After the hammering England took against a well-organised and talented South Africa side, it would be easy to jump on the bandwagon and pour criticism on the players and their approach. Personally I commend Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes for challenging convention since taking over as coach and captain of the Test team, which desperately needed a shot in the arm.
They have said from the start that it will be an up‑and‑down ride, that bumps in the road such as the defeat by South Africa last week are part of the process. However, there are clearly some legitimate questions and areas of discussion.
It would seem England’s coach and captain have concluded that for the modern player the traditional qualities associated with Test batting – staying in for long periods, impeccable concentration, carefully building an innings – are no longer widely held skills, and that in asking them to approach things in a different way they are playing to their strengths. I am trying to be open-minded.
At Lord’s last week they seemed determined to apply the same ultra-aggressive approach no matter the conditions, the opponents or the match situation, and that does go against the historical approach to Test batting. With this kind of one‑size‑fits‑all approach you end up with a fast‑food version of Test cricket, stripped of many of its ingredients and much of its nutritional value.
The fact remains that the best batters in the world are Joe Root, Kane Williamson, Virat Kohli and Steve Smith, players who are consistent, who can assess conditions and adapt. Root is always looking to score, has always played in a very busy fashion, but it’s calculated and done with a very high level of skill. That has to be the ideal.
England (confirmed): Zak Crawley, Alex Lees, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (c), Ben Foakes (wk), Stuart Broad, Jack Leach, Ollie Robinson, James Anderson.
South Africa (probable): Dean Elgar (c), Sarel Erwee, Keegan Petersen, Aidan Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verryenne (wk), Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi
Stokes talks about releasing the handbrake and letting players play aggressively knowing they will be backed, which is fine for Root, Jonny Bairstow or Stokes himself – established players of international stature. But Ollie Pope, Alex Lees and Zak Crawley don’t have that bank of runs under their belt, and this method might be harder for them.
Pope played really nicely in the first innings at Lord’s, but the following morning he went after a ball that was a good length and wasn’t there to hit. When a bowler is in the middle of an excellent spell, are these players being told to make something happen, take risks, knock them off their line, or are they able to sit back and say no I’m doing fine, let’s build a partnership? More of the great Test innings I have seen ebbed and flowed, had periods of defence and periods of attack. Sometimes you just don’t feel in rhythm and it can take time to get into the swing of things. Are batters free to take that time, or are their instructions just to attack? Are they really being told that 40 off 40 balls is better than 70 off 150?
I have been thinking about McCullum’s own career, in the knowledge that a coach’s experiences as a player often shape their philosophy, the way they later approach the game and the job of preparing people for it. I think it took him a considerable amount of time before he became a consistent batter at the highest level – he played 49 matches before the end of 2009 and averaged 32, and for long periods his batting looked very hit and miss, and then 52 Tests from the start of 2010 averaging 44. He scored 28 sixes in those first 49 Tests, 79 sixes in the next 52. He was always a very positive batter, but for him greater aggression and greater success came together. Now his philosophy comes across as “go out and give it a flat-out, red-hot go and if it doesn’t go your way don’t worry too much”.
His comments about Crawley’s form are fascinating. To say that poor scores are acceptable because “his skill set is not to be a consistent cricketer” is to say that Crawley is being judged differently to pretty much every opening batter who has been selected for England. I’ve seen a few, and when I was there, batting in the middle order, it was accepted that openers needed to show a calm temperament, they needed to know what to play and what to leave, to trust their defence, to withstand periods of very good bowling in unfavourable conditions. It would seem McCullum is not looking for any of those attributes.
Ultimately, though, whatever a coach says, a batter will be judged by runs. In my career I was in and out of the England side and know from experience – not just my own – that sometimes an individual either loses confidence or isn’t quite up to speed against the calibre of the opposition they are facing, and quite frankly will be relieved to be taken out of the line of fire. There are times, when you are struggling, when every match, every low score, every press conference, you know you are being talked about – and that is not an easy place to be, I can tell you.
It is tempting to see in the slightly awkward defence of Crawley now a reflection of McCullum’s inconsistency towards the start of his own Test career, and his resulting empathy towards someone he is convinced is talented. This would be understandable, and nobody is disputing that Crawley is a very talented young player, but there must come a point when a less bullish attitude to selection would be more sensible.
Even this summer, when pitches have been dry, the Dukes ball has done very little, and scores have in general been high, Crawley has still not succeeded – either for England or for Kent. He has averaged 16.4 in 10 innings for his country, and 24.2 in 16 for his county. He has no run-scoring under his belt, no successful innings in first-class cricket to refer to, and is just feeling his way.
Coaches of course will try to instil confidence in players, and encourage them to play to their strengths. I have never come across a coach dictate to players how they have to bat all the time, in all conditions, especially when having been picked for their country they are at the pinnacle of their career. If that is to be the approach, it will not just be me who struggles with it.
