ENG vs WI | Old Trafford Day 5 Talking Points- New Jason Holder, invariable bounce and a Chris Woakes headache

ByAakash Sivasubramaniam, SportsCafe Editor

07/28/2020

Even the rain-gods with their brutal attempt on day four and partial attempt on day five could not prevent West Indies from an embarrassing 269-run loss in the third Test. On the flip side, Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad shared eight wickets in between them to help England regain the Wisden Trophy.

Brief scores: England 369 and 226/2d beat West Indies 197 and 129 (Shai Hope 31 and Chris Woakes 5/50) by 269 runs

Invariable bounce is England’s friend and West Indies’ foe

On Day 3, when their batting had already folded itself like they were gambling in Las Vegas, West Indies truly depended on their bowling force to salvage some kind of pride in England. But on that particular day, just like the first two days, the bounce was true to its nature with it nicely setting up for the batsmen to heave them across the ground. So much true to its nature that the Windies bowlers found it tough to adjust to the conditions as their spinners toiled without much support from the pitch.

However, in contrasting circumstances and fashion, on Day 5, English bowlers were blessed with the best of conditions to bowl out their opposition. The combination of a weak and out-of-form batting unit alongside a bowling unit which knows how to take wickets in such conditions is always lopsided. But to make the contest even more one-sided, there was the invariable bounce in play at the Old Trafford. The duo of Shai Hope and Kraigg Brathwaite began the day solid only to be outdone by the nature of the pitch.

Until then, both Broad and Anderson could only extract the ah’s and oh’s from the slip cordon with the ball seemingly behaving well. Everything changed in seconds and Windies were destroyed by the lack of bounce on the pitch, not by bouncers. Length delivery from Broad got them ticking, with low bounce seemingly catching Brathwaite in dire straits. Whilst the rain gods did their maximum to save Windies on day four, in equal measures, they destroyed any chance that Windies had on day five, thanks to the invariable bounce.

New Jason Holder, who dat?

Ahead of this series, there was a sense of race between Jason Holder and Ben Stokes to be at the top of the rankings for the all-rounders’ section in the longest format. Whilst Holder has had Stokes’ number before the series, his counterpart has taken over him in sublime fashion. Apart from the Southampton Test, Holder has pretty much done next to none. His bowling changes have already looked tired, his bowling lacklustre and his batting non-existent.

Such has been his effect on the Windies side before they travelled to England but since they won in Southampton, he has been reduced to his marginal self. After picking a solitary wicket in both the innings during the second Test, he could only equal it in the third Test with the wicket of James Anderson. With the bat, yes there was a 46 in the first innings but apart from that, the captain has been pretty much silent.

In most astonishing of fashions, Holder has gone from being the World’s best all-rounder in the Test format to being just another all-rounder in the Windies outfit, second best to Roston Chase who has had a better all-around effort than him. His form, his captaincy and more so his batting all would be under scrutiny on the Windies’ flight back to the Caribbean island as they failed to retain the Wisden Trophy for one last time.

Chris Woakes presses a selection headache for English selectors

In the purest of cricketing terms, there is a concept that is called a ‘selection headache,’ which always points towards the wrong side. However, this time around it is in a rather positive manner as Chris Woakes notched up yet another five-wicket haul in England, the country where he has been nothing short of a beast. In the last year, at home, he averaged better than Virat Kohli’s bat in the 2014 series between England and India. His success has always driven the other youngsters in the country home. Yet every time he forces a selection headache, there is almost something certain to hit the English side.

Against Australia in the 2019 Ashes, he forced himself ahead in line only to deliver a failure. Even this time around, it is Woakes, the bowler who has done the damage and not Woakes the all-rounder. It's been over two years since Woakes has got himself a hundred, a fifty even for that matter of fact. Since then, he has always been hailed as an all-rounder but his batting has always been under-par, not even worthy of a selection.

England’s selection has always hinged upon the form and fitness of James Anderson and Stuart Broad to be paired alongside two other pacers from Mark Wood, Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes. However, in a growing fashion, Archer has already established himself as part of the trio and Woakes form with the ball is only making his selection a forced one before he warms the bench yet again.