SAM MORSHEAD AT LORD'S: It was the sort of brilliant nonsense which has followed English Test cricket on its merry journey in recent months; the answer to a question no one asked, a makeshift solution to a problem which is still somehow unsolvable
Jack Leach must have dreamed of receiving a standing ovation at Lord’s on his home Test debut. But not like this.
Tonight, Leach can proudly lay claim to the highest individual men’s Test score for four months - a slightly stilted stat, given the general lack of red-ball cricket around the World Cup, but poignant nonetheless for a man employed for his left-arm spin, whose previous best at the top level was just 16.
Since the retirement of Sir Alastair Cook, there has only been one bigger return from an England opener - Keaton Jennings’ 146 at Galle. Leach’s previous best in first-class cricket prior was 66 - made for his county Somerset against Lancashire last year.
He was obdurate, obstinate and vigilant in defence, though beaten often by the nibble of Tim Murtagh and dropped twice behind the stumps. He drove confidently and at times cut off the back foot with fluency and flair.
No wonder the crowd, to a man, woman and former prime minister, rose for the spinner as he shuffled off, bat raised, glasses on, a cricketing Clark Kent taking the adulation for his Superman stint.
CricViz revealed that, since 2006, only one man has scored 92 or more in a Test innings and clocked a higher false shot ratio than Leach’s 30 per cent here, yet comparisons between the son of Somerset and the world’s elite red-ball batsmen hardly seem fair.
Jack Leach made 92 for England against Ireland
While he is not a complete novice with the bat, this innings was very much a voyage of discovery; a stride here, a tentative prod there, breaking new ground with every minute at the wicket. He lasted 220 of them in all, and 162 balls, for his 92.
No English nightwatchman has made quite the same impact since Alex Tudor reached 99 against New Zealand 20 years ago.
It is the sort of brilliant nonsense which has followed English Test cricket on its merry journey in recent months; the answer to a question no one asked, a makeshift solution to a problem which is somehow still unsolvable.
Because, for all the enjoyment Leach gave a full house at Lord’s, his innings only went to serve yet another reminder of England’s fragility with the bat.
If he could do it, why couldn’t they?
Though Jason Roy responded to his limp first outing in Test cricket with a chest-beating 72, Rory Burns once again fluffed his lines, nicking behind on the drive in a virtual carbon copy of his dismissal 24 hours previously.
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Burns has now failed to reach 50 in 14 first-class innings, straddling appearances for club and country, and averages a shade over 22 across his seven-match Test career. It is just as well for the Surrey captain that The Ashes are banging on the door, else the selectors - who have historically shown the leniency of evil stepmothers on royal ball night - might well have sprung into action.
Mark Stoneman only got 11 matches before being chopped; Keaton Jennings had six, then 10, then a one-game cameo; Adam Lyth seven. And so on, and so on.
We all know this tune, it’s been bouncing around our heads and driving us all crazy for years.
But it remains the song we cannot stop playing.
Burns’ cause is bolstered by the fact his would-be replacements - Dom Sibley of Warwickshire and Kent’s Zak Crawley - would have to make their international debuts against Australia’s nostril-flaring pace quartet. There is trial by fire, and there is filling your boots with nitroglycerin and jumping feet-first into the bonfire.
Burns is also widely expected to take part in an Ashes series dominated by bowlers - let’s not forget, while England were busy imploding at Lord’s, the Australians had themselves 556-35 in a tremendously low-scoring intramural warm-up on the south coast. A steadfast 70 here and an upstart 60 there, rather than big hundreds, could prove to be match-defining. And he has opened the batting in English conditions more than any other cricketer these past five seasons. It seems as though England have little option but to keep Burns, pair him with Roy, and keep their fingers crossed.
Lower down the order, however, there is more scope for change.
Joe Denly’s call-up to the Test team, at 32 and off the back of form in primarily white-ball cricket, was always a curious one. Ed Smith’s curviest of curveballs seemed to be rooted in gut instinct rather than raw data - that is odd for Smith, who promised decisions driven by numbers when he came to power last summer.
Leach's score was the second best by an England opener in men's Tests since the retirement of Sir Alastair Cook
Denly’s numbers are 147 runs from six innings at 24.50. He was horribly unlucky to be handed a hospital pass by his captain and run out in the second innings here, but otherwise has shown little to suggest he belongs.
With Moeen Ali - seven ducks for England in all formats over the past year - offering scant insurance and Jonny Bairstow apparently stuck in ODI mode and in desperate need of a Michael Vaughan put-me-down, way too much is falling on Joe Root.
England's numbers four through seven made 52 runs in this Test match. Not so much a house built on sand as a sandcastle standing on a sieve.
England will be reinforced by the return of Ben Stokes, their most in-form batsman, and the sheer presence of Jos Buttler will energise the lower middle order, but as Starc, Cummins, Pattinson and Siddle scrape their hooves in the dirt there is good reason for this red-faced, raggedy batting line-up to be frightened.
On a day made for batting, against an unproven Test attack, they crumpled for the second time in two days. And they would not even have a sliver of a chance of saving themselves but for the gumption and grind of a 28-year-old left-arm spinner from Taunton.
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Posted by Marc Evans on 26/07/2019 at 18:20
The 'over my dead body' test match ethos has now been taken over by the white ball version 'you will never dominate me whilst I'm in' epitomised yesterday by Roy, who was dancing down the wicket and hoisting good length balls into the crowd. The consequences of concentrating on white ball empowerment after the debacle of the last World Cup has led to a dirth of available test match mentality players prepared to knuckle down for the long haul. Of course resting key players and picking probably the weakest top 6 we have ever fielded for a test didn't help, along with the undoubted mental and physical fatigue the last few weeks of hectic World Cup action. The Smith and Bayliss philosophy that you can take form from one format into another doesn't make sense here. The reason our ODI form was no inconsistent before was due to the shoeing in of test players, which is exactly the same principle. Now we have an ECB that wants to promote 'The Hundred' at the expense of the red ball game and still expect test success. It shows an alrming lack of understanding. Anyone watching this latest debacle can see where the technical problems are, yet we continue to develop the game in a way that encourages these problems. In the last 30 test innings we have passed 400 once, and that thanks to a retired Cook, possibly the last manufactured test player we will see in this country. The bowlers have done better here, but they haven't had the World Cup to contend with, apart from Woakes, who looked pretty jaded. Leach played the conditions, letting it come to him on a seamers wicket so playing it late and off the pitch, not chasing it. After all there were 4 days to get a result.
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