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Striking the right balance: England needs measured batting and brave selection

By Vithushan Ehantharajah

If England were looking for an easy way out of one of the biggest selection decisions of any decade, they found it on the first day of 2020. A sore right elbow meant Jofra Archer was unable to bowl during practice at Newlands ahead of the second Test that is starting today. It means it is now unlikely James Anderson or Stuart Broad will miss out despite rumblings that one of England’s best opening partnership was to be broken up.

That particular fire was stoked by Kevin Pietersen, who saw in the New Year with a tweet suggesting the tourists “HAVE TO” drop one or the other. It certainly seems they’ll entertain a spinner in the shape of Somerset’s Dom Bess, with Ollie Pope suspected to come in to replace Jonny Bairstow having recovered from illness. For the first time on tour, the squad has a clean bill of health.

Both players looked labored in the 107-run defeat at Johannesburg, though illness was a mitigating factor.

Broad, to be fair to him, picked up four for 58 in the first innings, though Anderson claimed just the two wickets across 33 overs in both. It is the latter who looked the most out of sorts relative to his usual output. Being 37, talk of decline or retirement is only one bad performance away.

As Anderson has revealed in the past, retirement on his terms will come on a day when he decides the drive is no more, and that’s certainly not evident from his work in training. The motivation to play is heightened by an Ashes and New Zealand series spent in rehab and his previous success at Friday’s venue, albeit a decade ago when he took five for 63 – the only one of his 27 fivewicket hauls taken in South Africa.

Broad, by contrast, has three wickets from 75 overs sent down here.

There’s something quite gauche about entertaining the axing of Anderson or Broad – or both – as we tick over from a decade where they were the leading wicket-takers, making 832 dismissals between them since 2010. It not only shows how reliant England have been on them but also how no one has come close to challenging them. Had Sam Curran not taken 4 for 58 with Broad in the first innings, or even been a left-arm option who can bat, their partnership would have moved more smoothly into the new year. Chris Silverwood was coy on this matter immediately after the first Test, suggesting one might have to make way for the spinner but heaping praise on both, particularly their experience with 285 caps between them.

But while it was the bowling attack that failed to make good on a position of 111 for 5 on day one at Johannesburg after Joe Root won the toss, it was the batsmen who yet again fell in a heap to give up a 103-run lead that meant the 376 target was comfortably out of reach. From a point of 142 for 3, they were bowled out for 181.

Last year, just five players averaged over 30, while only one –Ben Stokes – finished 2019 above 40. Three of those players are “newcomers”: Rory Burns, Joe Denly and Pope, though the latter’s average of 36.66 was achieved across just three innings.

Jos Buttler averaged just 25, regressing after a bright start to his second act as a Test cricketer since returning to the side in May 2018. At the time, national selector Ed Smith raved about his natural gifts and ability to take the game away from opposition sides. But the player himself admits trying to be the player he’s expected to be, alongside the expectations he has in himself, is a work in progress. There was a flash of the destructive Buttler, with two crashing sixes in the last innings chase, the second of which came when he was the last hope before being dismissed trying for a third. He, much like England, will be focussing on striking the right balance in such a short space of time. At 1-0 down, with three to play, only measured batting and brave selection will do.

Source: Economic Times