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The third Test at Lord’s was an outstanding game and a brilliant win for England, particularly after the hammering they received at Edgbaston. To come back and show the mettle they did as a group of players was hugely impressive. Now, 10 days later, they have to go again, and the fourth game may be the most intriguing yet.
For England, Liam Dawson returns after an eight-year Test absence. I was involved with the side when he was picked and played in 2016 – he was a good cricketer then, and is a better one now. He is recognised as the best all-round spinning option in the country and my view is that England are stronger with him. Shoaib Bashir has great potential and seems to be making good strides forward as a young spin bowler, but in his place comes a vastly experienced 35-year-old who has played all formats and all round the world, has 18 first-class hundreds to his name and is clearly a better all-round package.
My preference as a captain was always to have a left-arm spinner in the lineup, and at Middlesex I was lucky to play with Phil Tufnell, who was as good as they came. As a match wears on they are able to take advantage of the rough to left-handed batters, and have the option of bowling over the wicket to right-handers – as we’ve seen Ravindra Jadeja do in this series – landing the ball just outside leg stump, an unusual trajectory that leaves some batters unsure what to play and what to leave. Ben Stokes can be confident as captain that if he throws the ball to Dawson on day one or day five, he has the experience and the knowhow to set fields accordingly and play his part as a key member of the bowling unit.
India may also have a fresh left-arm spinning option if, as rumoured, Kuldeep Yadav comes into the side in Manchester. Traditionally the Old Trafford surface tends to be dry and abrasive, and to turn as the game goes on. If ever there was a pitch where it would make sense for Kuldeep to come in, this would be it. One down with two to play, they have to go for broke at Old Trafford, which means Jasprit Bumrah will make his third and possibly final appearance of the series – and they also have to respond to the knee injury that has ruled Nitish Kumar Reddy out of the remainder of the series, decide whether Karun Nair has done enough to keep his place, and assess whether Rishabh Pant has recovered fully from the hand injury that prevented him keeping wicket at Lord’s.
The rivalry between the sides ramped up a gear during the last game, with some angry scenes breaking out towards the end of day three as a result of Zak Crawley’s rather crass time-wasting. Batters at the end of a long day are always prone to pulling away or tying up a shoelace but this was particularly poor and it really exposed the umpires, who throughout the match seemed most intent on keeping quiet and not getting involved. On the Saturday, I watched England bowl for an hour, by the end of which they were four overs behind the rate, at which point they had the most leisurely drinks break. It seemed to take for ever as the players milled around, had a chat, sat down for a bit. There was no urgency at all and the umpires just let it carry on.
Many people would say Crawley was just being professional, doing whatever it took to help his side, and if the umpires weren’t bothered then carry on. But I thought he pushed things too far and what can happen then, and did happen, is the opposition taking umbrage and discipline started breaking down. Shubman Gill, the India captain, got quite animated and to be honest I didn’t know he had that in him.
Importantly he was backed up by the rest of his players – it is in moments such as this that you see how together a team are. While I was not a fan of what happened, Gill saw his team were right there with him and showed real togetherness. It reminded me a bit of an incident in 1998 when England were playing South Africa at Lord’s: Dean Headley was told to bowl short at Allan Donald and did so with pace and aggression, but then when his turn came to bat the whole South Africa team ran from wherever they were around the field to surround him as he walked out and give him plenty to think about. It showed everyone that they were a team – if you attack one of us, you attack all of us.
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Mohammed Siraj was fined for his reaction to the dismissal of Ben Duckett the following morning. Siraj is a big character, a wholehearted player, and even without Crawley’s time-wasting his emotions would have been charged by being part of a really testing new-ball battle against two England openers who try to play shots, get on top and dominate. So when he got Duckett out there was a release of that emotion, and obviously he said a few things.
I’m not a fan of bowlers getting up in someone’s face after a wicket – they’ve got the batter out, they’ve won the battle, well done, move on – and even the slightest physical contact is a massive no-no. To me, Siraj got too close to Duckett. But at the same time we have to understand these are human beings who are playing for their countries, and it means a lot to them. It would be much worse for there to be no reaction because it doesn’t mean much. Imperfect as they were, moments such as this helped to turn the third Test into brilliant box office, and I can’t wait for the sequel.
