England yearn for an X factor as India expose a lack of bowling options

New York Times

05-07-2025

The sight of Jofra Archer receiving a standing ovation from the Hollies Stand as he walked around the boundary on 12th man duty said everything about the limitations of an England attack that has toiled painfully in this second Test.
Those spectators know India and, in particular, their new captain Shubman Gill have handed England a harsh reminder of the missing ingredients in a bowling line-up lacking the X factor Archer, for one, can provide.
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Most pertinently Gill, in becoming the first batter in history to make scores of more than 250 and 150 in the same Test, has shown England have much to improve not only if they are to win this series but to have any chance in Australia this winter.
This was the best attack England could have picked for this match once they had decided to delay Archer's comeback by a week. But it has not looked anything like one that could earn them their first Ashes victory in Australia since 2011.
England's defence is that this Edgbaston pitch has not helped an attack lacking not just Archer — who has not featured in a Test since 2021 — but the fastest Englishman of them all, Mark Wood, as well as Gus Atkinson, another contender for their first-choice attack. They may like groundsmen to prepare flat surfaces to suit their all-action batting style, but they have been frustrated by the lack of pace and bounce this week in Birmingham.
The venue for the first Test in Headingley had been close to the perfect surface, lasting five days and offering a bit of that elusive pace and also the turn that could have been exploited on the last day by India had they picked their mystery spinner, Kuldeep Yadav.
Edgbaston has offered bowlers barely anything once the shine has come off the new ball, a reality that has surprised England after they reprised what has brought them so much home success at the toss and bowled first.
But the point is India, in the form of Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep, have extracted far more out of the surface, at least with that new ball, than Brydon Carse and Chris Woakes.
They reduced England to 84 for five in their first innings before demolishing the tail with the second new ball just when England looked like edging much closer to India's 587.
Then an India side, who controversially left out their best bowler in Jasprit Bumrah at Edgbaston, again looked far more potent and better equipped to find life in a moribund surface when England batted for a second time on Saturday.
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Deep in particular was superb as England crashed to 72 for three chasing a nominal target of 608. He produced an absolute beauty to bowl Joe Root, finding seam movement where England could find none, and consistently hit the right line and length.
Not that India needed to find too much in the pitch to dismiss Zak Crawley who has succumbed to two absolutely dreadful shots in this game to reignite the debate about his position at the top of the England order.
Finding a way to take wickets on flat surfaces is the key to winning Tests and this England attack has not had enough quality to do that, conceding a whopping 1,014 runs in the match, 430 of them scored by Gill, while taking only 16 wickets in 234 overs of hard graft.
They had always planned to freshen up their bowling for Thursday's third Test at Lord's, coming just three days after this one finishes on Sunday, but the need for more than the injection of pace that Archer will bring has become acute.
Even though Archer has bowled just 18 competitive overs with a red ball in more than four years, he will play in the third Test where England hope he can provide the extreme pace and menace that so troubled Australia there on his Test debut six years ago.
There is also a strong chance Atkinson, another to fall victim to England's bowling injury curse, will be thrown straight into the third Test for his first game since the opening Test of this summer against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge.
Atkinson has taken 55 wickets in his first 12 Tests to date, and made a century at Lord's against Sri Lanka. He looked a proper Test cricketer last summer and England will at least name him in their squad for Lord's now he has recovered from his hamstring injury.
The other bowler to come into contention will probably be Jamie Overton, who has been in the squad for the first two Tests of this series without playing and will be an option if three changes are made to this side.
Josh Tongue has had his moments in the opening two matches of this series, notably in demolishing the India tail twice at Headingley, but he will be the first left out now after bowling 43 overs in the second Test and taking four wickets.
The 27-year-old is definitely an alternative to Archer and Wood as an 'enforcer' of extra pace with the old ball, but he is neither as fast nor, frankly, as good as those two and has not posed the threat Australia saw from him when he played in the Ashes at Lord's two years ago.
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The sight of England wicketkeeper Jamie Smith standing up to the stumps at times to Woakes on the fourth day here was ominous for one of the most successful and popular England bowlers of the last 10 years.
Yes, the pitch was desperately slow and, by that point, the ball was soft. But it is not a great look to see a keeper standing up to an opening bowler — nor, indeed, Gill dancing down the pitch to dispatch him into the stand for six — and Woakes, at 36, will face increasing questions over whether he can last the course until the Ashes.
Woakes has an exceptional record at Lord's where he takes his Test wickets at 12 apiece, but England will see how a bowler who himself has only recently returned from injury shapes up after two long, demanding Tests before giving him another game there.
Sam Cook is an option for Woakes' 'workhorse' role, but England were concerned about his lack of pace on debut against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge, where too often he dropped into the 70mph range rather than the 80s which is the bare minimum at Test level.
Carse has clearly been struggling with the left foot issue that earlier this season saw him, only half-jokingly, say he was considering having a toe amputated. He has gone through six pairs of bowling boots in this Test alone in search of pain relief.
He was better on the fourth day in an opening spell of seven overs and is still inexperienced both in Test cricket and with the new red ball. He will almost certainly be rested at Lord's, but Carse is a bowler in whom England will continue to invest.
Perhaps England would have been more potent with the ball in this Test had Ben Stokes, now back to full bowling fitness, managed more than 26 overs — only seven of them coming in India's second innings before they belatedly declared on 427 for six.
But we can hardly criticise the England captain for not bowling enough when his problem has been over-bowling himself and breaking down. He is vital to the all-round balance of this side and has to tread carefully.
How England will hope Wood can stay fit when he returns from his latest left knee operation, which may come towards the end of this series, but history tells you he will always struggle to play in more than two or three games of any series.
There are not too many other options.
Olly Stone is fit again and played for Nottinghamshire in the Twenty20 Blast on Friday, but is not yet in consideration for Test cricket. Lions coach Andrew Flintoff has been impressed in particular by one of his young charges, Hampshire's Eddie Jack, but he is one for the future rather than now.
Two other young Hampshire fast bowlers, Sonny Baker and John Turner, may also come into contention longer-term while Leicestershire's giant left-armer Josh Hull remains too raw for the senior side just yet despite making his Test debut last summer.
So England can only hope Archer and Atkinson are the answer at Lord's and that the returning pair, along with Wood and Carse, can find the consistency in fitness and output that Australia's best bowlers always seem to have when the big series come round.
Otherwise England are not going to have anything like the potency with the ball they possess with the bat for the biggest challenges in Test cricket that India and Australia provide.
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