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Sports writers love a Churchillian speech that precedes a mind-bending feat. Take three years ago, when word got back that Brendon McCullum had told his England players to “run towards the danger” at Trent Bridge before Jonny Bairstow vaporised a target of 299 against New Zealand. It was like ruddy catnip for the press corps.
And this time, after reeling in 371 at Headingley at a breezy 4.5 runs per over and with 14 overs to spare? Apparently very little was said in the dressing room beforehand beyond “bat the day, win the game” or Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett deciding between them to ignore the target and just “play like it was day one”.
Not nearly so sexy, admittedly, but perhaps in its own way just as instructive. It may just be that after three years of McCullum and Ben Stokes unstitching some old-world English thinking about chasing – pressure, historical precedence, securing the draw before turning thoughts to the win – we are now witnessing the upshot: a team with such clarity in these situations that sabres no longer need to be rattled.
“My mindset personally was a bit different to what it has been over the last couple of years,” admitted Duckett, his match-winning 149 from 170 balls having begun with caution against the obvious threat of Jasprit Bumrah. “It was potentially a bit of maturity from me kicking in, trying to see [Bumrah] off, not necessarily playing any big shots, and knowing it would get easier.
“And massive credit to Zak [who made 65 in an opening stand of 188]. The way he played, I took my hat off to him. He is definitely thinking about batting differently now. He’s still smacking the bad ball away but his thought process is so calm.”
It does feel like the project as a whole has gone this way a touch of late; that the big talk has not only receded in public – as per Rob Key’s directive – but also eased off behind closed doors. There were still moments when aggression tipped into self-harm, like Jamie Smith holing out on day three with the second new ball moments away. But at the back end of the chase, 69 to win, Smith fed off Joe Root’s typically low heart-rate at the other end and played a gem for his 44 not out.
This is where the naysayers will interject, of course, pointing to the rash of catches India grassed across the match, a pitch that stayed largely true to the end, plus another season of Dukes balls that seem to need changing more often than a newborn’s nappy. Just like the one-day team under Eoin Morgan that stuck an extra run on established scoring rates between 2015 and 2019, England being the team to shift the dial tends to invite a fair degree of scepticism and caveats.
The drops? Well, England put down a couple of costly ones themselves. Pitches that suit Bazball? At Headingley such surfaces predate the Stokes-McCullum axis when you remember Shai Hope’s magnum opus in 2017. Even with a few sliding doors moments, not uncommon over five days, this victory was still pretty remarkable. And not just the run chase either, but for England surviving two slogs in the field as India chalked up five centuries. Not long ago, shoulders would have slumped here.
Alastair Cook admitted as much afterwards, telling Test Match Special that had he won the toss and seen the opposition reach 430 for three – India’s position mid-morning day two – players would have been questioning his judgment internally. But not so this current bunch under Stokes, who, to pinch a line from his own Headingley heist in 2019, seem to “never, ever give up”.
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Granted, there have been some messy implosions along the way, the likes of Lord’s during the 2023 Ashes or Rajkot last year. But the 835 runs that India scored across the two innings in Leeds was the fourth highest total conceded by a team that has gone on to win. Under Stokes and McCullum, England are also second and third on this list after the 847 runs shipped in Rawalpindi in late 2022 and 837 during that “run towards the danger” Test in Nottingham six months earlier.
After an England win there is usually still a talking point or two as regards selection for the next Test and with Jofra Archer on the comeback trail at Chester-le-Street these past four days there may well be again. But go down from one to 11 and every incumbent contributed to this 1-0 lead. Even Shoaib Bashir did the thing folks thought beyond his current stage of development, the rookie holding an end in the first innings when the seamers struggled to locate the right length.
Chris Woakes, you say? He has clearly had better games with the ball and, aged 36 with the body possibly starting to creak, it is taking him longer to get up and running. But then consider his 38 in England’s first innings, repelling the second new ball and one half of three partnerships worth a combined 111 runs. It may not have been headline-grabbing stuff but it was still utterly central to the cause. And not least considering India’s Nos 8-11 managed just nine runs between them in the match.
It is here where the tables have been turned since England’s 4-1 defeat in India last year, a tour that had the locals scratching their heads as to why the visitors kept compromising their ability to take 20 wickets by insuring themselves against a lengthy tail. As counterintuitive as it sounds after Josh Tongue razed their lower order twice, India would be better served playing their best four wicket-taking bowlers plus Ravindra Jadeja – and making sure the catches start to stick.
