ENG vs WI | Old Trafford Day 3 Talking Points - England’s ‘Broad’ problem and West Indies’ deflated approach to retain Wisden Trophy

ByAakash Sivasubramaniam, SportsCafe Editor

07/26/2020

England wrapped up the Windies tail in no time, as the visitors avoided follow-on scoring 197 runs in their first innings. During the second innings, on the back of a Burns 90 and Root’s quick-fire 68, the hosts set a target of 399 before Broad struck twice to reduce Windies to 10/2.

Brief scores: West Indies 10/2 in 6 overs (Shai Hope 4 and Stuart Broad 2/8) and 197 need 389 runs to beat England 369 and 226/2d

England’s ‘Broad’ problem

Before the series began, there was uncertainty over Stuart Broad’s place in the playing XI, largely owing to the management’s experimentation with Jofra Archer and Mark Wood. While it was successful in the limited quarter, it was not going to be a permanent fix. When Broad returned to the playing XI in Manchester for the second Test, everything changed dramatically as English bowling found solutions that they lacked earlier at the Rose Bowl in Southampton. They started looking more threatening despite spells of dry overs in between and moreso, they looked energetic, right from the word ‘go.’

That is Stuart Broad and this is England’s management but more importantly, after the Manchester Test, they recognised that they have a ‘Broad’ problem. Surely they aimed to rotate their bowlers, wanting a fresh James Anderson back for the decider but one had to go! Unable to drop either Broad or Woakes from the second Test, England decided to change their tactics to a more ‘Broad’ level, with the all-rounder putting an absolute performance, with 62 and 6/31. Ahead of the Pakistan series, it is clear that the hosts are going to have a problem, who was just three shy of 500 Test wickets before he reduced the margin to one wicket. Time and again when the management decides to move away from Broad and Anderson, they keep themselves back into it, thanks to their magnetic performance.

West Indies’ deflated approach

Right after Jason Holder walked off for the first time against Chris Woakes, there was a sense of mood that was captured around in the West Indies camp- one filled with dullness and lacklustre faces. Every move looked concerning, every part of the puzzle more complex and every decision on the verge of backfiring. 369 already looked largely dooming on them and on the back of a 1-0 lead in the series, all players looked tired. Kemar Roach who was charged up for this encounter in the very first over of the Test now looked like he was bowling on flat-roads in a friendly game and Shannon Gabriel was no-longer breathing fire. Perhaps the strategy or the players, who were tired on the back of playing five consecutive games (including the full-fledged practise games) kicked-in the visiting camp.

Only a few figures were ready for the challenge and one of them was Rahkeem Cornwall, who looked ready for the contest. But he was mightily unlucky that he got so much turn on the ball in Manchester, with the ball sharply moving into the right-hander, missing the leg pole. To add insult to the injury, one of their bright batting stars, Shane Dowrich had to walk off the field after being hit right on the nose. His replacement, Joshua Da Silva tried to up his teammates with all the claps and words but yet none worked until Jason Holder struck to send back Dominic Sibley. But even that didn’t look entirely convincing!

Sibley-Burns has a Cook-Strauss feel to it

Believe it or not, Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook might very well be the best of opening pairs in the longest format. So much so that teams were scared off their sock knowing that the two southpaws would be ready for a long battle. However, that was England’s historical days and since then it has rather been a situation of worry and hope that someone might pop up on the radar. After searching in and out on the County circuit, they finally came up with a pair that they can call their very own rendition of Cook and Strauss- Dominic Sibley and Rory Burns.

Since the southpaw, Cook has been gone, Burns has established himself as a rare talent having become the first English opener to cross the 1000 runs barrier in Test cricket, well since Cook. Whilst there was the element of doubt attached to his calibre, over the 32 innings he has played, Burns has cleared it all. He might be no Cook yet having scored only 10% of the runs that his predecessor scored yet he has shown in the shortest of time that he could be ready to break the potential ceiling. On the other hand, there is Dominic Sibley who has played just 13 innings. It might be early days but it for sure is worth keeping the English fans happy for the next few series or years at least. Combined they average 50, having faced just over 1000 deliveries between them thus far in the series.