Oh dear this keeps getting worse for England...
If anything this is more disappointing than the first Test where one might have thought they came in a bit cold and got ambushed : this time they knew - or should have known - what was coming but were totally unable to deal with it. I really don't want to downplay the excellence of the home team here though so firstly it should be hats off to Holder and co
He has turned a former group of individuals into a team - and got them playing proper Test Cricket again : no mean effort. Before these two games there were plenty saying West Indies Test Cricket was dead . Seems now a case of premature burial. And that is one thing to be welcomed ; even though it doesn't mean they've become superstars overnight -they also have to do it away from home. But huge progress. Particularly praiseworthy - despite the luck they undoubtedly enjoyed - their disciplined batting effort on day two which effectively settled this match
As to the hapless tourists : well what can you say ? Firstly it appears they got a bit carried away with the Sri Lankan tour success and imagined a similar approach would serve here. The squad selection , talk of maybe playing two or even three spinners , apparent policy of attacking when under pressure and even using unorthodox shots ... all worked last time but was obvious early on it wasn't cutting it on this trip. Trouble is they don't seem very good at going to Plan B... Did they underestimate the West Indies ? Clearly they did.
Truth is the success in Sri Lanka , meritorious as it was , should have been seen in isolation : unusual conditions , a pretty modest opponent ...by all means enjoy the victory but don't think it provides a template for the future. The old problems remain - and Smith and Bayliss seem unwilling or unable to address them. I for one will be glad when the World Cup is over (win or lose) and hopefully the management will drop the overwhelming fascination with the white ball game which seems to have influenced too much Test selection lately.
Not much they can do in the immediate future. One Test to play and no more batsmen in the squad they can try so they're pretty much stuck with this lot for it. Bowling I'd expect Curran to make way for Wood or Woakes but am not sure that will solve too much : the bowlers couldn't have done too much more this time in the face of their own low first innings and the dogged West Indian batting . Unless they can put a proper score on the board this will be 3-nil for sure. Can't really see any effective way to shuffle the batting either : a lot of good(ish) bats at seven or eight but no-one likely to help out in the top order...would help if the skipper could buy a run , but he seems to be in a bit of a fog at present.
When they get back home the first issue is to get a pair of openers : which for facing Australia doesn't include Jennings or Denly. Jury still out on Burns. County runs will need to count , unfashionable as that seems these days. I have grave doubts on Bairstow as a three but even if he does get bowled too often he has a century and a fifty from three games at three and warrants a bit more time to re-invent himself in that role. (Unless of course they want to get him back keeping and batting at seven between Stokes and Moeen. Think that order was working pretty well a couple of years back but various factors sort of blew it up) If there were a Trott-type player around I'd instal him there like a shot . But there ain't. Root must bat four so not much scope to change is there ?
Buttler surely bats five or not at all. He had a fine home and Sri Lanka run of form , and has certainly worked on his red ball game ; but many of those runs against India were made batting artificially low in the order ; and the Sri Lankan ones come at a discount. He has still to prove that he can do a genuine top five batting job : if he really needs to bat after the allrounder they need to look elsewhere.
I am a bit surprised to see even BBC internet nutters calling for Stokes to be axed : didn't they watch him bowl ? Trouble is his batting has got lost somewhere lately : even when he is in for a while he doesn't seem to have the old confidence - bordering on arrogance , maybe ; but it often came off with a bang...not happening at the moment. If England are to prosper , he needs to get back some swagger. Moeen , as long as he's kept to 7/8 , remains the spinner ; and hopefully gets some runs as well...
Anderson and Broad are (still) a mile ahead of the other prospective pace bowlers. May only have one more series together but for now just enjoy them and pick the best third seamer to join in. And hope
someone stands up in the next few months to suggest they can take on a consistent role.
I'm sure that all sounds like tinkering to those who love an "off with their heads " approach. But unless you've got clearly superior heads to replace them I doubt there's a better policy. And I do come back to the openers as key : get a regular fifty plus start with the odd hundred and I think you'd find a lot of the other problems might melt away...
But no , I don't have the next Cook and Strauss hiding in my garage