Attritional contest reaches third and final game, with hopes of livelier surface in store
Andrew Miller23-Mar-2022Big PictureSo far, England’s tour of the Caribbean has been one for the purists. Ten days of attritional cricket, interspersed with flashes of hopeful flamboyance, and nothing yet to show in the series ledger for either side’s efforts. Could that be about to change, as Grenada prepares to host a Test match for only the fourth time in the ground’s 23-year international history? The rumours from the Spice Island are of spicier times in store … but it’s probably prudent to temper one’s expectations in light of what we’ve witnessed so far.Whatever happens in this final Test, both sides can already take heart from the competitive spirit that they’ve shown in this series. West Indies remain without a Test victory in 10 attempts since February 2021, while England’s current record reads one win in 16, so for neither team to have yet racked up another loss has to count as progress on both fronts.For West Indies, their captain, Kraigg Brathwaite, has personified the competitive zeal that the region seeks to reignite in their Test cricket. His extraordinary refusal to buckle in Barbados has bagged him a place in the pantheon of batting barnacles – Geoffrey Boycott and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, among others, would have been proud of his indefatigable performance, even if Boycott, in his Telegraph column, was rightly concerned about the tedious nature of the Bridgetown pitch – an anti-competitive mud-strip that did little to elevate the contest beyond a grim pursuit of statistics.Even so, England showed, with a final-day flourish in each of the first two games, a willingness to break the deadlock – first with some sparky declaration batting, led on each occasion by Dan Lawrence’s unconventional strokeplay, then backed up with an early flurry of wickets as West Indies’ inherent brittleness briefly came to the fore.It was a fleeting glimpse on both occasions, however. Despite Saqib Mahmood’s impressive debut in Barbados, and some lively turn and bounce for Jack Leach when armed with the new ball, England haven’t yet shown they have the weapons to transcend pitches of such tedium – unlike, say, the startling inroads that Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins have been able to make on similarly flat decks in Pakistan.For that reason, while it’s true that a handful of bore-draws in themselves cannot threaten the future of an inherently insecure format – one whose death has been predicted for 145 years and counting – the issue of substandard Test pitches is not one that should be allowed to be brushed off as an anomaly.By all accounts these are not the surfaces that CWI ordered – coming into the series, after all, West Indies arguably had the more threatening roster of fast bowlers in their ranks and therefore would have wished for more pace and bounce to work with. It appears that the final decision was left in the hands of the local boards in Antigua and Barbados, both of whom valued the guarantee of five full days of Barmy Army patronage over the guarantee of a result. If the Grenada authorities can be persuaded to place more value on the spectacle than the bottom line, then who knows, they might also lure a few disenchanted supporters over to their shores next time around.Away from the pitch politics, there’s plenty at stake as England’s tentative rebuild reaches its first of what will surely have to be many mini-peaks. In Lawrence and Zak Crawley, they have two young guns who can stride into the 2022 home season with renewed confidence after last year’s challenges; in Joe Root and Ben Stokes, the team’s most important batting pillars are looking sturdy once more after their wobbles in the Ashes, while Jonny Bairstow’s renewed red-ball focus looks here to stay as well.Kraigg Brathwaite was West Indies’ mainstay in Barbados•Getty Images
But there’s plenty about this team that isn’t yet where it needs to be. Alex Lees could do with at least a medium-sized innings to firm up his status at the top of the order, while Chris Woakes’ series-long toothlessness has done little but reaffirm the overseas suspicions that have dogged him for most of his career. With Ollie Robinson’s fitness issues resurfacing again, and Mark Wood’s elbow injury leaving England more bereft of 90mph/145kph options than at any time since the 2017-18 Ashes, there’s been little about their seam attack that will have ushered James Anderson and Stuart Broad into an early retirement.And then there’s the spin issue. Leach has been diligent without threatening to tear through West Indies, while the legspinner Matt Parkinson remains on the fringes, waiting for the moment to be trusted. It’s possible that chance has been and gone, however – Barbados was where England needed his ability to rip it past well-set defences, but as the management proved in Brisbane and Adelaide last winter, they are perfectly capable of picking the right team for the wrong Test. They confirmed their side on Wednesday afternoon, with Craig Overton replacing Matthew Fisher as the only change.West Indies, meanwhile, will surely be content with more of the same. Brathwaite stole the show in Barbados, but it’s been far from a one-man mission from his team. Nkrumah Bonner may have endured a rare quiet game in the second Test, but a week before that he was producing a similarly indomitable display in Antigua, and Jermaine Blackwood’s gutsy, and largely out-of-character, hundred at Bridgetown personified the extent to which West Indies raise their game when England are in town.Given half a chance, West Indies’ quicks are surely gagging to show similar devotion to the cause. Both Kemar Roach and Jayden Seales have had their moments, most particularly on the first morning of the series, while the talismanic Jason Holder has had, by his standards, a quiet series against his favoured foes. If he can rediscover even a modicum of the form he showed in 2019, there’s no reason to assume that a 0-0 lockout is the upper limit of West Indies’ ambitions.Form guide(Last five matches; most recent first)
West Indies DDLLL
England DDLDLIn the spotlightAfter his extraordinary feats of endurance in Barbados, it’s hard to look beyond Kraigg Brathwaite for a West Indies focal-point this week. When you’ve batted for a notch shy of 16 hours across two innings, to rack up 216 runs from 673 balls in a single Test match, it’s fair to presume your eye is in. Brathwaite demurred, however, when asked if West Indies would be looking to pick up their tempo going into the series decider. He’s quite happy letting England come to him, asking questions that their bowlers struggled to answer as they were kept in the field for 187.5 overs in the first innings last week. And on his watch, West Indies have given themselves every chance of extending their proud unbeaten record at home against England.Related
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Jack Leach will have been a Test cricketer for almost exactly four years by the time this Test ends, having made his debut in New Zealand in March 2018. But by his own admission, he’s still feeling his way in the role, after a rollercoaster year in 2021 that started and ended with some fearful treatment against India in Chennai and Australia in Brisbane, and encompassed a home summer in which he didn’t feature in a single Test. Leach’s efforts in the series to date have been admirable – with 11 wickets at 26.36, he’s the only bowler on either side to reach double figures, while his tally of 168.3 overs is almost 100 more than the next busiest bowler (Stokes with 77). But the sense persisted in both Tests that he could have been braver with his flight and loop, and sought to bowl West Indies out rather than wait for the mistakes that never came. Now that he’s feeling more valued within the set-up, and with a diet of Graeme Swann YouTube clips to fall back on, perhaps his attacking instincts can start to materialise.Team newsWest Indies have stuck with the same 13-man squad for the third match running, which is a vote of confidence from Desmond Haynes, the convenor of selectors, after a series in which the batters – Brathwaite in particular – have been willing to dig deep for the cause. There’s a possibility of a rejig for this final match, however, with Kyle Mayers on hand to step in for Shamarh Brooks, whose top-score in a bat-dominated series has been 39. There’s also the thorny issue of workload to consider. Jayden Seales, for instance, has ploughed through 65 overs for his seven wickets in the series. Given the rapid turnaround between Tests, and that he is still a work in progress at the age of 20, it may be prudent to give him a rest and hand a debut to Anderson Phillip, the uncapped Trinidad fast bowler.West Indies (possible) 1 Kraigg Brathwaite (capt), 2 John Campbell, 3 Nkrumah Bonner, 4 Kyle Mayers/Shamarh Brooks, 5 Jermaine Blackwood, 6 Jason Holder, 7 Joshua da Silva (wk), 8 Alzarri Joseph, 9 Kemar Roach, 10 Veerasammy Permaul, 11 Jayden Seales/Anderson PhillipThere was plenty to ponder for England in the bowling stakes, after a series of flux in which injury and illness has forced their hand in both Tests, and maybe taught them more about their personnel than they might have anticipated learning. Robinson missed each of the first two Tests with a back spasm, and despite optimistic noises, another flare-up has ended his participation here too. As a consequence, there has been a stay of execution for Woakes, whose role in overseas Tests would surely otherwise be at an end. Overton, too, has recovered from the bout of sickness that afflicted him in Barbados. He returns in place of Fisher, who let no-one down on debut and whose chance will come again before long.England 1 Alex Lees, 2 Zak Crawley, 3 Joe Root (capt), 4 Dan Lawrence, 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Jonny Bairstow, 7 Ben Foakes (wk), 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Craig Overton, 10 Saqib Mahmood, 11 Jack LeachPitch and conditionsNo-one is quite expecting the sort of snorter that was served up in St Lucia for the third Test of England’s last tour in 2019 – on which Mark Wood touched speeds of 96mph in one of the fastest bowling displays in English history – but the omens are good for the fast bowlers on both sides, with a surface that appears to have a tinge of green on top, and the prospect of a bit more pace and carry than was in evidence in Antigua and Barbados. The weather this week is expected to be cloudy but with no real prospect of disruption from rain. “It looks like a good cricket wicket,” Phil Simmons, West Indies’ head coach, said.Stats and trivia Grenada has not hosted a Test match since England’s tour of the Caribbean in 2015, when the visitors won comfortably, by nine wickets, on the back of an unbeaten 182 from a certain Joe Root. West Indies have yet to win a Test match in three attempts at St George’s. The ground’s inaugural Test, against New Zealand in 2002, was a high-scoring draw (dominated by a Chris Gayle double-century), while their other fixture in 2009 was famous for a rare Bangladesh overseas series win – albeit it came against a third-choice West Indies side, weakened by a row with the team sponsors, Digicel. Joe Root is within striking distance of becoming the 14th man, and the first since Younis Khan in 2017, to reach 10,000 Test runs. He is currently 116 runs short, on 9,884 runs, and having made a century in each of the previous two Tests, he is in the form to chalk them off. If he does so, he will also be the first of the so-called Big Four to reach the mark.Quotes”Ollie wasn’t as good as we would have liked or he was expecting himself. It’s just frustrating for him as it is for me. He’s working very hard but there’s something that’s nagging away at him. I’m not sure exactly of the medical prognosis.”
Joe Root, England’s captain, confirms that Robinson is unable for selection once again.“In both Test matches so far, it was necessary to make sure that we got to the 350-400 mark in the first innings. The situation will dictate how we up the tempo, because so far we have been happy with the fact that we’ve had big partnerships, and three hundreds in the two Test matches.”
Phil Simmons, West Indies’ head coach, wants more of the same application from his batters.