Ben Stokes' fields aren't helping, but England's bowling lacks imagination

Times

3 hours ago

This has been a tough match for England's bowlers. When the pitch and overhead conditions favour batting, as they have done for much of the past four days, Headingley can be a hard place to keep good batsmen in check, and so it proved for Ben Stokes's attack across more than 200 overs in the dirt.
Each of India's innings fell into two halves: the first when top-order batsmen were in the ascendant and went along largely untroubled, the second when England managed to work their way into the lower order and made short work of the tail.
At one stage India were 430 for three on Saturday morning and here they reached 333 for four after tea. The collapses that followed (respectively 41 for seven and 31 for six) helped make things look better than they were for some hard-worked bowlers who lacked penetration and, sometimes, imagination.
Whatever the outcome of the game, England will go away and think hard about what they should do with their attack for the next game and beyond.
For the first time in their history, an England team conceded five individual centuries, and only twice before have they conceded as many runs at a faster rate — against Australia at the Oval in 1934 when Don Bradman was on the rampage and against West Indies in 1976, also at the Oval, when Viv Richards at the peak of his powers.
This inability to stop the bleeding is not new. In fact, it has been a growing problem. It is not easy to compare one series with another, or one country with another, for pitches and ground sizes vary from place to place, but nonetheless there is a clear pattern of rising scoring rates against England teams since Stokes took over in 2022. Season on season, it is heading up and up.
Stokes has always been in the habit of setting attacking fields in the search for wickets, and as a consequence runs tend to flow more freely; there are gaps in the field for batsmen to exploit and attacking lengths may find edges that fly for four.
It was noticeable, though, that on this fourth day Stokes was occasionally guilty of not setting attacking enough fields. Rishabh Pant twice edged through an underpopulated slips region off Josh Tongue, first on 31 (when there were no slips) and then on 45 (when there was only one and the ball went to where second slip would have been). Stokes was trying to hedge his bets with an in-out field and paid the price.
Stokes was also twice spoken to by the umpires about the speed of England's play, and although allowances are made for various stoppages their over-rate was well below 13 overs per hour in this game. At the start of a new World Test Championship cycle, they could be facing more docked points for tardiness.
An inability to control the scoring is one consequence of the retirements of Stuart Broad and James Anderson, as well as the demotion of Ollie Robinson. Anderson is the most economical bowler England have had during the Bazball era and Robinson stands second, both with economy rates below 3.0. Chris Woakes's rate was also below 3.0 heading into this match but he looked short of zip and managed only one wicket in 43 overs.
Woakes balances the team with his runs at No8 and the next Test is at his home ground of Edgbaston, so he may be given another chance.
Brydon Carse and Tongue are still making their way in Test cricket, and as they get wiser they may acquire the game-management that made Broad and Anderson such valuable commodities, but England will be keen to freshen up their attack in Birmingham. Control is one of the things that Jofra Archer is almost guaranteed to bring in red-ball cricket, which is partly why there is such eagerness to get him back. Gus Atkinson is also on course to be available soon, but like Woakes he needs overs under his belt to be at his best.
Perhaps the biggest concern is Shoaib Bashir, who posed little serious threat in either innings. The pitch was dry enough to offer him help, and he fared OK at times, but it felt as though India's frontline batsmen were never seriously threatened. If they thought Bashir posed a danger, they might have tried to smash him out of the attack, but they seemed content to milk him and keep him in the side.
England believe Bashir will bring more wickets, but Jack Leach was the better defensive bowler and good teams probably know how to keep Bashir at bay.
One thing that may help England arrest this troubling trend is Stokes' own return to serious bowling duties. When he is playing a full part with the ball he has the capacity to dry things up and he was easily England's most miserly bowler in this match. His match tally of 35 overs was his second biggest workload for three years, and his side will need more from him if they are to apply sustained pressure in the field.