Root desperate to ‘maximise careers’ of England duo as Broad earns recall
A WEEK on from seeking reassurances over his England future Stuart Broad is set for a leading role in the second Test against the West Indies, with James Anderson and Mark Wood rested.
Broad was left out on home soil for the first time in eight years in the #raisethebat series opener and caused a stir with a stark television appearance in which he described himself “frustrated, gutted and angry”.
England went on to lose the match by four wickets and will take the field at Emirates Old Trafford this morning showing at least three changes to their XI, one of which will surely see Broad’s comeback as leader of the attack.
The return of captain Joe Root led to the almost inevitable dropping of Joe Denly after 15 unconvincing appearances at the highest level, but Anderson and Wood have both been left out of a 13-man squad with an eye on workload management.
As if to ram the point home the pair were officially listed as ‘rested’ by the England and Wales Cricket Board, rather than among a separate group of seven reserve players.
The condensed nature of the schedule meant a rotation policy among the quicks was always forecast and, after sending down a combined 74 overs at the Ageas Bowl, Anderson and Wood have been shuffled out. For England’s record wicket-taker it means he must wait until the third Test to bowl from the James Anderson End at his home ground.
All-rounder Sam Curran and uncapped Sussex seamer Ollie Robinson were promoted in their absence, though Warwickshire’s Chris Woakes is arguably next in line. Curran does offer a point of difference as a left-armer and his footmarks may also be of benefit to off-spinner Dom Bess, but Woakes has a bowling average of 23.45 and a batting average of 35.23 in English conditions and brings plenty of experience to bear.
Root, who watched the action last week with his family’s new arrival Isabella, will hope to harness Broad’s disgruntlement at Manchester but accepts
circumstances are moving towards regularly splitting the hard labour of fast bowling.
Anderson and Broad may be the top two wicket-takers in England’s history but they are also 37 and 34 respectively, and may benefit from the lighter load.
“With Stuart and Jimmy, trying to maximise their careers is really important to make sure they are playing for as long as possible,” said Root.
“If that has to be slightly different to how it has been over the last few years then we might have to think outside the box and not play them in every game or not play them together all the time.
“That is not to say it won’t happen again, they are two world-class performers and we are very very lucky to have them. I think it is important that we don’t wish them away too early or look elsewhere too quickly. I think to wish that away early or to push them to one side would be stupid, I really do.
“But I think we’ve got to deal with it well – be smart with it – and we will find opportunities to play other guys too.”
Denly, 34, is a player whose body of work at the highest level is considerably thinner, 15 Tests with an average of 29.53 and no centuries. His ability to chew up time and deliveries has been a boon to the middle order since he debuted in January 2019, but his failure to go on to telling scores has ultimately counted against him.
“Joe has done a brilliant job over a period of time for us and I suppose he’s helped show our identity as a side, the way we want to play moving forward,” said Root. “It’s a very difficult decision we’ve had to make but we’ve gone a different way.”
IN the wake of England’s defeat in the first Test against the West Indies I vented my spleen on social media.
For why, if it is obvious to the average man in the street that Joe Denly is extremely unlikely to be the solution at No 3, and Jos Buttler the solution as the team’s wicketkeeper/batsman, is it not obvious to the selectors/ management?
Sure enough, Denly made little impression in the fourwicket defeat at the Ageas Bowl, contributing scores of 18 and 29 to make it 15 Tests without a hundred since his debut last year, and Buttler (one hundred in 42 Tests), contributed 35 and 9 and also dropped a vital catch on the final day.
Although it is always players who win or lose games by dint of their performances, it could be logically argued that England’s selection strategy cost them the match.
And although this column has nothing personally against Ed Smith, is it unreasonable to enquire exactly what function he is fulfilling in his role as national selector since he appears to be not so much pulling rabbits from the hat as sending out lambs to the slaughter?
Unless Denly and Buttler somehow hit their straps (and Denly is the one making way for the returning Joe Root in today’s second Test at Old Trafford), then these are outright bad decisions by Smith and his panel, ones that should not be passed off with platitudes that insult our intelligence.
Prior to the first Test, Smith said: “The England team has batted with more consistency and solidity throughout the order and Joe Denly has been a big part of that.”
I repeat, Denly has scored no Test centuries, his average now standing at 29.53.
Smith went on: “When Covid-19 caused a suspension of cricket, Jos Buttler was the man in possession and has our full support as England’s wicketkeeper-batsman.”
I repeat, Buttler has scored one hundred in 42 Tests.
Perhaps England are working on the principle that if you keep picking someone for long enough they are bound to come right sooner or later.
During the course of my social media discharge (the former England cricket chief Hugh Morris was quite right, incidentally, when he said that Twitter is like giving machine guns to monkeys), I ventured that I could have picked three Yorkshire players alone who could have done a better job than Denly, and that’s intending no disrespect to Denly.
It is actually four players as I completely forgot about Dawid Malan, who has yet to play for the club and is on the way back from injury, to go with Jonny Bairstow, Gary Ballance and Tom KohlerCadmore.
Bairstow, in my opinion, is an obviously better batsman than Denly and also a better wicketkeeper-batsman than Buttler, while Ben Foakes is a better option than Buttler too.
I would back Ballance and Kohler-Cadmore to score more runs than Denly, and there are players from other counties who could do a superior job.
What interested me, however, as I watched the various responses come in to my ramblings, was the level of opprobrium that exists towards Ballance.
One respondent said: “If Ballance is the answer I have no idea what the question is. He’s had more goes at Test cricket than I’ve had hot dinners.”
At least it’s not just us journalists who are guilty of cliche, by the way...
Another snorted: “Ballance has had more comebacks than Take That.”
Ditto.
Someone else said: “I’m sorry but are you p*ssed? Ballance proven not good enough.”
As it happens, it was one of the few occasions when I was not completely blotto, but the point is that Ballance scores runs.
Indeed, only one England player at the Ageas Bowl (Ollie Pope) has a better Test average than his 37.45, and Pope is only at the start of his career.
Granted, Ballance might have struggled latterly, his technique ripped apart by former players and so on, but the main currency is runs and to completely write him off at the age of 30 seems unfair.
In 16 Tests batting at No 3, Ballance has scored 1,254 runs at 46.44 with four hundreds.
Food for thought, if nothing else.