End of Summer

Where did the summer go?  Nowadays a good chunk of it is wasted with that fucking Hundred bollocks, can anyone remember who won?  Now it’s mid September and the three test series against Pakistan has been and gone. Captained by Joe Root, England have dominated every day bar one and have inflicted three thrashings on a Pakistan side that has barely been competitive.  I expected more, especially with them coming here on the back of a creditable drawn series in the Caribbean.  Any Test cricket is good but what we saw in this series was a long way from the standard of cricket we saw against India last year.  England could not do more than crush the opposition three times, especially after what came in the weeks and months before this series. 

It’s difficult to say whether England have been good or Pakistan have been bad.  On paper the Pakistani batsmen looked decent, some youngsters along with experienced players with test hundreds and decent averages.  The media wants us to believe they’ve run into a top quality England pace attack and that might well be the case but conditions were in the bowlers favour this year.  However this does look like an attack to get excited about, all four have been excellent at times, including Gus who has been unlucky. 

Robinson has been world class this summer and was pretty bloody good when he first came into the Test side a few years ago.  I can’t help wondering what the fuck went on to cause his exile?  Some of the blame must be with the player but with this obvious talent, the management should have treated him the same way as Wood and Archer.  Jofra has been consistently good this year, playing regular Test cricket without fitness issues has been good for him, his rhythm is in the groove.  Josh Tongue is still raw but he has a habit of bowling unplayable deliveries, he’s only going to get better.  Poor Gus Atkinson has been bloody unlucky this series and hasn’t got the wickets he deserved but this could be because the other three have been so good!  We’ll need reserves so add to this the likes of Stone, Baker, Fisher and yes Carse then things are looking pretty good.

England’s batsmen have scored enough runs to win comfortably three times, without looking particularly impressive.  At the top of the order Duckett scored the only England test century of the summer but done little else, we know he’s better than this but he needs to start showing it.  His opening partner, Emilio Gay has scored tough runs and may have done just enough to keep his place in the squad, opening the batting has been tougher than ever in the conditions this summer.  Injury to Bethell has meant a revamped middle order with Cox and Lawrence putting themselves in the frame for the future but like Gay, they need a century, something no one has managed this series.  Root has not been near his best this summer but we know he is world class, as is Brook but I feel he should do better.  Smith was barely noticeable behind the stumps, which is what we want from a keeper and when he stood up to Robinson he looked good.  He looked more comfortable with the bat too and got a couple of decent scores.  The conditions have been tough for batsmen this year but Abbas aside the Pakistan bowlers did not impress so the players that came in still have much to prove.

We have an idea of what the team will look like in the near future but what we won’t know is how the team can be balanced now Stokes has gone. At some point we’ll need a spinner and I think England have missed a trick in not picking Rehan Ahmed for this series, although to be fair he probably wouldn’t have bowled much.  Are there any other decent all rounders out there?  Maybe a more experienced Sam Curran?  Other spinners in the frame, obviously Bashir has talent but Leach is as good as anyone and Bess has done well in first class cricket this summer.

Joe Root’s captaincy looked fine for most of the series, as long as the four quick bowlers were doing their thing, he barely had to steer the ship.  Then in the third test when Pakistan counter attacked he completely lost the plot and control of the game, this was all too familiar.  If this looks like happening again, someone needs to have a word or he won’t be captain for long.

There’s some ODI stuff coming up in the autumn but the next real cricket will be in South Africa in December.  The Saffers have proved me wrong, they are top team and will be a real test for this evolving team which by then will have another Kiwi coach.  From memory Fleming the batsman was totally unlike BM, hopefully he’ll be the right man for the job.

Squad for South Africa

Root ©, Duckett, Gay, Bethell, Cox, Brook, Lawrence, Smith (k)
Archer, Atkinson, Robinson, Tongue, Stone, Baker
Ahmed, Bashir