Goodbye ‘Joe’ Street, next stop is Crawley station
‘Right, Denly. Let’s get it to nip back from outside off,’ that is more or less what the opposition’s planning would be to dismiss Joe Denly, the man who has been hailed as the pillar of England’s Test setup. Yes, he has faced 2086 deliveries, scoring 827 runs for England in his last 28 appearances.
Yet his role in the English setup has been limited to his ability to scuff up the new ball at No.3, giving the much-needed freedom for the likes of Joe Root and Ben Stokes to perform down the order. The 34-year-old’s career has taken a dramatic turn, sort of ones that they show on British soap operas, one that seemingly has taken a shape out of nowhere. Whilst starting as a white-ball specialist, his role has largely been changed from a power-hitting, on the likes of Chris Gayle and co to starting the tuk-tuk, with singles and dots.
Even England’s yesteryear star Nasser Hussain, who could take days and nights to the bowlers, only played out 83 deliveries in his every innings batting predominantly at No.3. So when the Chennai-born Hussain’s criticism came, citing the lack of runs as Denly’s issue in the English setup, it did not come as a surprise or shock to the English fans. Hussain who had made a niche for himself, batting in the slowest of manners with a strike rate of 39.44, still managed to score 40.55 runs on an average.
In contrasting fashion, the Kent man’s numbers have never seen a day above the 32-run mark in Test cricket. Whilst his abilities have been largely subdued to holding out the immediate danger, or in simple terms, scuffing the hell out of the Dukes ball, his runs tally has not taken a hit because of that. His numbers in the longest format have taken a hit on the back of his average batting display, wherever in the world and whenever in the world he has been thrown to bat for England. He is nowhere close to a Cheteshwar Pujara, who dons a similar role in the Indian setup, with the Indian batsman still maintaining an average of 48.7 despite having faced over 12,000 deliveries in the red-ball setup.
In a role that was stylised by Jonathan Trott in the near past for England, whose numbers could only come in a dream for Denly, the Kent man has quickly started falling down the pecking order and rightly so. His ability to step up the heat and put on a huge score for England to capitalise on the first innings nowhere to be seen, his days are numbered. Rightly where his days are numbered, thanks to his dismissals that are a mere template of ‘how to get a county batsman out’ on YouTube, his competitor, Zak Crawley has stepped up his game and left a mark.
The Bromley man, whose 23rd birthday is just around the corner, has been a pleasant change in the dull English batting atmosphere. At the top of the setup, they already have two solid batsmen in the form of Rory Burns and Dom Sibley, with the former having burnt up more deliveries than Denly at the top of the order and Sibley inline to equal Burns’ record. What England rather needs at No.3 is a change in the scheme of things, to have a dark colour in a rather white and wheatish palette. Whilst they have decided to add that touch to their bowling attack, they have held it back too heavily with the batting order. Yes, they need someone who could play toe-to-toe with Root’s tip-top-toe batting but moreso, they need someone to keep it going even when the ball is old. At the age of 34, Denly’s numbers for England are slowly coming to a cease, just like his limited-overs career. His place has not been up-for-sale until this point, what exactly changes that?
Up steps, Zak Crawley, a man whose numbers are quite effervescent to his age and brings in a much-needed refreshing factor to the setup. For the first time, the two went head-to-head in an audition that would only seal one’s place when it comes to the Old Trafford Test, with the return of Joe Root. England have two options, either to go ahead with the wretched experiment which has caused them more harm than good or trust the youth for once with the bat. In the past, they have committed the mistake far more than often to even be looking at the mirror now. Whilst one continues to get himself out in the most club-cricketer off fashions, between the bat and the pads, shouldering arms, the other has slowly established himself as a seasoned talent.
The Crawley expedition might have been too early last year, against New Zealand, it comes in at the most opportune time for English cricket to leave a mark for the future. Another one of the Kent stars, a county which has a staggering eye for hunting talents, Crawley has only five Test appearances under his name, where he averages 31.25, which is 1.72 more than Denly. He’s already close to the number of deliveries that his fellow Kent batsman faces every game, at 64.75 with just one game at No.4, that incidentally came in at the Ageas Bowl.
However, when he exited the scene on Day 4 of the Test, there was an incredible sense of satisfaction and disappointment at the same time from the English fans. The wry of disappointment could not wipe out the satisfaction, that they had finally unearthed one of a generational talent who could make batting look so effortless. At the other end, an ageing Denly could only make it the nightmare for English fans, with them biting their nails every time Denly took the strike.
To add to that, every time the 34-year-old seems to take off and set a precedent, he is halted back by his always-seen-before mistakes of getting himself tangled like a pair of earphones. Ahead of Old Trafford, the days are already outnumbered and the future has been set in stone but it still needs the final approval, the final stamp from Joe Root, who could once in for all take the worry out of Denly and English fan’s heads, with a cheer on their faces. But to warn you, this is England, they might very well go back to their failed experiment and seek a solution out of it, they might once again go back to look at Denly’s beaker when the recipe for disaster is written all over it. This time, however, they should stop complaining and shut up!
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