A close finish in Test cricket is an Agatha Christie, a whowunnit with umpteen suspects. When the difference between the sides is slim, you can attribute it to almost anything: Usman Khawaja’s 13-hour vigil, Pat Cummins’s cool-headed cameo, Ben Stokes’s befuddling declaration, Jonny Bairstow’s frustrating fumbles, Nathan Lyon’s eight wickets – or a pitch that was tailor-made for him.
The old farts among the fans were too quick to blame it on the boogie. It wasn’t Bazball wot lost it: it was Bazball that, as so often, defeated the draw.
The declaration attracted the most scorn, which was both right and wrong. Yes, it was a mistake: better to bat on, be ruthless, reach 450, demoralise Australia, add some pragmatism to the dogma (even Pep Guardiola goes long sometimes). But the mistake was not a fatal one, as England were ahead for most of the match. What really undid them was being short of match practice. Ashes to Ashes, rust to bust.
Cummins scored an unbeaten 44 at No 9, more than anyone so low down had managed in the fourth innings of a Test. If it takes a world record to defeat you, you’re doing a lot right. But how was he able to manage it? Partly because he is used to T20, where cameos win matches. Partly because, when he finally went on the attack after defending for five days, Stokes veered the other way, a fabulous twist in the drama. But mainly because of the state of England’s attack.
Jimmy Anderson was returning from injury and “still searching for a bit of rhythm”, as he told Mike Atherton on Sky. Ollie Robinson was feeling his way back too, going at full tilt only when launching his tirade at Khawaja. Stokes, bowling on one leg, did well to take two wickets. Moeen Ali’s spinning finger was painful to look at, never mind use. Stuart Broad alone was fully fit and by the end, understandably, he was a spent force.
So much of sport is about being in the groove. You could measure England’s rust in no-balls – 23, the most they had bowled in a Test for 17 years. And you could see it in Bairstow’s wicketkeeping. It’s not that he’s a bad keeper, it’s that he hadn’t kept for a month. Rust doesn’t stop you having a great moment – Bairstow’s dive to catch Marnus Labuschagne, Moeen’s ripper that castled Cameron Green – but it does prohibit the consistency sportspeople crave.
England had warmed up with a tepid Test against Ireland at Lord’s and a week on the golf course. Australia had warmed up in the heat of a World Test Championship final against India. They were battle-hardened, as if they weren’t hard enough already. England couldn’t do anything about that, but they could have thought their selection through.
On the WhatsApps where cricket writers lurk between Tests, we looked at England’s XI and wondered who was going to do the donkey work. Not even Broad can be a spearhead and a workhorse at the same time. The surprise is not that England lost with that attack, it’s that they stayed in the game until the last 10 minutes.
If Stokes was sure he wanted Anderson, it made no sense to have Moeen, too. The fourth bowler had to be a workhorse – either Liam Dawson, whose steady slow left-arm is the closest thing to Jack Leach, or a tireless young seamer such as Matt Potts or Josh Tongue. Rehan Ahmed, who has been called up as Moeen’s understudy, may be a thrilling prospect but he is even less likely to bowl a long tight spell. As batters who bowl, both are better alongside a specialist spinner, playing second twiddle.
There’s a job here for England’s new selector, Luke Wright. Stokes often talks about selection in the first-person singular, unlike Gareth Southgate, who doggedly uses “we”. This is ironic, because the England football coach is a benign dictator, whereas Stokes is, technically, one of a committee. His instincts are magnificent but sometimes they contradict each other and someone has to tell him so. That’s the role beckoning to Wright.
England now have to find at least two wins out of four. The Oval should be OK: by then Australia will be tired and homesick. So, one of the next three. Somehow England have to turn things round at Lord’s, where Australia are traditionally spurred on by the honours board.
There are some grounds for optimism. Ashes series in England tend to be ding-dongs: Australia haven’t won successive Tests in the same summer here since 2001. England’s brightest young thing, Harry Brook, shone on his Ashes debut, scoring faster than any other batter, falling only to a fluke dismissal and a fine catch. England made mincemeat of Australia’s workhorse, Scott Boland: if they can take 5.65 an over off him, they may manage 8.65 off Mitchell Starc.
Stokes desperately needs Mark Wood’s pace, but he, too, is rusty. If he plays, he has to come in a package deal with Potts, who can do the hard yards. That means having no spinner (bar Joe Root), resting Anderson, and either trusting Robinson to bat at No 8 or drafting in Chris Woakes, who happens to be a superstar at Lord’s.
Stokes won’t like going without a frontline spinner, but he doesn’t seem keen on Dawson. Maybe Stokes and Brendon McCullum are just waiting for the moment to summon a world-class slow left-armer who is a little preoccupied right now. Step forward, Sophie Ecclestone.
