As shifts in intensity go, few players can have won their first and second Test caps on such vastly different occasions.
For Josh Tongue, who only made his debut against Ireland at Lord’s at the start of the month but was being plunged into Ashes battle on Wednesday morning, the jump must’ve felt rather like stewarding your first shift at a Neil Diamond concert and your second at the Old Firm derby.
“I knew the step up from county cricket to international cricket would be a big one,” Tongue said on Tuesday, which is true, but with the greatest of respect to Ireland, only on the morning of the Test was the Worcestershire seamer finding out its true size.
Tongue’s selection came as a surprise and certainly caught his mother, Jenny, off guard, since she is holidaying in Turkey. As so often with the left-field decision making of this England, though, a bit of hindsight left the dots suddenly simple enough to join: Moeen Ali’s finger fine, but a risk; a green wicket inviting all-seam; Mark Wood’s pace wanted but not yet ready to last five days; Tongue left as the closest thing to a like-for-like.
For all Tongue impressed with his hostility against Ireland and bowled quicker - touching 90mph - than expected, and for all he could prove an inspired choice this week, that last fact raises genuine questions about how, just two Tests into an Ashes series that has been the focus for months, England are already fielding a player probably fifth-choice in his role.
Compare that to Pat Cummins’ comments on Tuesday: “I know how much our team has put in to someone like Josh Hazlewood. He’s had a few injury worries but everything over the last six months was to make sure we were going to give him the best chance possible to be right for this series.”
There is evidently not much you can do about Jofra Archer’s rotten injury luck, particularly when his workload is to some extent at the behest of the money in Mumbai. Olly Stone’s absence is especially frustrating, given it is the fault not of the kind of long-term issue by which he has been plagued but by a comparatively minor hamstring problem. It is probably not fair to bemoan the loss of the uncapped Brydon Carse, but it is thought the Durham quick would have been next in the queue.
Which leaves Wood, England’s most reliable pacer in recent years and most impressive bowler on the last Ashes tour Down Under. He has not played any cricket since April 15 and returned home early from the IPL to be around for the birth of his second child but two-and-a-half months on, amid suggestions of the odd niggle, England have not quite been able to get him ready for a Test outing.
Stokes explained yesterday that another week of work would give Wood the best chance of playing a full part from Leeds onwards and if that means all three Tests then it may be just as well, given Ollie Robinson, James Anderson and Stuart Broad will all have played two out of two already. With a break between the Third and Fourth Tests, the turnaround for Wood may well be workable, even off such a break.
If the series is alive by the Fifth, all caution with regards workloads will no doubt go out of the window.
