These past 10 days must have been curious for New Zealand’s cricketers, as their restful mid-series downtime was occasionally interrupted by news of England’s latest convulsions. “I guess it probably wasn’t necessarily what we were expecting,” deadpanned their captain, Tom Latham.
At least most of his own side got a chance to relax. “A lot of guys have had some good family time, they’ve had a bit of time off to refresh the bodies, refresh the minds and get ready for what we’ve got coming up,” Latham said. “We’re not necessarily used to a big break like that, but guys did their own thing, some guys got away. So we’re ready to go.”
They have had to deal with the unexpected international retirement of one of their greatest ever players in Kane Williamson, while saying that “some guys got away” rather underplays the fact that Devon Conway has flown home, witnessed the birth of his second child and flown back again. But if the tourists have not been exactly drama-free themselves, in this respect at least England have been on another level. The home side’s challenge at the Oval is to demonstrate that as a group they can be as good at their day jobs as they are at unnecessary crisis-creation.
These are extraordinary times, to which England have responded by picking an extraordinary team; an already eyebrow-raising selection that, after Jamie Smith’s withdrawal late on Tuesday after the birth of a daughter, seemed to be approaching, like Douglas Adams’ Heart of Gold when it nears top speed, infinite improbability. James Rew parachuted neatly into Smith’s spot, a third debutant to join two players making just their second Test appearances, while for a variety of reasons only one of the five bowlers picked for the first Test will take part in the second.
With no specialist spinner, no recognised all-rounder and two unfamiliar seamers, England’s bowling attack is particularly curious. Alongside Josh Tongue, the only survivor from Lord’s, Jofra Archer returns, Matt Fisher is back in the side four years after he made his only previous appearance in the dying days of Joe Root’s long first stint as captain, and Sonny Baker makes his debut.
England v New Zealand second men's Test - teams
England XI (confirmed): Ben Duckett, Emilio Gay, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root (capt), Harry Brook, James Rew (wk)*, Jordan Cox, Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue, Matthew Fisher, Sonny Baker.
*Rew replaced Jamie Smith, whose partner has given birth to their second child.
New Zealand XI (probable): Tom Latham (capt), Devon Conway, Henry Nicholls, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell (wk), Glenn Phillips, Nathan Smith, Kyle Jamieson, Will O’Rourke, Matt Henry.
“One thing it shows is the depth we have got in that department now,” said Root, back in his blazer at least temporarily, in the absence of Ben Stokes. “It’s something that we didn’t necessarily have for a number of years, and I think the hard work that’s happened behind the scenes to develop that has been really impressive.” This feels a bit premature: for now all they actually show is desperation. All the rest is dependent on how the next few days pan out.
They may not be straightforward. On one hand, over the last five years of Test cricket the Oval has not been particularly batter-friendly, coming in as the fifth-highest-scoring ground in England. There have been just two draws here in the last 20 years and 20 Tests. On the other, three of the four first-class games at the ground this summer have been draws, and the eight completed innings, in order of magnitude, ended on 277, 333, 409, 421, 472, 520, 622 and 691. Sixteen centuries have been scored, and one double. For seamers so far this year the Oval has been the source of much sweat and little celebration. It is not clear what caused Ollie Robinson’s knee to develop the “soreness” that ruled him out of this game after a heroic return at Lord’s, but perhaps it discovered the ability to read statistics. After all, it has been so easy for batters to score centuries here this season that even Robinson got one.
In the end both teams have ended up similarly balanced, with four seamers and a couple of batters who can bowl spin if required. But New Zealand will have to adapt to some unfamiliar opponents, and also to an unfamiliar venue. Their defeat at Lord’s means they have still won there only once in their history, and not at all in seven games this century. They have also not won at the Oval in that time, though that lack of success is largely due to the fact that, by a strange quirk of scheduling, they have not played here since 1999. The last time they visited Kennington the oldest member of this squad, Tom Blundell, was eight. So Latham will have been relieved to conclude that the surface, which will also be the focus of extra attention given the goings-on at Lord’s, “is probably one that’s maybe similar to what we have back home”.
With Root back in the captaincy, Fisher back in the team and Jordan Cox finally getting his chance, two years after he was denied a debut in New Zealand by a fractured thumb, for England this is already a week of comebacks. Their job now is to prevent New Zealand from staging one of their own.
