
The familiar issues frustrating England and their fans
Another thumping defeat
As England's fate was sealed on day five, Edgbaston was alive to the beat of an Indian drum."England get battered everywhere they go," sang the tourists' support. This 336-run defeat can be added to the 423-run loss in Hamilton, the nine-wicket thrashing in Rawalpindi, the meek eight-wicket loss at the hands of a poor Sri Lanka at The Oval or the 434-run thrashing by India in Rajkot last February.When England lose, they lose badly.Two of those, against New Zealand and Sri Lanka, could be written off as dead rubbers. Were the list shorter, you could put them down to the odd bad day.But until the trend of one England hammering a series is ruled out, they are not going to get to where they want to go.Series wins could come - they may beat India over five matches here - but some have been talking about this team going on to become the best England side since the one Andrew Strauss led to the top of the world rankings.Head coach Brendon McCullum told his team to "shoot for the stars" at the start of the summer. Fail to change and their ship may not leave Earth's atmosphere.
England's Pope fasts again
No-one represents England's feast or famine better than Ollie Pope.After a fine century in Leeds, he made a duck and 24 in his two innings at Edgbaston.It is a familiar problem for a batter who did not make a fifty in the four Tests in India at the start of last year after his epic 196 in the first Test.Before play on day five he was working with batting coach Marcus Trescothick on his head position, attempting to prevent himself falling to the off side before contact, as he did when edging Akash Deep in the first innings.With its slope, Lord's is not the ideal place to have such issues.Zak Crawley is another batter unable to break free of his own troubles.His 65 in the first Test, which followed 124 against Zimbabwe, was crucial to England's win but his wild drive in the second over of England's chase was the worst dismissal in an otherwise sensible quest for a draw.He is averaging just 21 when seamers pitch the ball up to him since the start of 2022. If India weren't aware of that weakness before, they are now.
What to do about Bashir?
The Test also resulted in some ugly numbers for England spinner Shoaib Bashir.The 21-year-old's match figures of 5-286 are the most expensive for England since 1950 and the third-most costly in his side's Test history.No Test spinner who has bowled as many overs (679.1) as Bashir has as high an economy rate (3.80). Not pretty.England's Bashir experiment is at an interesting phase. Picked for his debut last year after just 10 first-class matches and still unable to get a game for his county, he has been picked on potential.Against Zimbabwe at the start of the summer, he looked to be finding success by bowling tighter to the stumps, resulting in a more accurate line, while he was also bowling a fuller length.He deserves credit for working on a 'carrom ball' – an off-spinner's mystery delivery which is flicked from the hand and turns from right to left – which he bowled at least three times in the first innings.But six of his eight wickets in this series have come caught in the deep. The others were a lower-order stumping and a top-edged slog he caught himself.Bashir needs a good week in London for himself if nothing else.
England's pace pickle
That leads nicely to England's pace bowlers. Having opted to pick an unchanged side for Edgbaston, Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue have now bowled 82, 77 and 81 overs respectively.Mohammed Siraj is the only India quick to have bowled more than 62.All three of England's pacemen struggled at times in Birmingham. Woakes was not as threatening after his new-ball spell while Tongue has been played well by India's top order and was not as successful against the tail as in the first Test.Change will surely come at Lord's given three days off is little time to recover and Jofra Archer is waiting in the wings. Could England conceivably leave out all three? Gus Atkinson, who has not played since May because of a hamstring injury, is back in the squad but it would be a risk to play Atkinson and Archer, who has bowled in two innings in a match once in four years, in the same XI. Woakes, 36, may need a rest but England like variety in their attack and he averages 12.9 at Lord's – the best of any bowler in Test history.England would also need to replace his batting at number eight if he is left out – even more so if Carse, an able batter, was also absent at number nine.Sam Cook is the Woakes replacement in England's squad but does not offer that same batting depth. Do not rule out bowling all-rounder Jamie Overton adding to his one Test cap, which was earned in 2022.
Gill eyeing Bradman's record
That it is England with selection problems is a remarkable turnaround from six days ago. India came into the second Test facing endless questions around their XI.Their big calls have been proven right, however.Picking batting all-rounder Washington Sundar at number eight looked a defensive move but he shared an important stand of 144 with his captain, Shubman Gill, in the first innings and had Stokes lbw shortly before lunch with his off-spin on the final day.The other big call was to rest Jasprit Bumrah. His replacement Akash Deep was majestic and took 10 in the match.In truth, Gill could not have asked for a better week.Some questioned his declaration on day four but its timing meant England faced Deep with the new ball late on and again when it was still hard the next morning. The result was two wickets in each spell.With 585 runs in two matches, Gill now needs a further 389 across the remaining three Tests to break the legendary record for most runs in a series set by the great Australian Don Bradman, who made 974 in the 1930 Ashes.
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Telegraph
15 minutes ago
- Telegraph
TNT on verge of deal for Ashes series Down Under
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Stamina, skills and hunger: how do England solve a problem like Shubman Gill?
Two games into the series we have already witnessed something very special from Shubman Gill, and at the second Test in Edgbaston he produced a real rarity: an individual performance that defines and dominates a game. Not just piling on the runs but forcing his opponents to toil in the field until they felt exhausted and out of options, and that fatigue then had an impact on their batting. When batters get tired it affects their mental clarity and their decision-making – what to play, when to leave – as well as their movement and their footwork. Reducing England to 25 for three at the end of that second day went a long way to deciding the match, and as well as India bowled with the new ball it was Gill's remorselessness that created the conditions for it to happen. We have to pay testament to his stamina, his skill and his hunger – not just for runs, but to set an example as the new captain of a young team. Captaincy can affect a player's form detrimentally, but it seems to have focused him, and of his 63 Test innings his three highest scores have all come in the last three weeks. As someone who follows batters and batsmanship, we're coming to the end of a period that has been dominated by the so-called Fab Four – Virat Kohli, Joe Root, Steve Smith and Kane Williamson – and the search has been on for players who can take over. Gill has shown he can fill those boots and in a wonderfully orthodox style: he can play all formats and is brilliantly adaptable, but with a foundation of classic technique. He has not just been making his own reputation, he is making history. No touring player has ever scored as many runs in a single Test as the 430 he got at Edgbaston – only Graham Gooch against India at Lord's in 1990 has bettered it – and already his running total of 585 puts him 23rd on the list of highest individual tallies in Test series in England, just two games in. Even Don Bradman's world record of 974 in the 1930 Ashes looks under threat. He was given the opportunity to dictate the game because England chose to bowl first. The opportunity to stretch and tire opponents and then benefit from scoreboard pressure and fatigue, as well as the opportunity to bowl on a possibly deteriorating pitch towards the end of the game, is exactly why people win the toss and bat. I am certain that England will be reflecting on that decision as they consider ways of reducing Gill's impact on the remainder of the series. I remember Smith's performances on the Ashes tour I went on as batting coach in 2017-18, when he scored two unbeaten centuries and a double century and ended the series with an average of 137.40. At times it felt like we just could not get him out, and it was soul-destroying. He always seemed to have an answer and after a while it really does get to you – and we had two very experienced frontline bowlers in Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad. At this point Gill is completely used to the cast of bowlers England used in the first two matches, he knows their plans, their trajectories, their variations, their pace. If fatigue was not already going to force Ben Stokes to change up his bowling group, the need to find fresh ways to challenge the India captain would have done it anyway. If Chris Woakes can put himself through a third match in a row I would keep him in, because his batting could play a part, because he bowled a good new-ball spell on the first day at Edgbaston when he was a bit unlucky, and because Lord's is a happy hunting ground for him. Brydon Carse and Josh Tongue have been selected because they can bowl with good pace, height and bounce, and can present problems even on flat surfaces. They have done OK, but they have come up against top-class batting which has been ruthless – Stokes doesn't like that word but I think India probably do. Now England need a point of difference: it's going to be 30C in London this weekend, probably not great conditions for swing, and Jofra Archer has to be the man. 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 But picking Archer, after just one first-class game in four years, is a risk, and with Stokes also needing to bowl in short bursts England then need a couple of people who can really put in a shift. What surprises me about their squad, aside from the three seamers who played the first two games, is the extraordinary lack of first-class overs in it: Gus Atkinson has come back in for the third Test having not played since the game against Zimbabwe in May and joins Jamie Overton, who would add extra depth to England's batting but has played one T20 game since May and one first-class match this season. To pick either of them alongside Archer feels like a risk, particularly when it is going to be hot and dry and England have to be braced for long periods in the field. For that reason I think Sam Cook has to come in, though he is someone who offers control, plenty of stamina and lots of overs, but not always a cutting edge. I feel Cook might struggle at Old Trafford and the Oval given the nature of the pitches there, and this could be the one where he uses the slope cleverly and bowls lots of overs. Woakes and Cook can then provide control with Archer the ace up England's sleeve, someone fresh and fast, and something new for Gill to try to deal with.


BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Willey and Gardner handed Rockets' captaincy
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