The chase is on - why no team can feel safe against Stokes' England

BBC News

6 hours ago

Hands up who owes Ben Stokes an apology?Who thought he'd taken leave of his cricketing senses when he opted to field in the first Test against India?As chasing leather under burning sunshine on Friday gave way to chasing victory under moody clouds on Tuesday, there were plenty of us forced to admit Stokes was right. Again.This was another Headingley classic. Not quite touching the heights of Stokes in 2019 or Ian Botham in 1981, but knocking off 371 in relative comfort is another entry into the lore of the famous old ground. Ben Duckett, with his swashbuckling 149, is the newest candidate to be immortalised by the Burley Banksy.There were reasons for Stokes to believe he would be vindicated: Headingley is the only ground in the past 14 years where Test batting has got easier innings on innings.But 371 is a lot of runs, an amount historically not chased often. Throw in a pitch spitting like a cobra from a length at one end, Jasprit Bumrah bowling missiles and turn for Ravindra Jadeja, and England were second favourites.England, though, are turning into supreme chasers. On home pitches, that age like fine wine, England will bat second unless there is irrefutable evidence not to. Listen to what Stokes says at a toss: "We'll have a chase", not "we'll have a bowl".Since Stokes became captain, England have won the toss 10 times in home Tests. They have batted second in nine, winning seven, losing one and drawing the other – the Old Trafford Ashes Test, which they would have won had it not been for the Manchester weather. The one time they batted first, they lost.This latest might not even be the best pursuit. Trent Bridge against New Zealand, Edgbaston against India and Headingley against Australia, with the threat of going 3-0 down in the Ashes, were all arguably as good, if not better.
Most encouraging was the manner in which England went about overhauling the target. They scored at a very brisk 4.54 an over, yet did so in a controlled manner. Up and down the gears, knowing when to attack and when to sit in. There was similar nous shown in the first innings and against Zimbabwe last month."It was Bazball with brains," said former England captain Michael Vaughan. "They played the situation. That's a sign of a young England side that is starting to use their smartness."It was also another example of England being incredibly hard to beat. India scored 835 runs across the match and lost. Only three teams in Test history have amassed more and been on the wrong end of the result. Spots two, three and four in that list are all occupied by teams beaten by Stokes' England.Before Stokes took over as captain in 2022, it had been 74 years since a team scored more than 775 runs in a Test and lost. It has now happened four times in the past three years, all at the hands of the Bazballers, leading to the question of what the opposition has to do in order to feel safe against this England team.The run-scoring is a product of probably the strongest batting line-up in Test cricket. Any questions over Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley have been answered by their starts to the summer, while Joe Root and Harry Brook occupy the top two spots in the world rankings.They have been joined in the top 10 by Duckett, on the back of his best innings in an England shirt.
In the past 22 years, the other England openers to score hundreds in the fourth innings of a Test have ended up with knighthoods. Duckett now has a better average at the top of the order than both Sirs Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss. Arise, Sir Ben of the Buckett Hat."My mindset personally was a bit different to what it has been over the last couple of years," said Duckett. "I was trying to focus on key moments. It's potentially a bit of maturity from me kicking in."The thrill of England's chase does not mean there is no room for improvement. Stokes looked scratchy with the bat, like a man who has only been in the middle three times since December. He is without a Test hundred in almost two years.Having to chase all those runs means conceding them in the first place, and bar Stokes and Brydon Carse, England's bowling looked toothless on the first day in Leeds. Chris Woakes and Josh Tongue improved as the game went on, so should be better at Edgbaston next week. Tongue lived up to his nickname – 'The Mop' – in cleaning up India's tail in both innings.Perhaps the biggest concern was off-spinner Shoaib Bashir, who went for 3-190 across the match. He struggled to extract turn or induce false shots and his three wickets came from catches in the deep, suggesting the only way India's batters were going to get out was if they got after him.In a short career Bashir has shown a knack of recovering from tough games and will retain Stokes' unwavering support, but his performances should be watched closely.This was the beginning of a decisive period for Stokes' England, even if the captain regularly rejected anything looking beyond this India series to the Ashes in the winter.As a starter for 10, it was the ultimate appetite whetter."Ben and Baz McCullum have created a fantastic vibe around the group," said Vaughan. "When the pressure's really on, they smile, they laugh. They seem to be able to play like it's in their back garden. It's an amazing ability and mentality to have as a cricket team, long may that continue."This is the week that I start to get slightly excited. The last time England won in Australia, and I know it's a long way off, they had a rock solid top seven. If England can carry playing like they have done this week, they should be able to get on that plane with a rock-solid top seven."Speaking of a solid top seven, Australia will look to move on from their World Test Championship disappointment against West Indies in Barbados on Wednesday.They will do so with an unfamiliar top order: a 19-year age gap between openers Usman Khawaja and Sam Konstas, Cam Green again shoe-horned in at three and Josh Inglis batting at four despite only doing it on one previous occasion in first-class cricket. It will be the first time in seven years the Aussies have been without at least one of the injured Steve Smith or dropped Marnus Labuschagne in their team.England's chase, in every sense, is on.