New Zealand made a solid start against England in the second Test at Hamilton. NICK FRIEND takes a look at some of the key topics of discussion to emerge...
The events of Mount Maunganui remain on the minds of England’s thinktank; that much is clear. This was a team selection not so much focused on what lies ahead over the next five days, but on what transpired during a chastening first Test defeat.
New Zealand helped themselves to 615 for 9; Jofra Archer – English cricket’s new toy – bowled 42 overs; Jack Leach – England’s spinner in a country where that role is often a thankless task – toiled through 47 of his own.
Joe Root himself rolled through 18 overs; Ben Stokes’ warrior figure willed 26 more out of a well to which England have so often gone in recent times – to the increasing detriment, one fears, of his own wellbeing.
It was an excruciating experience for a touring team that, ever since winning in South Africa four years ago, has simply struggled to take wickets in conditions like these.
The result was the culling of Leach, with Chris Woakes – sporting a freshly-chiseled beard – brought in to replace him.
“We're trying to find ways of taking 20 wickets in these conditions,” Root admitted at the toss. “We feel this is a great opportunity on a surface like this to explore something different.”
It was harsh on the Somerset man; it is hard – in truth – to understand quite what Leach has done wrong thus far in a Test career that reads 10 games, 34 wickets, an average of 29.02 and an economy rate of 2.85. He has fought plenty of adversity in getting to this point and, for the first time in an England shirt, came to New Zealand as the man in possession of the first-choice spinner’s role.
Mark Butcher, speaking on Sky Sports after the team had been revealed, described the decision to leave him out as “nonsense”. It was hard to disagree; with the Kookaburra ball proving as unresponsive as ever on a placid surface, Root ended up turning his arm over before lunch. How he must have been pining for his spinner. If not always threatening, Leach’s marathon spell at Tauranga had, at least, given his captain an element of control.
In a curious manner, the left-armer’s ability with the ball has gone somewhat under the radar during his short international career thus far. His major contributions, of course, have come with the bat – 92 at Lord’s against Ireland, before the most famous 1* in Test history.
Yet, he remains a fine bowler – one who could scarcely have given England more in the first Test on a wicket that gave nobody anything until the final four sessions.
As a general rule, there are very few occasions when a five-man, spin-free attack could possibly be the appropriate move. It becomes more difficult for a captain to manoeuvre his plans – Ben Stokes was only introduced for the first time in the 45th over. He only bowled six more balls, before giving in to what looked like a sore knee.
Tom Latham made an unbeaten hundred, looking in control for the vast majority of the day
If it’s swinging and seaming, then four seamers will more than do the job. And as Shane Warne used to implore, if it seams, it will spin. If it’s doing nothing for the faster men, then you need a spinner in any case.
The last time England went in without a specialist was at Headingley in 2012 when England faced South Africa in the game that preceded Text-gate. Graeme Swann was left out, albeit on account of a dodgy weather forecast. Kevin Pietersen ended up bowling 16 overs of off-spin; Imran Tahir and JP Duminy shared 30.4 overs for the visitors.
Here, the belief seemed to be that it would swing and seam – there was grass on the Hamilton pitch and England’s seamers would, therefore, exploit it. But as it happened, even before play begun, Craig McMillan suggested that this was a drier surface than he was used to seeing at Seddon Park.
In truth, it is hard to recall a single delivery that genuinely deviated. Nor, indeed, did any bowler find much in the way of swing. According to CricViz, England found just 0.46 degrees of swing in the morning session – the least they have managed in the opening 28 overs of any innings for a year.
It only took a few deliveries to determine that, predictably, Ollie Pope could catch. Tom Latham shouldered arms to a delivery that drifted over his off-stump and Pope, tumbling to his right, looked accomplished in collecting the delivery.
To be brutally honest, I don’t think anyone was expecting Pope to be a novice – he kept for England Lions in February, although that was the last time he wore the gloves in first-class cricket.
More, it was the manner in which he came to be lumbered with them that has baffled so many. Not since 1907 has a player with so few appearances as a wicketkeeper in first-class cricket done the job in a Test for England.
In recent times, for all the shortages of top-order batsmen and 90mph fast bowlers, the keeping stocks have been in fine supply. Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Foakes have all done the job with some distinction. And yet, with Buttler’s back ruling him out, Pope – a man looking to make his own way in the Test game with bat in hand – took on the role by default.
It is by no means the end of the world – Pope’s competence saw to that. Yet, it wreaks of muddled planning; Ed Smith clarified when he announced the initial squad for this series that this would be the direction of travel.
The first day of the second Test came to a premature end due to rain
In a sense, it is not news. We were told this would happen should Buttler go down, with Foakes on standby. But it remains an unusual choice. There is no tour further from home than that of New Zealand, no trip to which it is harder to ship out replacements. Why not err on the side of caution, but also on the side of common sense?
The banishing of Bairstow once Joe Denly was deemed to have fully recovered from his ankle complaint made sense. The Yorkshireman has been dropped rather than rested from England’s red-ball side – to draft him back in because of a single injury would have served little purpose.
What of Foakes, however? The Surrey keeper who announced himself onto the Test arena with a hundred on debut in Sri Lanka. Had he first come into the side solely as a batsman, perhaps he would still be in it now – he averages 41.50 in his five games.
Pope, though, ensured that in the short-term, this was a moot point. It was a credit to his own mindset that he went virtually unnoticed behind the stumps, beaten only by an Archer bouncer that flew over his head.
No Trent Boult, no Colin de Grandhomme. No problem. And still, Lockie Ferguson was forced to watch on from the sidelines. New Zealand can rarely have possessed such depth to their player pool.
One of the great insults to the cricket team of this nation – an island desperately proud of its sporting traditions – is to suggest that it punches above its weight.
What they have here is not a group of plucky underdogs, but a side led by one of the finest players of his generation and followed by a series of desperately talented colleagues. Few around the world have scored the volume of runs that Ross Taylor has managed in the last decade. BJ Watling showed his own class in the first Test between these teams, while Henry Nicholls has spent the last two years becoming a star on the world stage.
Jimmy Neesham, surely a shoo-in in New Zealand outfits of the past, was overlooked for Daryl Mitchell, making his Test debut here at his home ground.
He becomes the first son of an All Black to play international cricket for New Zealand. As I say, a proud sporting nation…
What England would do for Tom Latham. Unfussy, untroubled, uncomplicated – an opening batsman built in the image of his captain, manufactured with an unfailing respect for the format. This was as fine a knock from an opening batsman as one could be likely to find.
When England strayed too straight, he punished them, clipping the seamers through midwicket at will. When they pushed wider, he watched the ball go by, drawing the bowlers back towards his areas, preying on their patience in the knowledge that his would outlast theirs.
The eighth-ranked batsman in Test cricket provided a fine reminder of quite why that is the case: before coming into this game, he held an average of 43.57 across 80 knocks at the top of the order. Since the start of the 2018/19 season, he has averaged 71.40 in the Test arena.
Curiously, however, this was his highest score against any of the other four sides currently in the top five of the Test rankings (England, Australia, India, South Africa) – a record that spans 20 matches.
This effort, though, was a pretty decent blueprint to follow for England’s inexperienced young pretenders.
Barring a single chance offered to Ben Stokes when on 66, this was a fairly chanceless display of opening batsmanship.
Ben Stokes dropped Tom Latham when he had made 66
VAR. It’s everywhere. Stuart Broad looked to have Ross Taylor stone dead. Playing across a full delivery, Taylor appeared to know it too. Broad launched an extraordinary celebrappeal – fist-pumps, battle-cries and all. Paul Wilson raised his finger and, really, that should have been the end of the episode.
England had planned for this outcome, Taylor knew he had been outthought. They would hide the ball outside his off-stump, before firing a surprise delivery back in at his pads, well aware of his propensity to fall over himself.
Bruce Oxenford, in the third umpire’s chair, saw it differently. Spooked by a spike on Ultra Edge – albeit out of sync with the ball passing the bat, he overturned the decision based also on a spec on Hotspot. That, too, however, seemed already to be in place as Taylor played his shot.
We saw a similar incident – to a degree – during the recent Ashes series. Craig Overton was initially given out LBW to Pat Cummins at Old Trafford only for replays to clearly show an inside edge.
Yet, the process became a protracted one, with the third umpire fully focused on the technology rather than what could be seen by the naked eye. Eventually, common sense prevailed on that occasion.
Here, however, Oxenford never really took the front-on angle into account. Taylor was reprieved, at least until he flashed to Joe Root at slip. A rare bright spot for the England captain, whose catching was outstanding, on a difficult day.
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