Next up, the Ashes – and England will need Ben Stokes at his all-round best

The Guardian

a day ago

The England-India epic that ended up like two weary prizefighters trading blows will live long in the memory – a 2‑2 classic for which the players on both sides deserve immense credit. Not that Mohammed Siraj, still hitting 90mph on the speed gun on the 25th day, showed weariness. If anything, he could well hold the key to solving the world's energy problems.
Plaudits in particular go to three men who stepped up bravely when other sports would have simply subbed them off: Shoaib Bashir bowled with a broken left hand at Lord's; Rishabh Pant batted with a broken foot at Old Trafford; and then Chris Woakes, Horatio Nelson armed with a Gray-Nicolls, followed him in folklore at the Oval. Don't be fooled by the white flannels and the stoppages for tea – Test cricket is a brutal sport.
Although it has been said in some quarters – most notably Nasser Hussain but other prominent voices too – that England getting over the line at the Oval and winning the series 3-1 would have been a 'travesty'. After all, India were the away side, dominated the run charts – four players in the top five – and had four of the six leading wicket-takers. They won more sessions, goes the argument, and lost all five tosses, indisputably.
Sure. But a travesty? England chased down 371 to win at Headingley, defended a mere 193 at Lord's, and then, at 2-1 up, forced India into a remarkable rearguard at Old Trafford by sticking 669 on the board – the highest total of the series. Had this been followed by 10 men reeling in 374 at the Oval, their second‑highest run chase and breaking the ground's 123-year-old record by 111 runs, 3-1 would surely have been well earned.
None of which is to say a fair outcome was not landed upon. Shubman Gill's never-say-die tourists won the deciding final round with a serious display of heart and skill. They were more than good value for the drawn series. The point is more that Test scorelines reflect all outputs – teams are only as strong as their weakest links – and even then can still come down to clutch moments or freak incidents. The 2009 Ashes, when Australia similarly dominated the runs and wickets charts yet lost 2-1, comes to mind.
Brendon McCullum accepts England have "room to improve" before the Ashes but the head coach believes the intensity of their dramatic drawn series against India will help them to meet the challenge.
McCullum was honest enough to chalk up the 2-2 scoreline as a "fair reflection" on seven weeks of hard-fought, demanding cricket, with India grabbing a share of the new Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy with a thrilling six-run win at the Oval. That meant England were one hit from claiming an outright victory that would have sent them to Australia this winter with the biggest scalp of the Bazball era. Instead, they will travel having last defeated one of their "big three" rivals in Alastair Cook's farewell series in 2018.
"It's been a magnificent series, as good as I've been involved with or witnessed in my time. We played some excellent cricket and at times, with the pressure India put us under, we came up a little bit short," McCullum said.
"You're always learning any time you get to see guys having to dig deep and go to places they've maybe not been before. We'll let this one sit and we'll digest it.
"We're in the middle now, halfway through what we knew was going to be an unbelievable 12 months of Test cricket. We know we've got some room to improve. But to be involved in a series of such pressure over a period like this teaches you to be tough and builds resilience within you. A lot of our guys will have learnt a lot and that can only be a good thing."
One thing England may reflect on is their decision to keep the emerging talent of Jacob Bethell in camp for the most of the summer, rather than releasing him to play first-class cricket. He has played just one County Championship match for Warwickshire this year, while travelling as a non-playing squad member with the Test team. When he was called on as Ben Stokes's injury replacement, he made 11 runs in two innings and was dismissed in a pressurised chase playing a wild slog. McCullum refused to chide him for that, though.
"Beth will be back and better for the experience, I'm sure he'll learn from it. The good thing was he took the positive option. He got out doing it, but no one ever regretted being positive, right?"
So does the next Ashes, inevitably – something which England's head coach, Brendon McCullum, fancies his players will now be hardened for given the intensity of the cricket in the past six weeks. Although it is a concerning trend that in five of their past six series they have won the first Test and lost the last and no, with World Test Championship points at stake these days, none of them can be described as dead rubbers.
The Ashes schedule thankfully has more generous spacing than the series just gone, with two nine-day breaks separating the first, second and third Tests. A cynic might wonder if it has been devised to get Australia's great yet greybeard attack through what tends to be the 'live' bit. Either way, this can only be a good thing, giving the best players the best chance to stay on the park and in turn producing the best possible spectacle.
England will certainly not be complaining, with their fast‑bowling stocks stretched to breaking point against India. For all the promise of Jofra Archer's 90mph-plus return, and Gus Atkinson with eight wickets on his Test comeback, it is hard to escape the sense that their hopes of competing in Australia hinge on Ben Stokes playing as a fully fledged all-rounder. This was his best series with the ball, 17 wickets at 25, quick and skilful. But bits still flew off and he ended it watching the finale from the sidelines.
In terms of the batting, not a great deal has been learned, which is to say their strengths and weaknesses remain roughly the same: murderous when the conditions are in their favour, vulnerable when the ball moves, and pegged around the all-time greatness of Joe Root. Increased pragmatism? This did occur but chiefly when Jasprit Bumrah was playing, not least the steady climb to 387 at Lord's with an uncharacteristic run-rate of 3.44.
Sign up to The Spin
Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action
after newsletter promotion
The chase at the Oval has invited some criticism, some harsh – Harry Brook took them close only by playing the kind of shot to which he eventually got out – and some valid. They struggled to cope with a Dukes ball that swung late in its life (a turnaround from the ones that turned to mush earlier in the series). Leaning into their aggressive tendencies has served them well in the main but, as has been widely noted, the surfaces in Australia have been spicier of late. The Kookaburra ball's seam stays prominent for longer, too.
Perhaps the bigger miss was the final day at Edgbaston, rather than falling just short of their latest huge chase. After a morning lost to rain England were tasked with seeing out 80 overs from three down, aided by a flat pitch on which bowlers struggled for impact with the older ball. Yet they lasted just 52.1 overs on the day. Compare and contrast with India seeing out five sessions in Manchester from a starting point of none for two (even if Root dropping Ravindra Jadeja first ball was another sliding doors moment).
With no more Tests before the big push it appears only injury will dislodge the incumbents in the top seven. The sight of Stokes consoling Jacob Bethell after his tortured 31-ball five during the final collapse was probably driven in part by guilt at a young talent not exactly being given the best chance to succeed. Ollie Pope, even after another series that featured an early century but a final average of 34, will likely start at No 3 in Perth.
All of which sounds a bit downbeat about a side that came within one hit of beating an India team who, save for Bumrah breaking down during the deciding Sydney Test, might well have drawn 2-2 in Australia earlier this year. Nevertheless, they will need to improve in a number of areas if they are to change the perceptions in that part of the world.