Dry summer is given as the official reason for the unusually benign pitches in the first two Tests of this series. The heavy weather the England players make of batting on challenging tracks could be a real reason for the changed conditions in these parts. Day 4 of the Lord’s Test could be an important exhibit if ever an inquest of the pitches is laid out after this series.
In the morning, when Jasprit Bumrah, bowling from the Nursery End, got the ball to take off from a patch outside off-side and Mohammed Siraj had finally got the hang of using the slope from the Pavilion End, England’s Bazballers were like one-dimensional batsmen on a hot-tin pitch. Not equipped to play the waiting game, they were jumpy, edgy and ugly. They got injured not because they were putting their body on line, they got blows to their bodies as they didn’t know how to defend the ball.
They went charging down the track and couldn’t stop themselves from throwing their hands at balls that needed to be sent home. Once that was not working, they took the pragmatic decision to be themselves and play the unconventional strokes. Out came the ramps and those gung-ho heaves. It looked foolish but that was a wise call. When you don’t know how to defend, you can’t survive. That’s when you play your natural game but that wasn’t working on a pitch where there was sharp bounce at one end and seam movement at the other.
The moment that summed up the morning of England’s misery was the wicket of their young Bazballer, the Test captain in-waiting, Harry Brook. He started with a pre-meditated walk around the crease to disturb the bowler. Dancing down the track, backing away from the stumps or coming inside the line – at times even before the ball has left the bowler’s hand – Brook was doing all Bazball things. This wasn’t working. He was connecting less, missing more.
Against Akash Deep, he launched Plan B. He brought out the scoop and reverse-batted it over the wicket-keeper’s head. He did it twice and followed with a straight drive down the ground. The confidence had returned in a big way and that resulted in his dismissal.
With the scoop working, Brook thought of trying the less-risky sweep. The choice of shot was right since the fielder was placed fine but he didn’t pick the right ball. He was clean bowled while trying to sweep a full ball, almost a yorker. He made 23 from 19 balls, not the kind of knock England wanted on Day 4 for a tight Test. It was a knock that would have damaged the reputation of a batsman being counted among world cricket’s new Fab Four.
Walking wicket
Zak Crawley, along with mental agony, had to endure physical pain. He got repeatedly hit on his fingers attempting the front-foot defence against Bumrah. It was not a great sight to see the opener when he would drop the bat, look at his finger anxiously while writhing in pain. Like it was last night, the physio would run to attend to him but this time there was no way of questioning the emergency call made to him. There would be bruises on his inner thigh too as he would constantly get hit by Siraj’s menacing nip-backers. Crawley totally looked out of place in the Test arena.
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It was the arrival of the much slower Nitish Reddy that would light up the eyes of the opener. His opening partner Ben Duckett too had got out when he had got excited by a Siraj short ball. What he didn’t read was the bite the bouncer had. He attempted one of his free-flowing Bazball hoicks to mid-wicket but the ball would reach into the hands of mid-on. Crawley made a similar mistake. He tried a cover drive of a seemingly harmless ball from Reddy that moved and was caught by Jaiswal at gully.
The Lord’s whodunit is easy to crack. It isn’t the weather, it’s the batsmen.
