Pressure tells
Unless you’re Australia, New Zealand is not an easy place to win a Test series. India haven’t done so since 2008-09; England hadn’t managed it since 2007-08. The relatively modest praise for England’s achievement suggests New Zealand are condescended to in defeat as well as victory. If the first Test was a flawed slugfest, the second was a clinical demolition. England put a good New Zealand team under so much pressure – listen to how often the captain, Tom Latham, used that phrase – that eventually they could take no more. In both games England perceived an early batting collapse as an invitation to go harder, a common occurrence in the first Bazball summer and a sign, when it comes off, of a team in rude health. It was also telling that, for the first time in a while, England’s players looked like they were having all kinds of fun.
Bethell’s brilliance still has to wait
You know a team are thriving when the emergence of a rare talent serves to muddy the waters rather than crystallise them. Were this 1980 or 1994, Jacob Bethell would be inked in at No 3 for the next 15 years, but he is not yet in England’s best XI. Even though this series has confirmed Ollie Pope as a far more natural No 6, he will surely move back to No 3 when Jamie Smith returns. That will doubtless elicit a stream of F-words, and we don’t just mean frantic, but none of the alternatives are persuasive enough. Ben Stokes is the best fit in terms of technique and temperament but his brain whirs so furiously in the field that he needs time to decompress. Pope, an admirably selfless player, is the least damaging compromise. But for the first time, there is a credible alternative to him and even Zak Crawley waiting outside the team.
Ban has proved making of Carse
Shane Warne’s one-year ban in 2003 for taking a performance‑enhancing drug – apparently a tablet to get rid of a double chin – was a blessing in very good disguise. “In losing a year of wicket-taking prime, he gained several more of rejuvenated physique and drive … ” wrote Gideon Haigh, co-founder of the marvellous website Cricket Et Al, in his book On Warne. Haigh described Warne’s year off as “performance-enhancing rest”, a phrase that comes to mind each time Brydon Carse bulldozes a wicket. Carse’s three-month ban for betting offences has been the making of him. He is fitter, focused – almost chillingly so at times, as he showed with his devastating response to bowling Kane Williamson with a no-ball in Wellington – and his bond with Ben Stokes has never been stronger. Stokes, a monument of empathy, looked after Carse while he was in purgatory; Carse looks like he would crawl to the ends of the earth for Stokes, never mind run.
Woakes set to start next summer
Just as batters can fix one problem and inadvertently create another, so Rob Key’s successful tinkering with English cricket’s DNA has had an unintended consequence. For the first time in living memory, England look short of classical new-ball bowlers. That’s why Chris Woakes should start next summer against India and make the Ashes squad, maybe the team. Woakes has had a good winter without truly making peace with the Kookaburra ball: eight wickets at 36 overall, six at 29 in New Zealand. That includes probably the finest moment of his career outside England, a beautiful delivery to dismiss Kane Williamson with the old ball in Christchurch. Woakes has also quietly become the closest thing England have to a holding bowler. The impressive Matthew Potts will overtake Woakes at some stage, maybe in 2025. But in the sad, frustrating absence of Ollie Robinson, Woakes remains England’s best and most skilful new-ball bowler. You still need those, even in Australia.
Bashir remains an Ashes gamble
Like Shakespeare’s lady, sometimes Ben Stokes doth protest too much. After the second Test he said Shoaib Bashir, who took two for 110 from 19 overs in the second innings, had done “an amazing job”. Stokes’s man-management is peerless, and there is something genuinely touching about his relationship with Bashir, but privately he must doubt whether the off-spinner will be ready for the Ashes. That’s the series for which he has been fast-tracked due to his stylistic resemblance to Nathan Lyon. At the same age Lyon was a groundsman who hadn’t even played first‑class cricket, and spinners of all ages tend to be brutalised in Australia. In the past 10 years only Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have had sustained success, and the combined average for touring spinners is an ominous 62. With the opening Test 347 days away, it is a race against time and an extremely high-stakes gamble. It’s also probably a waste of time talking about it, because barring a complete collapse in form Bashir will start in Australia. Like the lady, Stokes is not for turning.
