How and where West Indies can beat England at The Ageas Bowl

ByAnirudh Suresh, SportsCafe Editor

07/07/2020

It was 3 years ago that the Windies last won an away Test against a team ranked inside the Top 8. Incidentally, though, that very win came against the side who they will be locking horns with, come Wednesday. So, do Holder’s men stand a chance of beating England and if they do, how can they do it?

While the red-ball form of England and West Indies, heading into this series, are as contrasting as it can get - an away series win against South Africa vs a home humbling against India - the visitors will definitely fancy their chances, for the simple fact that it was less than 18 months ago that they ravaged the Three Lions back in the Caribbean. That said, England will, however, be overwhelming favourites heading into the first Test, but we look at three key areas where the Windies can potentially hurt the home side to boost their chances of winning at the Ageas Bowl.

Tap into England’s inexperienced and disorganized batting order

This series, ever since it was announced, has been viewed as a hunting ground for the Windies pacers to satisfy their hunger, and right in front of them lies a fresh and juicy inexperienced batting line-up that is there to be feasted on. The absence of 92-Test-man Joe Root means that five of England’s top six - Sibley, Crawley, Denly, Burns and Pope - combinedly have just 46 Tests under their belt - which, in case you didn’t know, is 13 fewer than Kraigg Brathwaite alone - and the Windies would go a long way in testing their mettle and exerting enormous pressure on the lot of them.

Barring Burns and Denly - who also, incidentally, succumbed to the pressure during the Ashes - seldom have the rest come up against a daunting situation in Test cricket and what the Windies would need to do is persistently ask questions of the batsmen. Discipline upfront with the ball would be key for the same and it would be imperative for the visitors to not be loose upfront - something that everyone barring Kemar Roach was guilty of in their last series against India.

What also plays into Windies’ hands here is that a combination of Root’s absence and Burns’ return is bound to disrupt England’s batting order, which looked settled in the South Africa tour. Burns’ return means that they will either have to bat him or one of Crawley or Sibley at No.3 - which neither of them have done before in Tests - which would, in turn, mean a demotion back to No.4 for Denly, who finally got a grasp of the No.3 role in his last six Tests. A couple of early wickets up top, aside from asking questions of the youngsters, would also mount enormous pressure on skipper Stokes, who is, really, the only ‘senior’ batsman in the side barring Buttler, who has scored just 3 fifties in his last 25 Test innings.

Get the top and middle order to set up the innings for the lower-order

We’ve already discussed the dismal state of Windies’ batting line-up in detail, but their batsmen will, unfortunately, have no option but to bat out of their skins. However, the good news for them is that all they’ll need to do is hang in there, grind it out and spend as much time as they can in the middle to wear the English bowlers out; they wouldn’t even need to score too many runs. But why should they be content with just spending time in the middle and not scoring runs? Well, as it turns out, the English bowlers have been substandard when it comes to dismantling the tail and thus, the Windies’ best bet of putting a decent total on the board might just be to let the Holders and Dowrichs and Cornwalls brutalize the England bowlers down the order. It does sound ridiculous, absurd and preposterous, but looking at the reality of Windies batting, it just might not be that bad an option.

Since the turn of 2019, minus Ireland, opposition tail-enders have averaged a staggering 27.59 against England, which is at least seven more than their average against any other side in the Top 8; in comparison, tail-enders of teams have averaged just 15.86 against the Windies bowlers in the same time frame. England’s last two series losses - against the Kiwis and the Windies - were also triggered by exquisite batting by opposition lower-order batsmen and in those two tours, partnerships 7-10 combinedly scored a staggering 980 runs at an average of 42.60. That Holder and Dowrich, who batted 7 and 8, were the highest run-getters for the Windies in their rout of England last year should tell you everything you need to know; they won the series despite their specialist batsmen having a stinker.

What this effectively means is that the likes of Brathwaite, Hope and Chase would need to do everything within their power to bat as long as they can, wear the English bowlers down, and drag the team to a decent score, say something like 250/5, so that the lower-order batters can punish the English bowling, which has, of late, been pretty toothless when it comes to taming the tail. What the Windies can ill-afford, though, is a collapse up top; England, at home, have eaten teams that haven’t shown resistance alive.

Test Ben Stokes’ captaincy; ask questions and throw him off guard

Surprisingly enough, while the fact that Ben Stokes will captain England has been all over the media, what’s flown under the radar, however, is how he might potentially fare as a leader; talks about his tactical proficiencies have been few and far between. And the job at hand is by no means an easy one for Stokes.

For starters, he’ll have to sort the headache of solving the bowling combination conundrum - which two of Archer, Anderson, Broad, Woakes and Wood will miss the cut - then comes the actual part of actually managing these pacers. Barring Woakes, who is young, fit and reliable, Stokes essentially has at hand two powerful yet fragile weapons in the form of Archer and Wood and two veterans in the form of Broad and Anderson, all four of whom would need to be meticulously managed.

And this, perhaps, might be an area the Windies could target - frustrating and asking questions of Stokes, the skipper. This could be done in several ways: one bowler could be picked and targeted while another could be frustrated; proactive changes could be made to the batting order to give Stokes something to think about and someone like a John Campbell could even be given the full license to go for the kill to render the opposition’s plans ineffective and make them rethink their strategy.

Another area the Windies would need to be looking at is going after off-spinner Dom Bess. A part of the reason for the England pacers’ success in South Africa was the fact that Bess did an incredible job of holding one end up - his economy rate after 113 overs in the series was a ridiculous 1.82. What this meant was Root was able to use both Broad and Wood in short bursts, something that played a huge part in England continuously tormenting the Proteas batsmen. Bess being the only spinner in the 13-man squad suggests he’s all but inevitable to play the first Test and thus unsettling the off-spinner might just be the key to the Windies making Stokes pull his hair out in anger and frustration; maybe that just might lead to him asking more of his fragile pace attack.