I was tired yesterday evening. So tired, in fact, that I accidentally shut my eyes at 9pm and woke up an hour later just before play had begun. I was still drowsy and half-asleep when I looked at the composition of England’s side and assumed – wrongly it turned out – that I was still dreaming.
But it wasn’t a dream. It was more like a nightmare. Five seamers? FIVE effin’ seamers?
I suppose we should’ve guessed that England would be this stupid. I speculated as much on this very blog yesterday. However, part of me never really thought they’d go through with it. I mean, Joe Root can’t be that daft can he?
And what about Chris Silverwood and the other coaches, Graham Thorpe and Paul Collingwood? I know the head coach has a lot on his mind at the moment (and we send him our sincere condolences after his family bereavement) but surely there’s enough knowledge and experience in that dressing room not to make such a boneheaded decision?
I was wrong. When it comes to English cricket never underestimate the predictability of incompetence. As Mark Butcher said powerfully on Sky’s coverage, picking five seamers is completely braindead. 5 seamers can rarely do what 4 can’t. What’s more, if you think the pitch is going to seam around that much, then you’ll knock the opposition over for a small score and the 5th paceman won’t even be required.
I really worry when England’s management team do things like this. It makes me lose confidence in them. Yes some of the locals argued that Hamilton rarely spins, but that didn’t stop the home side from including Mitchell Santner. Hmmmm.
Although this surface has plenty of grass it’s also supposed to be rather dry underneath. What are the odds on Santner spinning New Zealand to victory in the 4th innings as the ball starts to grip?!
I also feel desperately sorry for Jack Leach. It sends completely the wrong message to drop a young spinner after one poor game. Thus far Leach has been excellent in his Test career. He averages 29 (which is excellent) and he’s consistently done well in the last innings of the game. Here are his 4th innings figures for England so far: 2/61, 3/60, 5/83, 4/72, 3/37, 4/49.
Although some will argue that the injury to Ben Stokes (who pulled up lame with a sore knee after two overs) justifies the selection of 5 seamers, injuries can happen at any time to anyone. Post-rationalising bad decisions with the benefit of hindsight isn’t logical.
What’s more, if you’re suddenly reliant on a 4 man attack rather than a 5 man attack, it makes even more sense for one of your 4 to be spinner. After all, spinners can do a holding job and bowl more overs while the seamers are rotated from the other end. It’s a recipe that worked brilliantly for Andrew Strauss’s team when we briefly became world No.1. It had also worked very nicely for Australia over the years.
Sadly, having won the toss on a pitch that did a bit, England’s all-seam attack then proceeded to blow their big opportunity. It’s not quite panic stations yet but the Kiwis will be very happy with 173-3. We’ll need a host of early wickets tomorrow to stay in the game.
Tom Latham was obviously the fly in our beer. He batted extremely well and showed exactly why he averages an impressive 44 in Test cricket. He’s compact, organised, and patient. Ross Taylor also did well in conditions that generally favoured ball not bat.
As for our bowlers, Chris Woakes (who operated as the 3rd seamer not the 5th) was possibly the pick of the attack. The others tried hard but didn’t cause too many problems.
Jofra Archer remains a bit of a worry. After Joe Root questioned his effort at Mount Maunganui, one might have expected him to run in hard and bowl a hostile opening spell. Nope! His first over barely touched 135kph.
Was he simply stiff after bowling so many (too many) overs in the first Test or was he sending the captain a not so subtle message?
Talking of Joe Root, it’s clear that the skipper was again the big loser yesterday. He was obviously complicit in England’s team selection, probably got his call at the toss wrong, and one has to question his man management skills after dropping Leach and causing potential disharmony with his best fast bowler.
I feel very uncomfortable with all this. Joe is one of my favourite cricketers, I love his batting, but it’s hard not to stick the boot in when he’s scoring so few runs and making so many errors as captain. I pray he can turn things around.
Before I sign off I should quickly mention Ollie Pope’s performance behind the stumps. I think he equipped himself quite well for an emergency keeper. I just hope he can come through this experience unscathed.
James Morgan
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Daft piece of selection. As you know from my comment here yesterday and later post on my own blog (aspi.blog/2019/11/28/my-england-line-up-for-the-second-test/) I felt that England should have used the injury to Buttler to maximize their bowling resources, both in depth and variety, instead of which they selected an attack whose only variations are Curran’s left arm and Archer’s extra pace. The fact that Stokes will probably not bowl again in the match further reduces the scope of this England bowling “attack”. I reckon that only the dodgy weather can save England from going down 0-2. Of course there is no pressure on New Zealand to create a result should time get tight, whereas there is such pressure on England, Of course losing Stokes the bowler is unfortunate for England, but some misfortunes can be considered deserved.
Gee whizz, I’m having a problem keeping my blood pressure in check. Boris Johnson’s arrogant patronising father on the box, the 2020 fixture list and now this team selection. It beggers belief. Wake me up when it’s over.
You may have a Rumplestiltskin length sleep ahead of you if you’re waiting for the end of Boris Johnson and the England selectors being stupid!
England’s bowling attack is worse than their batting line up – we saw that down under
If the commentators and ex players are questioning this selection I can only assume that it’s something we’re not aware of that’s producing it. People like Collingwood and Thorpe are not idiots.
There have been suspicions over Stokes bowling fitness for some time and Root is clearly not happy with Archer’s effectiveness as a strike bowler. Good to see Woakes back in the mix though.
As to Leach’s demotion, without his batting exploits would we be discussing this. To me he has never looked more than a decent county spinner since he arrived on the test scene. It’s only the fact that he’s left arm and adds variety that makes his inclusion understandable to me. He’s rarely looked like capitalising on favourable conditions, even against tail Enders. Santner exposes his limitations for all to see.
If Archer is trying to send Root “a message”, he should bowl fast and straight. Perhaps he’s not as good as all the hype suggests. If this continues I see him going white ball only very quickly. Leach is the best spinner we have available which doesn’t say a lot, but why is he not playing? This bowling “attack” is becoming as bad as our recent top order (I’m giving the new boys a chance to shine for a bit). Crawley at 6, Pope at 7, they never bat for their counties in those positions. Playing a man that’s injured, Broad bloody awful. The only plus here, if indeed it is one, is that Pope did a better job than Butler, which isn’t difficult really. Otherwise as you all say a dog’s dinner of a side.
Hopefuly Tom Latham will now get a bit of acknowledgement in England for how good a cricketer he is. He’s turned himself into a white-ball biffer/keeper while keeping his red-ball technique together.
Talking of left-handed openers, Warner flays Pakistan and gets labelled a home-track bully. HIs home average is obviously much better – but he does average 60+ in SA and Bangladesh and near as dammit in UAE. His problems overseas are mostly In England and India (no century in either in 21 Tests and average in the mid 20s). BTW, Pakistan’s serial shiteness in Australia has been rewarded with a two Test series for the first time since 1978/79. This might almost be mistaken for meritocracy if England weren’t regularly nearly as dreadful in Australia and yet everyone fawns over the Ashes. Instead, it’s just another small marker of Test cricket being edged towards the knackers’ yard.
Incidentally, the team selection is a nonsense – but Williamson did say he would have done the same as Root if he’d won the toss. The weather forecast isn’t great for Days 3 and 5 so let’s hope those turn out to be wrong.
“He’s turned himself into a white-ball biffer/keeper while keeping his red-ball technique together”.
Interesting. We seem to be told a lot that this is simply impossible in technical terms if you come from England. Is it only possible in the southern hemisphere, would you say?!
It’s not all about technique though is it. It’s the difference in mentality that is required. Latham, Williamson Etc are able to change their mental approach.. players like stokes, buttler, Bairstow Etc arent snd so get caught paying white ball shots frequently.. hence their crap,avgs
The wheels are coming off. It’s approaching 1990s levels of amateurishness. Archer’s going to be wrecked in record time. Broad should be captain for the start of the South Africa series, but also be man enough to stand down if his performances drop off and he’s not commanding a place in the side if Anderson or Wood are fit and raring to go. Stokes could then take over for a game or two, offering the selectors an opportunity to see how he performs in the role. The whole situation could then be evaluated after the winter tours and decisions made for next summer re captaincy and selection.
Selectors wrong. Root a poor captain. Go without saying.
I once had to go to Lanzarote for work. Being December and never having been before (or since) I asked my (semi retired) colleague who has his own apartment on the island and spends a lot of time there whether I would need a jumper. No he said. It won’t be that cold!
He was out there for a couple of weeks and I was only there for three days in the middle. I arrived at the airport, and stood there waiting for him to pick me up shivering in the cold.
Sure enough he arrived after ten, probably, fifteen minutes wearing a thick jumper
Always have a jumper just in case.
And a spinner. The locals certainly do.
Here I go again – Archer is overrated. 1-137 in NZ so far………….
Sadly for England, Root is there to stay for the rest of the series, for two reasons – 1. Root is stubborn and his ego will not let him step aside mid series, 2. the selectors will look completely useless if they “push” him aside and give the reins to someone else mid series.
So two shite scenarios to deal with in NZ, it won’t end well………….
I don’t think overrated is the right word. Anyone capable of bowling the spell he bowled at Steve Smith at Lord’s is an exceptional bowler. What he hasn’t yet done is develop the skills and variations to get wickets on different surfaces. Raw pace simply isn’t always enough against the world’s best batsmen if the wicket’s unhelpful. This isn’t a criticism or remotely surprising; it takes years for virtually every bowler in history. The infuriating thing is the way Root is using him, effectively as a stock bowler. He should be being nurtured, given shorter spells and bowling considerably fewer overs overall. He’s going to get demoralised, injured and burned out, the signs of which we’re already seeing just 6 months into his Test career.
Wonder if Archer is having second thoughts about the country he chose to play for. He could be part of an attack of Gabriel, Archer, Roach, Holder and Cornwall under a smarter captain than Root. Fair old attack that. OK the money’s not as good but he’ll earn a fortune in franchise cricket anyway
With all the hype, 1-137 isn’t superstar material. Yes, a good spell, hit him a few times and hurt him, but Smith still scored 92 and Archer still couldn’t get him out. The noise from the media was deafening. Before the 4th test, Archer was interviewed (badly advised by the way) and said how he was going to go after Smith again because Smith feared him due to hitting and hurting him. The media (more so the English media) went into a frenzy claiming “the future has arrived”, “this is what England have needed, a genuine quick bowler”, “he’s a smart bowler with his variations” etc etc. Smith clearly was so scared (!), said “he has never got me out”, and went off and scored 200. This isn’t a Smith v Archer debate, it’s Archer getting the accolades of a veteran after only 6 tests. This tour is finding him out. The Archer media frenzy has now become “badly managed” headlines. Seriously, he’s just not that good for many reasons, mainly he doesn’t know what to bowl and when. That’s not good.
I have never accepted that he played for England, he should of been snapped up by West Indies and offered a decent contract and terms. Maybe he was, I will probably never know, but the cold of England v the beaches of the Caribbean, defo money talks!