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15th over: Zimbabwe 51-2 (Curran 15, Williams 31) Stokes draws another thick edge out of Curran, but it doesn’t go to hand and it’s a no-ball anyway. After demonstrating an immaculate forward-defence, Curran plays an uncertain pull and comes close to spooning it to square leg. The camera shows a close-up of Curran smiling that may remind Tom van der Gucht of Curran’s younger brother, Sam.
14th over: Zimbabwe 47-2 (Curran 12, Williams 31) As if he’s read that last sentence, Curran suddenly goes down the track to Cook – although when he gets there, he decides that discretion is the better part of valour and plays a defensive shot.
“I like the look of Sam Cook,” says Tom van der Gucht, “quite literally as he has a similar appearance to one of my all-time favourite X-Factor contestants, Olly Murs, from the glory days of watching it whilst following Stuart Heritage’s Guardian live blog.” There speaks a true OBOer.
13th over: Zimbabwe 46-2 (Curran 11, Williams 31) Curran is dropped! By Stokes himself, getting his hands to a loose drive but unable to cling on. For a nasty moment it looks as if Stokes may have broken a finger, but he only winces for a moment.
When Curran nudges a single, Sean Williams smacks two fours – a cut and a pull. Stokes tries a yorker but Williams spots it and plays a dead bat. He has 31 off 21 balls, while his team-mates have 14 off 57 between them.
12th over: Zimbabwe 37-2 (Curran 10, Williams 23) At the other end it’s Sam Cook, England’s Steady Eddie. A caption reveals that his average speed in the match has been 78mph. He starts with a maiden, keeping Williams quiet.
11th over: Zimbabwe 37-2 (Curran 10, Williams 23) Stokes starts with a loosener on the pads and Sean Williams nudges it for a single. Then he slots straight into top gear, sending a spicy lifter through to Jamie Smith. The next ball takes a thick edge as Ben Curran plays a hurried shovel. It’s close enough to gully to have Stokes leaping in the air, but it goes away for four – Curran’s first boundary in the 39 balls he has faced in the match. When Stokes swings the ball back in, Curran picks up two off the other edge. They all count.
And Stokes decides that the bowling will be opened by … himself.
Ben Stokes leads England out as Jerusalem rings out around Trent Bridge. The stands look about half-full.
Breaking news: India have a new captain
India’s captain for the Test tour of England will be … Shubman Gill. The board must have been tempted to appoint the great Jasprit Bumrah, but they’ve decided to let him concentrate on knocking the stumps over.
Gill, who opens the batting, has strong credentials after leading Gujarat Titans to the top of this year’s IPL table (and averaging 50 himself). He has captained India five times in T20s but never in a Test. At 25 he is on the young side for a Test captain and his deputy will be Rishabh Pant, who’s 27, so this is a fresh start for India following the retirement of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
There are still a couple of veterans in the 18-man squad in Ravi Jadeja and KL Rahul. But Mohammed Shami has been left out as he makes his way back from injury, so English crowds will miss out on some sumptuous swing bowling.
Full squad: Shubman Gill (capt), Rishabh Pant (vice-capt), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Druv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.
Preamble
Morning everyone and welcome to the third day of the men’s international summer. Is anybody old enough to remember when Test cricket was a slow process?
This match is moving fast even by modern standards. The first day was all about runs, as England piled up 498, including 200 after tea. The second day was all about wickets, 14 of them spread across three innings. Even Brian Bennett, who bagged the headlines with his fearless hundred, found time to get out twice.
The upshot is that Zimbabwe need another 270 runs to make England bat again. And England need another seven wickets to wrap up an innings victory. It could be all over by lunchtime, as long as the rain holds off.
Even in a Test mismatch there are plenty of sub-plots. Can Ben Curran, already the only member of his talented family with an international century, make one in a Test? Can Sam Cook use the cloud cover to show that medium-fast bowling still matters? Can Shoaib Bashir keep taking just enough Test wickets to stay in the team, or is he just keeping a place warm for Jacob Bethell? Can Sean Williams continue to rattle along at two runs a ball? We shall see.
Play starts at 11am BST, weather permitting.
