
In March 1994, England's tour of West Indies was unravelling, as they generally did in that golden era of Caribbean cricket. The first Test in Jamaica had been lost by an eight-wicket margin and in Guyana, the second defeat had come by an innings. So when Mike Atherton's team took a 76-run first innings lead in Trinidad and then left themselves only 194 to chase for a restorative win, there was considerable optimism that a corner had been turned.
Instead by the close of the fourth day, the scoreboard read 40-8 (causing press-box mayhem as journalists frantically rewrote their upbeat tea-time first edition stuff for later editions). The next morning it was all over. 46 all out, England had lost the Test by 147 runs and with it the series.
From the high point of optimism then to one of England cricket's lowest ebbs in the space of a few devastating overs from Curtly Ambrose. It was another false dawn and England cricket has been full of those down the years. A week later, in Grenada now, in preparation for the fourth Test in Bridgetown, the team was humiliated once more, losing by eight wickets to a West Indies Board XI that included Ottis Gibson, England's bowling coach now, and whose last match with the team this will be before he heads to South Africa as their new head coach.
On Barbados, we drank our Banks beer, watched the sun set over the sea and ruminated dolefully on further humiliation to come. Instead, incredibly, Atherton and Alec Stewart added 171 for the first wicket of the game, Stewart went on to become the first England batsman to make a century in each innings against West Indies, Angus Fraser took eight first innings wickets and Andy Caddick five in the second, and remarkably England won the match by 208 runs.
That West Indies side had some great players - Haynes, Richardson, Lara, Chanderpaul, Ambrose and Walsh - but here the comparison ends, for with Atherton, Stewart, Robin Smith, Fraser, Caddick, and not to mention two, Mark Ramprakash and Graeme Hick, who would finish first-class careers with around 250 first-class centuries between them, England was not short on international pedigree.
That then is a background against which to set the West Indies win at Headingley. Whatever the state of the pitch, few would have seen a circumstance where a batting side of inherent talent but little obvious international achievement chased a considerable fourth-innings target not just successfully - their third highest such run chase - but with such maturity.
Shai Hope, the centurion in each innings, and Kraigg Brathwaite, who came within five second-innings runs of matching the feat, were stunningly good, both technically and mentally and the rest of the team fed from that. It will stand them all in good stead now.
Now though comes the final challenge. Can West Indies, for all the Leeds resurgence, maintain the level of competitiveness, or will England, so inconsistent this past year or so but possessing a demonstrably stronger team, raise their game once more and take the series?
History doesn't tell us much on this score, for in the final Test of that 1994 series, in Antigua, on a heart-breakingly flat pitch, the sides batted each other into oblivion, with big hundreds from Atherton and Smith, and Brian Lara's mammoth 375 breaking the world individual Test batting record.
There appears to be a new age of enlightenment at Lord's these days that precludes the 'chief executive's belters' of recent years, so bowlers tend to get more of a chance: unless the weather intervenes seriously there ought to be a result to settle the series.
Conditions will give Trevor Bayliss and Joe Root food for thought for the inherent problems that have dogged the side since the start of the summer have yet to be fully resolved, although in his second match, Mark Stoneman shaped better than the dozen or so who have preceded him as Alastair Cook's opening partner and seems to be of sound temperament, while Dawid Malan is making a solid if not yet definitive case for inclusion.
Whether Tom Westley gets one final chance remains to be seen. Only England's 'fair go' policy sees him retained in the squad for the final game for he has appeared increasingly confused and flustered at the crease. Add to this an apparent sense of imperative for them to get the leg-spinner Mason Crane into the side as an Ashes precursor and it may be that his last chance has already gone.
There must be a case for Malan to move up the order, either to three (although a trio of left handers at the top is not ideal) or to four with Root going in first wicket down. In this case, everyone moves up one place to accommodate Crane.
Should England instead opt for the same balance, there is a chance that Toby Roland-Jones could replace Chris Woakes and play on his home ground. Woakes was definitely still down on pace at Headingley and the idea that a few overs at Lord's would of themselves see him in good stead at the Gabba in a little under three months' time is stretching things. If he is fully fit and firing he should play now for he is an integral part of the England attack: if not, and his pace is still down, then a deciding Test match is no place to try and bowl your way back to fitness any more than was Headingley.
Now to the catching which overall, on both sides, left a lot to be desired, and was dispiriting to the bowlers. One common element struck, though, and that was the way in which head to shoulder height slip catches were parried away as if rocket-propelled. It begged the question as to whether there was an issue with fielders sighting the ball at that angle and height, something that does occasionally happen for no discernible reason: a slight camouflaging background.
An enquiry to someone intimately involved revealed that there was sometimes a split-second delay in picking up a sight of the ball. "You would, of course, say that," was a natural response, but the reassurance was genuine and a sound reason rather than an excuse.
Lord's, however, is generally good in this regard. The perspiring bowlers on both sides will be hoping so. England to win, by the way, with Jimmy Anderson to take his 500th Test wicket in the first innings. Just remember where you heard it first.
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