England cricket finds itself in a world of hurt, partly through their insistence upon a bubble mentality in the age of Covid19, but also through a desperate lack of depth in batting, following their defeat at the hands of New Zealand at the so-called Fortress Edgbaston today.
To be honest, England were fortunate not to lose the two Test series 2-0, with the Lords Test having lost a complete day to rain, with New Zealand in a strong position to have pressed for victory there had it not rained all through Day Three.
Not only that, New Zealand made six changes to their team for the Second Test, and still managed to thump England to the tune of eight wickets in a comprehensive and dominant display of Test cricket.
English commentators and experts are already wondering how the team can possibly find a way to reverse this by the time they reach Australia in an effort to regain the Ashes at the end of the year, but surely their first port of call should be trying to avoid a series loss to India in the home Test series starting in August, or indeed avoiding a wipeout against the current number one Test team, rather than worrying about an Australian team with its own batting woes to solve.
England did themselves no favours in this series, deciding that the players returning from the Indian Premier League would not be considered for selection, instead being allowed to rest and recuperate at home. It has been the England solution to deal with the Covid19 pandemic and the use of bubbles in the various tours they have undertaken over the last 12 months, and certainly they cannot be criticised for putting player welfare and mental health first in these unique times.
But in a home series, where it appears from the outside that players would have had sufficient time to be ready to participate in this Test series, surely the likes of Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow in particular could have been vital inclusions in this batting line up. Or perhaps not, indeed perhaps the selectors felt all a long that the top six that they went into this series with was indeed the best that England had to offer.
The fact that Ben Stokes was out injured certainly hampered the team balance, while Jofra Archer’s injury woes also cost them another vital piece of their best team scenario. And losing Ben Foakes to an injury the day before the first Test, with both next best keeping option in Buttler and Bairstow not in the team bubble, was also not the best preparation. However, it is the lack of runs from the top six that is causing the greatest concern.
And change must occur before that first Test against India comes to pass. Rory Burns and skipper Joe Root are the only certain inclusions in that top six. How they must look at New Zealand’s depth, where they not only had a solid top six in the first Test, but then replaced two of them, including their captain and best batsman, almost seamlessly for the second Test and still won comfortably. Dom Sibley crawled to a half century in the second innings of the first Test when England just batted time, but otherwise struggled. Zac Crawley continues to plod along in mediocrity. Ollie Pope looks good without being able to make that solid contribution they need, while Dan Lawrence is still a work in progress.
No doubt Stokes will return if fit, and perhaps either Foakes or Buttler as keeper, or even both with one as batter only. And surely if these two Tests have shown anything, they have shown Root is not a front line spin option, and England must choose one to be effective in all conditions. From an Australian perspective, I love seeing England get beaten. I don’t know what the answers are to their batting woes, any more than I know the answers to Australia’s own similar problems in their Test batting. But one thing is for sure, England must decide very soon which of their misfiring batting order they feel are worth persisting with and which they feel are now ballast overboard, because Australia is the least of their problems in the immediate future, they have a full strength India in a five Test series that are the immediate cause for concern.